Berean Standard Bible
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
King James Version
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
About this verse
"I am the resurrection and the life." Not "I will perform the resurrection" or "I can arrange it" — I am it. Martha had just given the doctrinally correct answer: she knew her brother would rise again at the last day. Jesus takes resurrection out of the category of distant date and relocates it in the person standing in front of her. And then, remarkably, he puts a question to a grieving woman: "Do you believe this?"
The scene is outside Bethany, four days after Lazarus died — after the funeral, after hope's window had closed by every ancient reckoning. This is not a lecture-hall claim; it is said to a sister in fresh grief, moments before Jesus weeps himself and then calls her brother out of the tomb. The promise is precise: "Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies" — death still happens, and does not win — "and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die."
These words have been read at more gravesides than perhaps any others. They do not deny the coffin's reality; they were first spoken near one. And the closing question has never been withdrawn. It is still addressed, personally, to whoever is reading.
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