The Judge and Savior of All the Earth Is Near Us

 

The apostle John writes in his gospel  (John 11; NKJV):

 

11 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. ² It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. ³ Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.”

⁴ When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

⁵ Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶ So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. ⁷ Then after this He said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.”

⁸ The disciples said to Him, “Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone You, and are You going there again?”

⁹ Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. ¹⁰ But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” ¹¹ These things He said, and after that He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.”

¹² Then His disciples said, “Lord, if he sleeps he will get well.” ¹³ However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep.

¹⁴ Then Jesus said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. ¹⁵ And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him.”

¹⁶ Then Thomas, who is called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.”

It is clear from Jesus' words that there is a complete plan in his mind, which is not yet perceived by his disciples/apostles.  Lazarus is to be raised from the dead.  We will see as we read along what the purpose of Lazarus raising is to achieve among all the disciples and witnesses who were there.  

I Am the Resurrection and the Life

¹⁷ So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. ¹⁸ Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away. ¹⁹ And many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother.

²⁰ Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. ²¹ Now Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.”

Perceive the attitude of Martha, as being representative of those believers who were at the mourning in Bethany.  She is confident that God will answer Jesus' prayers, perhaps to bring Lazarus to life again.  But, the mere life again of Lazarus is not the revelation that Jesus wants his disciples and believers to know and understand about himself. 

²³ Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

²⁴ Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

To Martha the resurrection on the last day is in the indeterminate future.  So is Lazarus' resurrection.  In order to stimulate Martha's understanding Jesus makes it plain that his ministry brings to the disciples and believers a vision of that ultimate resurrection and judgment even right now, in himself!  By this Jesus is revealed as the one who brings the resurrection to pass and who passes judgment on those he resurrects!  Jesus is revealed as the judge and savior of all the earth.

²⁵ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. ²⁶ And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

Jesus is not only the One who raises the dead, but he is the judge who gives the dead who believe in him true and real (eternal) life! 

²⁷ She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

Martha still sees this revelation of Jesus as a distant eschatological event.  but Jesus wants his disciples and believers to see that the nearness of heaven has already begun now in himself.

Jesus and Death, the Last Enemy

²⁸ And when she had said these things, she went her way and secretly called Mary her sister, saying, “The Teacher has come and is calling for you.” ²⁹ As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to Him. ³⁰ Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but ^[b]was in the place where Martha met Him. ³¹ Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and comforting her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, ^[c]saying, “She is going to the tomb to weep there.”

³² Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”

³³ Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. ³⁴ And He said, “Where have you laid him?”

They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” 

³⁵ Jesus wept. ³⁶ Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!”

Our question is whether Jesus wept like the other mourners of the death of Lazarus, or whether he wept because he perceived the helpless despair in the face of death on the faces of the other mourners.  The Greek can be translated "groaning," as in this Bible version, or it can be translated as "growling anger" (at death).  Jesus felt this passion in his "guts."

³⁷ And some of them said, “Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?”

Lazarus Raised from the Dead

³⁸ Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. ³⁹ Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”

Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”

⁴⁰ Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” ⁴¹ Then they took away the stone ^[d]from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. ⁴² And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” ⁴³ Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” ⁴⁴ And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.”

Jesus makes full revelation of the creative power of his Word, which brings Lazarus to life, not simply that Jesus' disciples may marvel at this gift only, but on a higher level marvel at the glory of Jesus, who is revealed in this miracle as the one who raises and judges the dead, and who judges the believers in himself worthy of eternal life even now!

Jesus "pulls back" the judgment from the last day to the present day, decreeing that all the believers are NOW judged worthy of eternal life because they see the glory of Jesus, the saving God, and trust in him. 

All of these types of events in the gospels also draw Jesus to contemplate his own death, by which he will redeem all those mourners who trust in him.  Our Savior finds that this labor of love on our behalf is very trying in his own "guts."

The Light of Christ Revealing our Sins Leads to Sanctification (1 John 1:1-10)

 

(Revised and re-titled, May 19, 2025, May 16, 2026)

The apostolic writers know how the believers are encumbered by their own sins, and how they sometimes lose heart or even despair.  But the Light of Christ which reveals our sins leads to confession, forgiveness and sanctification!

Pay close attention to how the Apostle John draws the attention of sin-troubled believers toward the eternal, spiritual and righteous beauty of Christ.  He does not give sin-troubled believers an exposition of the Law which condemns them, but he strikes hope into their hearts by preaching the living, saving and sanctifying glory of the Son of God:

The Incarnation of the Word of Life  (1 John 1, NIV)  My comments are in square brackets.

1 ¹ That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.  ² The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.  ³ We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. ⁴ We write this to make our joy complete. 

Then John writes to show that the most beautiful and living One is the most righteous One who can communicate his own righteousness to us.

