83. Quickens
John 5:21 For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.
The Father quickens, or makes alive, the dead, and Jesus makes alive whom he will. God is life; God creates life; God gives life. God creates life from nothing and God gives life to the dead. The Son is God and He also makes alive. The promise of raising the dead and giving life to the dead is very clear, very certain, and very important. He is risen! And so shall we rise from the dead; God gives life. In spite of all physical and empirical evidence to the contrary (we don’t see resurrected lives, only resuscitated ones) nothing is more certain than life after death, even more certain than death itself. Death is nothing; death is defeated; death has no power. “Though he die, yet shall he live.”
But “quickening” means much more than just life after death;it also means life during death. Right now, here, on earth, in this existence Jesus makes alive and gives life every day. Every time we hear the Gospel God makes us alive, gives more life, and injects a spurt of life-giving spirit into our spirits. We have experienced times and seasons in which we sort of “feel alive.” We know it can happen by feeling. But, feeling or not, it absolutely does happen when we hear and receive the Gospel; it has the power to give life, or quicken. We may not “feel” alive every time we hear the Gospel, but being alive, or more alive, really does happen. God breathes life when we are “in the Word,” for God’s words are spirit and they are life. We do not rely on seeing, or feeling, or experiencing, but we rely on the Word and Promise of God. He says He quickens and we can be sure He does.