Jesus never comes to a person and says, “Convert or die.” Jesus comes to a person and says, “You’re dead. Come to me and live.”
I am, apart from the grace of God in Jesus Christ, dead in my sins. “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). I may live, breathe, move, eat, play, and sleep, but spiritually I am dead. Like Lazarus was, I am wrapped, bound and buried in a cold, dark and sealed tomb.
But Jesus loved the dead man Lazarus. They were friends in life; Jesus was his friend in death. Jesus “cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” (John 11:43)
When Lazarus died, there wasn’t a sword or a gun in Jesus’ hand. There were tears in his eyes. (John 11:35)
So, Love called out. Light broke in. Life pulsed through.
“For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. (John 5:21)
“I am the resurrection and the life.” (John 11:25)
But why? Why, care about the dead?
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:5).
Love is why and love is how.
“Child, arise.”, Jesus said to the still corpse of a little girl (Luke 8:54). He used the term her mother would have used to call the girl to herself that very morning. “Honey, wake up.”
Jesus touched and took her hand. He crossed the boundaries of impurity by touching death.
Yes, that’s what He would do on the cross. He would reach out to touch our sin-ridden, death-striken hearts and bring us out of death and into new life in Him.
Jesus doesn’t come to you and say, “Convert or die.” He comes to you and says, “You’re dead. Come to me and live.”
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