Because when every one looked away, you looked at me and said, everyone else has left, but here am I and neither do I condemn you. My eyes look on you with mercy because I love you. So go and sin no more. -Jesus (John 8) You see Jesus does not let us stay in our sin because he knows that it will result in the destruction of our lives. It will cause harm and destroy us from the inside out. Because he knows that it will lead us to experience shame, guilt, hurt, pain and that if only we would’ve listened to Him, we could have avoided it all. Just like the dead Lazarus in the tomb. You called him out of that tomb, out of the filthy and stench he was covered in and he came out. Yet nothing stopped him not even the bad odor he smelled from the tomb because he moved out of love he had for him. Because there is no sin too putrid, too ugly, too disgusting, too filthy that God cannot rescue and save us from. You see the image of the invisible God, Jesus Christ doesn’t turn his eyes away from us though we are covered in sin no, but he sees everything plainly and sees everything we are and everything we have done and will do. But he also not a God that will leave us in our filth, our sin, our disobedience because he knows that it reaps negative consequences upon our lives. Because he knows the farther we are from Him. So he told Lazarus come out of that tomb, come out of the grave. And the dead man came out with linen wrapped around him and cloth on his face. He was made alive to testify to the glory of God and to show many that it is He, JesusChrist that has the power to redeem lives. But still he had his grave clothes on Him right? Well just like when we start our walk with Christ we still walk with some things that must be pruned and removed out of us so we can walk closer to his heart and in freedom. Just the same goes with us. So little by little walking closer to Jesus, will we be renewed inwardly transformed daily as we surrender. But the steps we take towards Jesus, fixing our eyes on Jesus, will the grave clothes we once wore, be stripped piece by piece by the working power of the Holy Spirit in us. Because it is Holy Spirit deposited in us that works on our hearts and minds and transforms us be like Jesus. Jesus is alive! Alive living in us! Lazarus came alive, by the Word that called out his name. For the Word that spoke the ends of the earth into creation is likewise the Word that brought Lazarus up from dead and into a glorious light of life. Because Jesus is the light of life.
