You Will Not Die…

John 11:25) He that believes in me, even though he dies, shall live; and everyone that lives and believes in me, in no way shall he die forever.

Here is not only the way of possession but they very possession itself with all it contains. The two parallel statements are not a progress in thought, so that the second flows out of the first; nor is the alternative a mere repetition, a saying the same thing twice with a few different words. The two statements radiate from the one center I AM, just as do the two terms, “the resurrection” and “the life.” We have two applications, a looking at the person concerned in two ways.

First is the person who dies (kan apothane, expectancy), as Lazarus has died, as every believer will lie down to sleep in death. To him Jesus is “the resurrection,” the victory and triumph over death. He shall sleep indeed yet “he shall live,” temporal death harms him not at all. Just as we do not lose a brother or another relative, and he does not lose us when he retires for sleep in the shadow of death. “He shall live” does not mean merely: “shall come to life in the far distant last day,” but from the very moment of death on. Only a restful shadow covers him, no real death; for Jesus has taken that away. This is what the believer’s death means.

26) Each of the two parallel statements illumines the other. Next the person before he dies: “everyone that lives,” that has true “life” in himself, the ‘zoay’ of life principle, which is identified with Jesus, just as is “the resurrection.” Having the “life” in himself while he continues here on earth, no death in the real sense can touch him, “in no way shall he die forever” – ‘ou may‘ the strongest negation with the subjunctive. as here, or with a future indicative. Compare 3:15, 16; 6:47; 9:51; and on the negation of ‘eis ton aionia,‘ 4:14; 8:35 and 51; 10:28.

What a joy in the prospect that we “shall in no way die!”

from R.C.H. Lenski, ‘Interpretation of John’