Jesus had just found out His friend Lazarus was sick and purposely waited 2 more days before responding to the call by Lazarus’s sisters to come and heal him. He waited so that Lazarus would surely die before He got there and the glory of God could be revealed in Him, proving that God sent Him and that He was the resurrection and the life. People would place their trust in Jesus, and the Father would receive glory through Him.
Jesus said He was going to wake Lazarus up because he was asleep. Waking from sleep for a believer is a metaphor for rising from the dead to a new life. That is for someone who goes to sleep having put their faith in Christ. Only those who die “in Christ” get to participate in this new creation life.
Those who have this new life also have a light residing within them that the rest of the world doesn’t have. It’s a transforming and informing light. This light is the glory of Father for anyone who is positioned “in Christ”. This “in Christ” position gives us the power of the throne of glory. Because we are sons of glory.
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:” (John 1:12)
“In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” (John 1:4)
“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4-7)
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
