Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Not unto Death

When Jesus hears of Lazarus’ illness, he says something that must be confusing to first time readers of this story. “This sickness is not unto death” (John 11:4) yet just a few short verses later we find out Lazarus does indeed die. So why his comment?

Jesus is speaking of the eventual outcome. He sees beyond the moment into the eternal. He saw that the illness was for the glory of God. God had allowed both the sickness and the death to occur so that people would see the glory of Jesus (John 11:4).

We will see that Martha and Mary still had to experience the grief of their brother’s death. Sometimes God allows us to experience grief for a while, but his joy will return (1 Peter 1:6-7; Ps 30:5; James 1:2).

Our trial is not unto our death but for God’s glory.