“JESUS came into the world not to interfere between sickness and death (though He could and did), but between death and life again.
He is the holder of victorious life. Supposing He had met sickness and not death, nothing would have been done, for the wages of sin is death. Did He come to qualify the original judgment: “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shall surely die”? He did not―He could not. He came to meet it, verify it, and get the victory on the other side of it....
I will tell you a sweet thing. He not only arose, but arose the same as He had died. Could you put up with an altered Son of God? Though throned in glory this moment, He is the very same as He was at the well of Sychar. If you want to know what Christ is now, go and learn Him in the four Gospels. Do you want a different Jesus from the one that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John have introduced to you? Perhaps it is hard to understand that He is the same now in glory as He was here. It is part of the business of the post-resurrection scenes, to assure us that He is the very, very same. Treasure that up in your souls. It will make the path to heaven so easy. He has come into your world before ever He asked you to go into His, and the way to make the path there easy is to know that you will find in yonder world of glory, the very same Jesus that came into your world.... Do you ever think of sudden death? You may be borne without a moment’s notice into His presence. Will it be a strange place to you? I may be a stranger to His circumstances, but not to Himself. Therefore, the more we acquaint ourselves with Jesus, the more we are in heaven already. It is little matter about His palace if I know Himself. The blessed Lord wants to make us intimate with Himself. So, in the post-resurrection scenes, He lets us know that we know Him already.” J. G. B.