The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 2 — Section 89

that he will rise again at the ro3nr,ootion Christ, nnd itlcntifies itsolf with him. Bnt in tho last day, Somo disappointment iB "tbero nre eomo who hnvo believed, nnd rovealed in this epoccu, enoh oe wo ho.vo all ho,ve what you co.11 rlierl "-thrrngh they die, felt with tho promise or a.n ultimate rcRar- they shall live. In such cases, so•C[ll!ed rection, when tho gro.vo has closed over somo "death" is verile.lilo "life." The life or delll' friend. We find emo.11 relief in the fnith will survive the ehock or deatl,, and 1111smo.nco. The old ties are eno.ppecl, the whosoever liveth, and believeth on me, old wo.ye ore at o.n enrl. We ehnll go to shall never die-shall never ta,te of death the dond : ho will not return to us. 'fhe last (cf. eh. vi. 51, viii, 51). Thia is n0 new teach• do.y is too far off to comfort us concerning ing for the more thoughtful of hi, hco.r01'B. our brother. But the answer of Mo.rtho. is There ore multitudes now believing (o,nd importo.nt o.e rovenling belief in the resur- therefore living) in him. They sho.11 never rection a.t the la.at clay; of which, however, die in the eenee in which deatlt hns been it must bo remembered those who had hen.rd hitherto regarded; they shall by no means die our Lord's own assertions a.bout it could no for ever. Faith is eternal life: death is longer have doubted (eh. vi. 3!J, 40, 44, 54; only a momentary sho.dow upon a life which xii. 48), The teachings of Jesus in this is far better. Whether the corruption of Goepel with reference to eternal life mo.de the the grave passes over the believer or not, promise of resurrection, tho tro.nsfiguraiion be lives an eternal life, which has no ele- of the physical life of man, a necessity, not ment of death nor proclivity to death in it. o contmdiclion. The reply of Me.rtho shows Bo fo.r the Lord is lifting Martha. to a. higher tho.t she does not ns yet grasp the whole oxperience of life o.nd a. compo.rati ve in- truth. "The lo.st da.y" me._y be far nearer difference to death. Before ho offera any in her thought than we now know it to hove further consolation, he probes to the quick been, or than it is to us; still, however near, her faith in him and in the eternal life. it would imply a complete transformation of Belicvest thou this 1 TovTo; "Is this thy o.ll these sweet human rela.tionshi(JB, She belief?" not TouT,e; "Dost thou believe in longed to hove the home as it was before my statement?" "Be!ievest thou that the Lazarus died. It is, however, of very great ReswTection which I am and which I gfoe interest that we have, on the part of e. Jew, ce.n thus transform for thee the whr,lc mean- this profound ex pecte.tion of resurrection ing of death P" The fnlness of life after death and immortality. Jews, or at least Phari- is assured in virtue of the resurrection which sees, had derived from Old Testo.ment Christ could effect at any moment., and will thought-from Genesis, and from Job, and eventually effect for all. This life of which from the Psalter, from the Books of Daniel Christ speaks may be the life which is the and Ezekiel, and from the progress of human consequence of the resurrection (civdaTu,s) thought e.e evinced in ' Wisdom of Solomon ' of man effected in the Incarnation, or it may -a great belief in both. Marthe. reve~s be the condition of" resurrection" and m.fli- incidentally the new light which hod been cient proof the.t, if e. man receive it by faith, cast on the mystery of the grave by the he is free from all the cnrse of physical words and e.ots of Jesus. death, and assnrod of a perfect victory over Vers. 25, 26.--.Jesus said to her, I am the it. So WO the oi, µ.¾, •.. els TOIi cuoiva; may Resurreotion. Not merely that God will either mean " not for ever," o.nd thus the give me what I Bl!lr, but that I am in some words may be tnken to refer to the resnr- sense e.lreo.dy his gift to man of resurrection, rcction. "He will not for ever die," i.e. ino.smuch o,s I am thnt of Life. (So Lu- death may supervene, but will be con- thnrdt and Godet, but not Meyer, who makes quered; or o~ µ.h mo.y melln "never," "in (orl, the positive result of a.v&aTaa,s.) Dy no wise,'' and the "never die" may refer to tnking humanity into his Person, Christ epil-itual death, overlooking physical death roveals the permanence of human individu- altogether. The whole narrative L. a. great ality, thnt is, of such individuality as is parable of life through death. in union with. himself. He associates (eh. Ver. 27.-She saith llllto him, Yee., Lord. xiv. 6) "the Life" which he gives with" the The reply admits the ToUTo; Many seem to Woy" oud "the Truth," i.e. with the whole think that Martha falls be.ck on theccratio sum of human experience n.nd of human technicality after a high flight of faith, and medito.tion and speoulntion, i.e. with oll leaves the solution of her deepest =ieties the conduct of the will uud the mind. Ke to the Lord. I bt1ve believed, not now for tho.t believeth on me, though he die, yet the first time, that thou art the Christ of all shall ho live. In tl1eso words he identifies our highest hopes and of our prophetic Scrip- the " life " with thn transfiguration of the tures-the Son of God in the sense in which bodily life. The grand method of this Nathanael, and the healed blind man, and blr,ssed life is faith. 'l'he life which is the tho heroic Peter, o.nd John the Baptist have condition ond ground of resurrection is tho regarded thee, not now dtLwning on the OBtural 00nae4uonr.e of 11, foith which (lcocpts world us an uno:ipected apparition, l,ut !;,,ug  fl2 THE GOSI'EL ACCORDING 'l'O ST. JOffN. [en. x1. 1--67.