Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.”
—John 11:25

When we read the words “He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live”, what comes to mind? Well, of course, the same thing that came to Martha’s mind: “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” [Jhn.11:24] But is that what Jesus was talking about? Who shall live, though he may die? “The one who believes in Jesus, isn’t it?” Right — but who is the One who believes in Him? Whom did Jesus begin to speak about? “I am the resurrection and the life.” Why do we think He said a couple of words about Himself and then suddenly switched to us believers? Jesus said: “I am One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me” [Jhn.8:18] Jesus did not bear witness about people but about Himself, so when He said “He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live”, He was bearing witness about Himself.

“What, He believes in Himself?” Of course! This is what Paul writes: “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.” [2 Tim.2:13] Of course He believes in Himself. God cannot die, for He is eternal, but that is exactly why He took on a human body: so that, having died, He would live again through faith and thereby strip the devil of all his power. [Heb.2:14] And then He says to Martha: “And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” [Jhn.11:26] And who is the one who lives? The Son of God, of course, because God cannot die. [Heb.7:3] Jesus was simply explaining to Martha the meaning of the words “the resurrection and the life”. The resurrection: being a man, He died and rose on the third day; and being the Son of God and eternal life, He remains forever.

What was the result? Did Martha believe that Jesus would raise Lazarus? Not really, because afterwards she said there was no need to roll the stone away, since there would be a stench. [Jhn.11:39] But the result was her words: “You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world“. The Christ is the resurrection. The Son of God is the life. And so we get “the resurrection and the life.” But most important of all, by rising in a human body He made man immortal like God, because in His body He defeated death. And we know “that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.” [Rom.6:9] And if it has no dominion over Him, then it has none over us either, because we are in Him!