Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days when Jesus traveled to Bethany and spoke with his sister, Martha: 

John 11:21-27 (NASB) Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. ²²  “Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” ²³  Jesus *said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” ²⁴  Martha *said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” ²⁵  Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, ²⁶  and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” ²⁷  She *said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.” (emphasis added)

Those familiar with the story know that shortly after this conversation, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead by the power of God.[1]  However, many Christians believe that when Jesus told Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life” that he was claiming to be God.  For who but God can resurrect the dead?  They further contend that this statement is one of seven “I am” statements recorded in the gospel of John that prove Jesus is the “I Am” of Exodus.[2]  But was Jesus declaring to be deity?  Let’s look at what Scripture has to say about Jesus and eternal life.

Eternal Life Comes From the Father

When we survey Scripture, we find that God the Father is the originator of life.  For example, it was the Father who gave life to mankind: 

Malachi 2:10a (NASB) “Do we not all have one father? Has not one God created us?[3] (emphasis added)

Isaiah 64:8 (NASB) But now, O LORD, You are our Father, we are the clay, and You our potter; and all of us are the work of Your hand. (emphasis added)

Paul also credits God as the One who gives life to all things:

Acts 17:24-25 (NASB) “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; ²⁵  nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things (emphasis added)

Paul goes on to say that God is the one who will judge the world “through a man whom He appointed” and raised from the dead.[4]  Thus, from the context and from Paul’s statement in Galatians 1:1 that it was God the Father who raised Jesus from the dead, we know that the apostle was referring to God the Father as the giver of life in this passage.[5]  Indeed, Jesus said he lives because of God the Father:

John 6:57 (NASB) “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father… (emphasis added)

Not only does life in this present age come from the Father, life in the eternal age comes from Him as well:

John 3:16 (NASB) “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (emphasis added)

The Father anointed Jesus as the Messiah (also synonymously known as the Son of God, Son of Man, and the Christ), thus designating him as the king who would rule the everlasting kingdom on God’s behalf.[6]  As a part of his kingdom responsibilities, he would serve as God’s appointed judge and grant eternal life to those whom the Father had given him:[7] 

John 5:25-27 (NASB) “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. ²⁶  “For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; ²⁷  and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. (emphasis added)

If Jesus is God, we would expect that the authority to give life would be innately his.  However, Scripture again tells us that this authority was given to him by God the Father:

John 17:1-3 (NASB) Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You,  ²  even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. ³  “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. (emphasis added)

Surely, Jesus is a trustworthy witness.  In his mind, there is no Trinity.  There is only one God who is the Father.  And according to Jesus, it was this one and only God who gave him the authority to grant eternal life.

Paul also writes that eternal life comes from God through or in Jesus who is the Christ:

Romans 6:23 (NASB) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (emphasis added)

1 Timothy 6:13 (NASB) I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, (emphasis added)

Furthermore, Paul makes an important comparison between Adam, the first man created by God, and Jesus, whom he designates as the last Adam:

1 Corinthians 15:45 (NASB) “The first Man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.  (emphasis added)

To become something means that at one time you weren’t what you later became.  For example, Paul writes that Adam wasn’t alive, but God breathed in him the breath of life, and Adam became a living soul.  In like manner, Jesus wasn’t a life-giving spirit, but after he was raised from the dead, he became the one who dispenses living water:

John 7:37-39 (NASB) Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. ³⁸  “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.‘” ³⁹  But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. (emphasis added)

The writer of Hebrews echoes these same thoughts.  Jesus became the source of eternal salvation after he had been made perfect:

Hebrews 5:9-10 (NASB) And having been made perfect, He [Jesus] became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, ¹⁰ being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. (emphasis added)

Jesus became the source of eternal salvation

Jesus wasn’t the source of immortality.  But after God raised him from the dead and gave him the authority, he became the means by which eternal life is bestowed.  If Jesus is God, it makes no sense to say that he became the source of eternal salvation because God is inherently the giver of life and immortality.  But it makes perfect sense to say that Jesus, the human Messiah who was exalted to God’s right hand because of his obedience unto death,[8] was given authority to become the source of eternal life.  After all, Jesus said it was God the Father’s will that immortality would come through the Son: 

John 6:40 (NASB) “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” (emphasis added)

If Jesus is God, we would expect him to say that the salvation of mankind was his idea or his will, or that he co-developed the plan along with the other members of the Trinity.  However, God the Father is the One credited with the marvelous plan of redemption,[9] and not Jesus, the Holy Spirit or the Trinity. 

The fact that eternal life was not Jesus’ will, nor his plan, is underscored by the reality that Jesus didn’t even come on his own initiative but was sent by God:

John 7:28 (NASB) Then Jesus cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, “You both know Me and know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know. (emphasis added)

John 8:42 (NASB) Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me.  (emphasis added)

Again, this makes no sense if Jesus is God since, as God, he would take the initiative to deliver mankind.  But if Jesus is the human agent of God, it makes complete Biblical sense.  Similarly, we know that even though Jesus preached about eternal life in the coming kingdom, the message was not his own, rather it came from God the Father:

John 12:50 (NASB) “I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.” (emphasis added)

The promise is for all who believe Jesus is the Christ

The remarkable promise of eternal life that Jesus made to Martha extends to all who believe in him:

John 11:25-26 (NASB) Jesus said to her [Martha], “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, ²⁶  and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” (emphasis added)

But what must one believe about Jesus in order to receive eternal life?  Must we believe that he is God incarnate in order to receive immortality?  Not according to Scripture.  When Jesus asked Martha if she believed in him, she declared that she believed he was the Christ, the Son of God, not that he was God:

John 11:27 (NASB) She *said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.” (emphasis added)

In addition, Peter acknowledged that Jesus’ message was one of eternal life, but clearly identified him, not as God, but as the holy one of God:

John 6:68-69 (NASB) Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. ⁶⁹  “We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.” (emphasis added)

Peter’s statement is in complete agreement with the revelation he received earlier from God the Father.[10]  When Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?”  Peter declared him to be the Christ, or as Luke records it, “The Christ of God,” not God the Christ.[11]  Moreover, the apostle John clearly states the purpose for which he wrote his gospel was so that we might know that there is life for those who believe Jesus is the Christ.  Not, as some claim, that we might know he is God:

John 20:31 (NASB) but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.[12] (emphasis added)

When we believe that Jesus is the Christ whom the only true God sent to redeem mankind, we are in effect believing the testimony of God Himself.  And this belief in God and the one whom He sent is what results in eternal life:

John 5:24 (NASB) “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. (emphasis added)

Most assuredly, God the Father is the source of life everlasting, and He has determined that we must go through His Son in order to obtain it:

1 John 5:11-12 (NASB) And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. ¹²  He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. (emphasis added)

Jesus is the resurrection and the life because God the Father appointed him to that role.

[1] John 11:22, 41-44; Acts 2:22; 10:38

[2] Exodus 3:13-14

[3] Genesis 2:7

[4] Acts 17:31; Galatians 1:1

[5] Paul consistently identifies God as the Father:  Romans 1:17, 15:6; 1 Corinthians 1:3: 8:6; 2 Corinthians 1:2-3; Galatians 1:1, 3-4; Ephesians 1:2-3, 17, 4:6, 5:20, 6:23, etc.

[6] Luke 1:31-33; 22:29; Ephesians 1:19-23; 1 Corinthians 15:24-28; Micah 5:2

[7] John 17:2

[8] Philippians 2:8-11; Ephesians 1:19-23

[9] Acts 2:22-24; 4:24-28

[10] Matthew 16:13-17

[11] Luke 9:20

[12] See also 1 John 5:13