Because I live
The resurrection promise
High on a rock face, two climbers move bound to each other by a single rope. The one below is not safe because of the strength in his own hands; his grip will tire, his feet will slip, his arms will burn out long before the summit. He is safe because the rope runs up to the one above, and the one above is fixed to an anchor driven deep into the mountain that will not give. If the lower climber falls, he does not fall far, and he does not fall alone; he hangs from a line fastened to something that holds. On the last night before His death, in a room full of frightened friends, Jesus hands them a sentence that works exactly like that rope. Because I live, He says, you will live also. Their living is tied to His living. He had said it before, standing at a grave, to a sister wrecked with grief: I am the resurrection and the life, and whoever believes in me will live, even if he dies. The lower climber's whole hope hangs on the anchor above.
“Because I live, you will live also.”
— Jesus, in the upper room — John 14:19 (WEB)
“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies.”
What Cannot Be Shaken means your life is tethered to a life that death could not hold. Jesus, hours from the cross, ties His friends' living to His own: because I live, you will live also. The unshakable thing is the anchor at the top of the rope, His resurrection, not the strength of the hand gripping below. You are secured by Him, not by how well you hold on.
You may keep checking your own grip, terrified it is not strong enough to get you home, testing your faith the way a climber tests tired fingers. Look where the rope is anchored instead. Your hope of life beyond death does not hang on the firmness of your faith or how sure you felt about God this morning. It hangs on the fact that Jesus rose. Hear where your hope of life actually rests, because so many people pin it in the wrong place. It does not rest on the strength of your faith, the firmness of your grip, the steadiness of your feelings about God on a given day. Because I live, Jesus says, you will live also.
You are roped to Him, and He is the anchor that cannot fall. When your own hold on Him feels weak, when your hands are tired and your feet keep slipping, the rope still holds, because the rope was never fastened to your strength. It is fastened to the One who is Himself the resurrection and the life. Death tried its full strength on Him and could not keep Him. And you are tied to that One. His resurrection, not your grip, is the guarantee of your life. So when you feel yourself slipping, do not despair over the weakness of your hands. So when you feel yourself sliding, look up the rope to the anchor that does not move.
Down the centuries the Church has often left people anxiously taking their own spiritual pulse, asking whether their faith was strong enough to survive death, hanging assurance on the strength of the grip rather than the anchor. Jesus moves the whole weight of security off the hand below and onto Himself: because I live, you will live also. The Body that has steadied generations did so by tying their hope to the living Christ, the resurrection and the life, not to the fervor of their own performance. Before a watching world that counsels people to believe harder in themselves, the whole Church points up the rope to One who cannot fall. We are roped together to the risen Christ.
Your grip will weaken; everyone's does, in the end. What cannot be shaken is the anchor the rope is tied to: the risen Christ, who said because I live, you will live also. The guarantee of your life is His resurrection, fixed and immovable above you, not the strength of the hands that hold the line below.
- Am I trusting the strength of my grip, or the anchor my life is roped to?
- When my faith feels weak, do I despair over my hands or look up to the One who holds the line?
- What would settle in me if I believed His resurrection, not my grip, guarantees my life?
Lord, I keep testing my own grip and finding it weak, afraid it cannot get me home. Thank You that my life is roped not to my strength but to Yours, to the One who said because I live, you will live also. You are the anchor that cannot fall, the resurrection death could not keep. When my hands fail, hold the line, and turn my eyes up the rope to You. Amen.