Is There a Cross in Your Dumpster?
When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, what did Lazarus contribute? I would suggest that he contributed nothing. Lazarus was dead. He was entombed. He was useless, worthless and hopeless. It was only because of the love of Christ and the grace of God that Lazarus lived again after dying.
But we have a hard time understanding grace. And we have an even harder time understanding grace and faith and works. For some reason there seems to be a disconnect between giving God the credit for our salvation and whether or not we have any part in it at all. Grace is a gift. It is unmerited. We cannot work for it, earn it, or purchase it. But we can accept the gift. In fact, Paul exhorted us not to receive the grace of God in vain (2 Cor. 6:1). So how do we receive it?
Have you ever given anyone a really nice gift? Perhaps you spent a great deal of money, or time, or thought in the procuring of this gift. You watched your recipient open up this gift in their living room. But a week later you drove around their back lot and you saw that they had tossed your beautiful, heartfelt offering in the dumpster. How would that make you feel? Would you take it back out of the dumpster, clean it off, and give it to them again? Would you plead with them to appreciate it and use it as intended? Would you ask them not to throw it away?
God has given the world–that is every person who has ever or will ever live in the world–the gift of grace. This grace came at ultimate cost, the blood of His Son on the cross. I can only imagine how God must feel when He sees us with that cross in our dumpster. How his heart must be broken when we fail to receive it, appreciate it, or use it the way he intended. I think Paul’s words in Romans 6:1-2 – “What then, may we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!” – have something to do with that God intended for us to do with the gift of grace.
Some people have never received the gift at all. Though the call has been issued, “Come forth!”- many remain wrapped in the clothes of sin and death. They are comfortable with the tomb. They would rather stink with the spiritually dead. Still some of us have answered that call, but the cross is in our dumpster. We liked it for a little while, but we decided it was too hard to keep in the house.
I can’t get past the idea that God knows what we have chosen to do with grace. If we choose to remain in the grave, we will never understand the power or the depth of the grace of God. If we set aside the grace of God, we will never use the gift for the purpose for which it has been granted. So don’t stay entombed. And don’t disgrace grace by tossing it aside, thinking you don’t need it. For human beings, grace is necessary every single day. God has promised to continually grant it if we remain humble (James 4:6).
And as for the whole grace and faith and works question, there IS something you must do to receive the gift. There is a part you play in life after death. Even though Lazarus contributed nothing to his resurrection, we must remember that when Jesus cried, “Lazarus, come forth!” – Lazarus stepped out.
“Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.” – Hebrews 5:8-9
“He who believes and is baptized will be
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AUTHOR: Jeremiah Tatum
