By Felix Ngunjiri Gichuri

Jesus Restores Life to a Man who had been Dead for Four Days

“Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou had been here, my brother would not have died. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, And said, Where have you laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him! And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died? Jesus therefore again groaning in himself comes to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, Take away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, said unto him, Lord, by this time he stinks: for he has been dead four days. “Jesus saith unto her, Did I not say unto you, that, if you would believe, you should see the glory of God? Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank you that thou have heard me. And I knew that you hear me always: but because of the people which stand by, I said it, that they may believe that you has sent me. And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.” (John 11:40 [KJV]) (John 11:32-44 [KJV])

Jesus told the mourners who had come to mourn or confirm the death of Lazarus to remove the stone. The same people who had placed the stone to confine Lazarus to the grave were told to undo what they had done. They were told to open up the grave by removing the stone they had locked him in the grave. Similarly, the same people who plotted against you, oppressed you, the same people who put you in the dungeon, stole from you, took away your property and humiliated you will be commanded by the God who listens to the cries of the meek to undo the damage they did to you. Those who consulted mediums and sorcery to finish you will be told by God that you are going nowhere.

People Who had Buried Lazarus Resisted to Open the Grave

Jesus therefore again groaning in himself comes to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it Jesus said, Take away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, said unto him, Lord, by this time he stinks: for he has been dead four days. Lazarus’ death is confirmed to the point that his family hesitates to open his tomb, fearing what a putrefying corpse will smell like. But your enemies on the other hand will resist to undo the damage they caused you the same way they resisted to open the grave where Lazarus was lying claiming that he is dead for four days and therefore smelling. But they will have no option but to comply. People will see you as a dead man or call you corpse, petty, takataka, maskini hohehahe, nigger, good for nothing, silly, stupid, moron, imbecile, idiot, and all manner of derogatory words they can craft to hurt you or express their hatred or resentment towards you. According to some people, they see you as dead.

Where did Death Come From?

Death is brought about by sin. Regarding the entry of sin in the world, God gave man to eat all the trees in the garden of Eden, including the tree of life in the centre of the garden, except the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

“And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” (Gen 2:8-9 [KJV])

“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die.” (Gen 2:16-17 [KJV]) Adam and Eve decided to rebel against God and ate the forbidden tree and death became their lot: spiritual death that was followed by physical death. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” ( Romans 5:12). Basically, this means that we’re all born lawbreakers (“Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” – Psalms 51:5), because sin is the violation of God’s law (1 John 3:4). Sinfulness is the general nature of all mankind; we are all guilty before God. We are sinners by nature and by our own acts of transgression.

“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned.” (Romans 5:12) Sin means death. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23, English Standard Version”

As by Adam Came Death, Similarly by Christ Came Life

“For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:21–22, English Standard Version)

Our spiritual situation is similar in some ways to that of Lazarus in the grave (see John 11). Lazarus was dead. He could do nothing in and of himself to gain new life. Jesus commanded Lazarus to come forth from the grave, but Lazarus could not respond unless God first gave him life. In the same way, we are spiritually dead and can do nothing to gain spiritual life. Jesus commands us to believe in Him, but we cannot respond unless God first gives us spiritual life. Jesus gives us this new life because he has overcome death for us, once and for all. As Peter explains, “According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).

Jesus Took our Sins and our Death and Made them His

Jesus was made sin for us. He took our sins and placed them on his body on the cross and in exchange He gave us (all who believe in Him) his life and His blessings so that He redeems us from the bondage of sin so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit. “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” (Gal 3:13 [KJV])

God sees you as a His child, His son that needs to be saved from the ravages and penalty of sin and God has directed that you deserve to be resurrected so that you have fellowship with Him.

God resurrects You from Death to Sins

You have no power to save yourself from spiritual death or from physical death of your situation. He knows that you are spiritually dead, that it is not in your ability to respond to his call unless He resurrects you first and gives you back your breath of life. Then, after giving you back the breath of life, you will respond to His call and wake up from the sleep that people were calling death. After God resurrects you from your spiritual death through salvation and the removes your from the death row, God will then resurrect your current job and promote you to the next level and you will no longer “count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”(Romans 6:11)

God Has Good Plans for You

God has good plans for you, plans of welfare and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. “For I know what I have planned for you,’ says the LORD. ‘I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. I have plans to give you a future filled with hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11 NET Bible) Furthermore, He who called you is faithful. “The One who calls you is faithful, and He will do it.” (1 Thes 5:24) God will resurrect your health by taking away your pain and your sickness for Jesus became sick on our behalf, suffered excruciating pain on our behalf when He offered Himself to be scourged on our behalf with lashes or whips that tore his back “When his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” (1Pet 2:24 [KJV])

When God Saves you from Your Sins, He will Resurrect You Spiritually and then Physically

God will resurrect you spiritually and then in your physical realm by bringing to life your tasteless and crumbling health, business, job, family, marriage life so that His name will be glorified. You marriage and relationship if characterized by endless quarrels, mistrust, breakdown of communication if not checked can deteriorate into violence if not death. God can turn your failing marriage for good if you cry to Him to save the marriage for He is the one who instituted marriage. “For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and the two shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” (Matthew 19:5-6) Once He resurrects your marriage, He will teach you with His Holy Spirit upon you how to respect your roles in marriage so that the marriage will work to glorify God in heaven: wives to submit to their husbands and husbands to love their wives. “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So men ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord loved the church: For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let every one of you men in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.” (Ephesians 5:25-33)

Amen.