John Calvin Commentary John 11:25

"Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth on me, though he die, yet shall he live;" — John 11:25 (ASV)

I am the resurrection and the life. Christ first declares that he is the resurrection and the life, and then he explains, separately and distinctly, each clause of this sentence. His first statement is that he is the resurrection, because the restoration from death to life naturally comes before the state of life.

Now, the whole human race is plunged in death; and, therefore, no one will be a partaker of life until he has risen from the dead. Thus Christ shows that he is the commencement of life, and he afterwards adds that the continuance of life is also a work of his grace.

That he is speaking about spiritual life is plainly shown by the exposition that immediately follows: He who believeth in me, though he were dead, shall live. Why then is Christ the resurrection? Because by his Spirit he regenerates the children of Adam, who had been alienated from God by sin, so that they begin to live a new life. On this subject, I have spoken more fully under John 5:21 and John 5:24; and Paul is an excellent interpreter of this passage (Ephesians 2:5 and Ephesians 5:8). Away now with those who idly talk that people are prepared for receiving the grace of God by the movement of nature.

They might as well say that the dead walk. For the fact that people live and breathe, and are endowed with sense, understanding, and will, all this tends to their destruction, because there is no part or faculty of the soul that is not corrupted and turned aside from what is right.

Thus, death everywhere holds dominion, for the death of the soul is nothing else than its being estranged and turned aside from God. Accordingly, those who believe in Christ, though they were formerly dead, begin to live, because faith is a spiritual resurrection of the soul and—so to speak—animates the soul itself that it may live to God, according to that passage: The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they who hear shall live (John 5:25).

This is truly a remarkable commendation of faith, that it conveys to us the life of Christ, and thus frees us from death.