The Unshakable Truth™ by Josh McDowell

Author:Josh McDowell
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780736928700
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers

An Instant New Life, Yet a Process to Live It

The man approached the grave of his dead friend. He had missed the funeral that was conducted four days prior. The body was actually entombed in a cave with a massive stone rolled across its entrance.

“Roll the stone aside,” the man commanded to those with him. He then raised his head toward heaven, said a prayer, and shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” At that moment his dead friend came to life, raised at the call of Jesus of Nazareth.

Lazarus had been wrapped in a linen burial shroud soaked in spices to help preserve his corpse. With the spices now dried, the linen was hardened. At Jesus’ word, new life went right through the hardened grave clothes and into the body, and Lazarus hobbled out of the tomb wrapped like a mummy.

Outside the tomb, Lazarus no longer needed his grave clothes. They were definitely an impediment to a body that was now alive. So Jesus told Lazarus’ family and friends, “Unwrap him and let him go!” (John 11:44). With the help of his friends and family, Lazarus was unwrapped and set free to experience a brand-new life.

Notice that the grave clothes did not fall off Lazarus the moment Jesus called out to him. There was a process involved in getting him unwrapped after he had come to life again. When we become Christians, Christ gives us new life. It is as if he calls to us, “Come out! Come out of your old, dead existence. Come out and enjoy the new life I have given you.” Christ is the initiator of the new life. And it is his power that activates the transformation process of becoming more and more like him. “You have stripped off your old evil nature and all its wicked deeds,” Paul says. “In its place you have clothed yourselves with a brand-new nature.” But notice how Paul refers to the process when he concludes that your brand-new nature “is continually being renewed as you learn more and more about Christ, who created this new nature within you” (Colossians 3:9-10).

Like Lazarus, we emerge from the tomb of our past shrouded in grave clothes. We may be bound by the negative influences of our family of origin, our old friends, and the old life we used to live. Christ’s invitation to new life penetrates the grave clothes—the things that bind us—and new life begins. But we may still be hobbled by the wrappings. We may instantly be alive with Christ’s nature within us, but it takes a process of time and spiritual growth for that nature to be lived out to maturity. Paul talked about being built up so “we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ…becoming more and more in every way like Christ” (Ephesians 4:13,15).

Jesus could have chosen to have Lazarus burst out of his grave clothes in a display of power. But he didn’t. He chose to involve the people in Lazarus’ life.

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