It is amazing to realize how much God loves us. The One who created us, became one of us to prove it.

As I was writing the lyrics of “He’s Alive!”, Mary of Bethany in the Bible came to mind. At some point, she realized that Jesus of Nazareth was no ordinary dude. He was God in flesh. When her brother Lazarus died, she mentioned to Jesus that if only he had been present during her brother’s illness, he would not have died. So what did Jesus do? He brought Lazarus back from the dead! Mary’s life would never be the same.

The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ forever changed the landscape of human history. This song talks about God’s love, how much we are worth to him, and describes God’s rescue plan. The good news of the Bible has nothing to do with how “good” we think we are in God’s eyes, but has everything to do with why Jesus Christ had to die on the cross in the first place. If we don’t get that, we don’t get God. And we don’t get how much God loves us and is for us.

For further investigation, read the entire book of John — it’s a great read!

Mary’s and Lazarus’ story can be found in John 11 (https://biblia.com/books/nlt/Jn11)

PS: There are many great modern-day translations of the Bible. I benefit from The New Living Translation (NLT), The New International Version (NIV), and The English Standard Version (ESV).