A negative electrode for a lithium rechargeable battery comprising: active material layers including metal-carbon combination active material particles including at least one active material selected from metal or metal oxide and carbonaceous active material, soft graphite particles, and a binder for binding the metal-carbon combination active material particles and the soft graphite particles; and a current collector on which surface the active material layers are stacked, wherein the soft graphite particles have a pellet density of 1.6-1.9 g/cc when a pellet is formed at a press pressure of 1 ton/cm2, and the lithium rechargeable battery adopting the negative electrode. Soft graphite is used as a shock absorbing material when the bulk of the metal-carbon combination active material particles expands by the charging of the battery, which inhibits the expansion of bulk in the active material layer as a whole, maintains and attains a conductive contact point between the active material particles including the soft graphite particles, thereby preventing degradation of capacity due to a repetition of the charging and discharging of the battery and increasing the lifetime cycle of the battery.