We are children of eternity, children of life

The question this passage raises for us is: what is death and what is life when we look at it through the lens of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ? This passage encourages me to think that for the children of God there is no death after all. For the children of God if we die in Him what we have rather is a temporary dream, light, superficial and not the resounding, unappealable character that the dead has for those who do not have the Lord in their lives.

For Lazarus, who is in the Lord's plans, is under the benevolent and powerful gaze of the Lord, that death is purely a light sleep. And that is why the Lord speaks in terms that "our friend Lazarus sleeps. But the disciples do not understand the symbolic and profound language of Jesus Christ and they say: ah well if he is sleeping well how good, surely the miracle will be easy then, Surely he is going to heal because he is sleeping, he is resting, right? It seems good for him because he is sleeping, he is resting.

The Lord understands at that moment that the disciples do not understand His language and that He is speaking in parables or similes and says: no, wait a minute, no, he is actually dead. I am speaking spiritually that he sleeps, he is dead and you know what? I'm glad he's dead because that's how there will be a blessing for you, right? And I'm glad that you believe. In other words, the Lord knows that what is going to happen will strengthen the disciples in their faith, that He is the Son of God, the Savior of the world, the Messiah sent by God.

So this passage invites us to reflect on our own life, how does that apply? Remember that for a child of God death does not really exist, the only thing that exists is life. When we die in Christ we go from an imperfect life to a perfect life. The court that separates earthly life from eternal life is simply a division from bad to good or from very imperfect to very perfect, that's all. There is no such thing as going from life to death for the children of God, death does not exist, it is simply being transferred to a perfect and eternal dimension. Truly the children of God only sleep we do not die.

That is why the apostle Paul in First Corinthians 15 in that famous passage where he meditates on the resurrection and all that, he says at the end at a given moment he asks a rhetorical question, he says: where is your sting oh death, where oh grave your victory ?. Sorbida is death in victory.

In other words, through Jesus death the poison was removed, that resounding and final character that it had before Christ appeared on the stage of humanity was removed. Now through him we have conquered death, death has been absorbed by the victory of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary and we also dwell in that victory.

We are children of eternity, we are children of life. We can rest easy. As it also says in another passage I believe that Second Corinthians chapter 5 if I am not mistaken, where it says that if this our temporary tabernacle falls apart we have in Christ Jesus a temple not made with human hands, eternal, perfect. That is the most beautiful guarantee of the children of God. We are children of eternity. Death no longer has a place for us, we are in the victory that Christ made possible over death.

And like Lazarus that is a reflection of that eternal life that we have because Lazarus died, but then he entered into that perfect plan that God has of eternal life. Lazarus ultimately died, was resurrected but then died sometime later. But then he entered the plan of salvation that Christ made possible through the cross of Calvary. We are part of that definitive and eternal plan of the heavenly Father through His Son Jesus Christ.

There is no death for us but simply a slight sleep, a slight transition. The moment we die we apparently enter the Presence of the Lord, so says the apostle Paul, right? Absent in the body, present in the Lord. For God's children there is no death, only better and better life until they reach the perfect life of eternity. There is no terrible and nightmare dream but perfect and beautiful dream, and a being before the Presence of the Lord eternally.

God bless you and may this Word encourage us to go ahead and serve the Lord because our reward is wonderful. Blessings, until next time Pastor Roberto Miranda says goodbye to you.