And whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?
Read Chapter 11
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
And whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. I, as I will raise up the faithful, though dead, to a new and blessed life, so those also who are still alive, who believe in Me, I will keep in life eternal, and I will provide that they shall not die for ever: for although from the debt of nature they shall die for a brief time, yet I will soon raise them up from death to life eternal, so that they shall seem not so much to die as to sleep. Wherefore I am the Resurrection and the Life of all the faithful whether dead or living, because I will bestow upon them eternal life through the resurrection.
Believest thou this? Christ requires faith in the Resurrection, not from Lazarus, inasmuch as he was dead, but from his sister Martha, so that she may be at once excited to greater trust in it and hope for it, and therefore may prepare herself for it with greater desire and reverence. So Christ required from the father who begged that his son should be freed from the evil spirit, th...
Observe how He leads her mind upward; for to raise Lazarus was not the only thing sought; it was necessary that both she and they who were with her should learn the Resurrection. Wherefore before the raising of the dead He teaches heavenly wisdom by words. But if He is the Resurrection, and the Life, He is not confined by place, but, present everywhere, knows how to heal. If therefore they had said, as did the centurion, Speak the word, and my servant shall be healed Matthew 8:8, He would have done so; but since they summoned Him to them, and begged Him to come, He condescends in order to raise them from the humble opinion they had formed of Him, and comes to the place. Still while condescending, He showed that even when absent He had power to heal. On this account also He delayed, for the mercy would not have been apparent as soon as it was given, had there not been first an ill savor (from the corpse). But how did the woman know that there was to be a Resurrection? They had h...