Light and Darkness, Sin and Forgiveness

⁵ This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.  ⁶ If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness [not in the Light of Christ, uncaring of our sin], we lie and do not live out the truth.  ⁷ But if we walk in the light [exposing our sin], as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, [continually] purifies us from all sin.

⁸ If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth [of the gospel] is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  ¹⁰ If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

John preaches the way of life to those who believe in Jesus and who, by his light, see not only his righteousness, but also their own sins, and they are built up in him through faith, confession of sin and love of Christ and God the Father, to become full of the righteousness of Christ in eternal life.  Those who reject the light and walk in darkness, careless of their sins, have no cleansing and prove that the saving and regenerating word of God does not shine within them.

A Word of Testimony

In the days of my early Christianity, I was taught that 1 John 1:9 was truly a key text for building our fellowship with God the Father and God the Son.  So important was this text to me and so great was the evidence to myself of my own sin (as seen in the light of Christ) that I became disheartened by the repeated sinning and the apparent lack of progress in sanctification.  I thought I would be a second-class Christian for life.  The sinning would never stop, and I could not discern Christian growth within me.  This caused me to ask myself whether my Christianity was genuine.

But, do read again and believe with me the text quoted from 1 John above:  It is addressed to those to whom the brightness of Christ is the greatest light, and therefore is continually the greatest exposer of their own sin -- it is those who are the ones who are continually being forgiven and constantly being cleansed from all unrighteousness.  But those professing Christians who are untroubled by personal sin are living in the most desperate circumstances, unable and unwilling to see their own depravity, and they are therefore doomed until they repent and turn to Christ and admit that they are sinners needing his deliverance.

So, all who are sin-confessors of their own sins -- ones who think often upon how we have failed our Savior -- we are the ones being by his grace made fit for his fellowship in glory.  We are not second-class Christians at all.  And when we see him as he is we shall see in him what he has also wrought in us, for we shall be like him when we see him as he is! (1 John 3:2)

A Word of Exhortation

In the midst of our duty to strive to please our Savior, it is vital to understand how the Apostle John teaches that we must retain our consciousness of being a sinner.  In this consciousness there is wisdom, a fuller understanding of the true depth of our depravity, and a fuller sight of the immensity of the the free grace of our Savior, who has delivered us by his death and resurrection from both the guilt and power of our sins.  It is the immensity of this free grace --  coming to us by his Spirit and received by faith which cleanses us in the end from all our unrighteousness.  

 

Confession leads to cleansing.  

 

It is a gift.

Home

 

This blog (christocentry.blogspot.com) was created in 2009 to serve as an outlet for the expression of my own theological thoughts, opinions and questions.  The target audience was a few friends and the general Christian public, but it was not directed toward my own church or members of it.  I hoped for feedback to the posts and did get some in the early years of the blog.

Many thanks to the friends and "unknowns" who have posted comments to this blog. I'm sorry I didn't respond to many of you in a timely manner, but please accept my thanks at this time.

The peak of writing occurred in 2010 and slowly diminished after that year.  Now that 10 years have passed, things have changed.  I no longer contribute to this blog, but do want to preserve what is valuable, correct errors, at some point to organize the material into chapters and finalize it for "posterity," perhaps as a small booklet that I can hand out to friends or Christians in need.

The blog is still open to the general public.  My desire is to avail myself of the commentary of friends as I labor to finish this job.  You can leave replies to any post with suggestions and corrections.

Notes

The most recent posts in Dec 2021 come from previously unpublished drafts that I found in the blog archives.  Some of those have now been brought out and published.  They are much older than the publication date on the posts.  Some of them may be fragmentary or unfinished, but the existing substance has been published.

Also, because of the way the blogger program works, the publication date at the top of a post is the date of the original publication of the post.  Many posts will have updates.  Those with substantial updates may have this noted in their title lines, but the blogger-generated publication date will not change.

The label list of topics down the left side of the blog window are my attempt to tie together topics that are within the posts.  You can select a topic and see all posts that have that label attached to them.  I can't guarantee that all labeling is appropriate or that all posts which have a common topic are properly tied together this way.  Hopefully, this situation will improve over time.

There are many "genres" of posts in this blog, some critical, some teaching, some questioning, some speculating and some devotional.  I most prefer the latter.

Best wishes to you in your reading, and I hope to hear from some of you in the responses to the posts, whether it is in the form of correction, debate or of approval.  

Note:  The blog system does not always present a text box to allow a response to a post.  If you want to leave a response to any post, and a response box is not present at the bottom of the post, click on the Title of the post that you wish to respond to, and that post will appear with a response box at the bottom.

Thank you,

Boyd