“Then Jesus shouted, ‘Lazarus, come out!’” (John 11:43 NLT)
If you’re a child of God today, it’s only because the Lord Jesus called your name and invited you to come to life in Him. Do you believe that Lazarus ever forgot that day? On many levels, coming to faith in Jesus should be no less dramatic and life-transforming than it was for Lazarus.
I’m forgetting a lot of things these days, but, while not remembering the exact date, I’m not forgetting the evening I knelt at an altar of prayer in a little church in South Charleston, West Virginia and was brought to new life in Jesus. How about you? Do you remember the day you met Jesus? I hope you do.
It’s my conviction that we sometimes make it too easy for someone to “come to Christ.” How so? First, because no one comes without an invitation. Yet, there’s also the component of the process that we can’t overlook – while the “invitation” is universal and, for the most part, ever-standing, which means the door is nearly always willing to be opened by the Lord, He won’t force anyone against their will to come to Him.
Responding to the call of God is an act of volition on our part, that signals a willingness to yield our life and allegiance to Jesus without reservation. His invitation isn’t to get our proverbial “feet wet,” it’s to dive in with everything we are or ever hope to be.
That’s why the Biblical illustration of Baptism is to be lowered into a watery grave, then to rise to new life in Christ alone by faith alone. There’s no “magic” in the water, the miracle is in the faith that allows our souls to be transformed by the renewing of our mind and heart. It’s not the act of baptism that saves, it’s the act of faith planted in our heart by the Holy Spirit that is our invitation to a new life.
John Piper wrote: “The call of God does what the call of man cannot. It raises the dead.” We downplay the miracle of the new birth when we make it out to be a simple prayer. But think of it as a doorway. It’s not the door that’s as significant as the destination. Where is the doorway leading. When we think of Jesus as being the “Door” or the “Way,” it changes the dynamic of the illustration, but only adds to its significance.
The point is, being “born again” is an act of God, initiated by God, purposed because of God, made possible by God, that leads to a life of surrender to God. On a very practical level, our only participation is saying “yes!” Again, think of Lazarus.
There was no discussion, compromising, negotiating, or any other dimension of decision to be made by Lazarus than to hop out of that grave. We come to Christ “as we are.”
It’s true for all of us. If, before we made our grand “entrance” into our new life, the Lord read a summary of all our sins, none of us would want to participate in that. Dragging us through all of those painful memories, revealing the “stench” of our past life, laying us “bare” to all our friends and loved ones, that would be too painful.
Thankfully, when the Lord extends His call, while He’s more familiar with the details of our past than we are, His only mention of it is to say to us: “It’s gone, child! Welcome home to ME!” When we hear His call, we need to drop everything and simply say: “Yes, Lord!”
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 