"TAKE OFF THE GRAVE CLOTHES AND LET HIM GO"
John 11 is one of my favorite reads in Scripture. I love every miracle that JESUS performed because I love to see the defeat of the hold of the evil one on everyone of us. I am also reminded that every circumstance is under HIS control, HE is greater than the circumstance, and there is purpose in allowing the circumstance. Too often, I get caught up in the circumstance and how it is affecting me and mine. The LORD'S very words, "for GOD'S glory so that GOD'S SON may be glorified through it" is the explanation of the purpose.
The BEST of the narrative is again, JESUS' words, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go." I wonder about the grave clothes. They were only on Lazarus four days, but surely they emitted the stench of deadness? Someone was instructed to remove them from Lazarus because they were wound around his body and prohibited him from movement. I doubt that he ran out of the tomb when JESUS "called out in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out." He probably hobbled out of the tomb.
I quickly think of me. When I experienced JESUS as my SAVIOR and LORD, I too, had odorous grave clothes/my sins and their habits that needed removal. ONLY JESUS could remove those grave clothes from me, and HIS sacrifice on Calvary and the fact that I died there with HIM, has loosed the grave clothes from me. Those grave clothes/my sins and their habits in me were loosed from me. Romans 6:11..."dead to sin but alive to GOD in CHRIST JESUS." For my sake and the sake of the Truth of Calvary, why would I choose to be bound again in smelly grave clothes? It is imperative that as soon as I sniff the odor of sin and its stench in me, I MUST move to 1 John 1:9, "IF we confess our sin, HE is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteous." In this life, I realize, I will sin, but I can resolve not to allow the sin to become binding on and in my life and set up residence/stronghold. I MUST be alert to HIS presence and HIS convicting love to finger my sin. YES! Whom the SPIRIT has set free is free indeed!
The BEST of the narrative is again, JESUS' words, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go." I wonder about the grave clothes. They were only on Lazarus four days, but surely they emitted the stench of deadness? Someone was instructed to remove them from Lazarus because they were wound around his body and prohibited him from movement. I doubt that he ran out of the tomb when JESUS "called out in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out." He probably hobbled out of the tomb.
I quickly think of me. When I experienced JESUS as my SAVIOR and LORD, I too, had odorous grave clothes/my sins and their habits that needed removal. ONLY JESUS could remove those grave clothes from me, and HIS sacrifice on Calvary and the fact that I died there with HIM, has loosed the grave clothes from me. Those grave clothes/my sins and their habits in me were loosed from me. Romans 6:11..."dead to sin but alive to GOD in CHRIST JESUS." For my sake and the sake of the Truth of Calvary, why would I choose to be bound again in smelly grave clothes? It is imperative that as soon as I sniff the odor of sin and its stench in me, I MUST move to 1 John 1:9, "IF we confess our sin, HE is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteous." In this life, I realize, I will sin, but I can resolve not to allow the sin to become binding on and in my life and set up residence/stronghold. I MUST be alert to HIS presence and HIS convicting love to finger my sin. YES! Whom the SPIRIT has set free is free indeed!
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