From Chapter 10, “I AM: Jesus Says Who He Is”…

Jesus said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me will live, even if he dies” (John 11:25). He is the victor over death for all mankind and gives eternal life. We find His evidence given in the eyewitness accounts. He raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead, as told by Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s Gospels: Matthew 9:18-26; Mark 5:21-43; Luke 8:40-56. Jesus resurrected Lazarus from the dead in John 11:1-44. The natural question seems to be: How could someone who raises people from the dead allow himself to die? Jesus provided the answer in the aforementioned statement of Mark 10:45—He gave His life for us. In his epistle to the Romans, Paul states it like this:

⁶ For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. ¹⁰ For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. –Romans 5:6-10

Paul described the life of Jesus in verse 10 of this passage as the fact of Christ who lives even today: Christ, the resurrection and the life, who gives us life, even after we die. Christ established His very resurrected life as the first fruits of our own resurrection. Now to a Jew the first fruits meant the best and first of the harvest dedicated to God, showing that God provides and owns the entire crop; therefore, in worship the first fruits were dedicated as an offering to God. In a similar manner, Christ is our first fruits of life, for He is the Resurrected One who makes our resurrection possible (1 Corinthians 15:20-23). God owns our resurrected lives, and the first-fruits offering was already made through the sacrifice of Christ.