Leaving The Grave Clothes Behind

There things in our life that we might think give us respectability, or are bonus points with God, when they are just rags that Jesus wants to take from us and dress us beautifully.

Paul writes about his own life in this way:

Philippians 3:4-11

If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ–the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

We get dressed by Jesus by admitting to him that the things that we know that we have done wrong are death clothes, by admitting that even some of the things that we have done to be right are just pretty death clothes. We confess our sins to him and leave them behind in the tomb and invite him to dress us with his righteousness that he buys us at the cross.

Help With Your Grave Clothes

In John 11 we have a story of another resurrection. Jesus’ friend Lazarus has died, when Jesus gets to the house he is already buried, having been dead four days. There are mourners in the house, and Lazarus’ sisters, Mary and Martha are distraught with Grief. Jesus goes to the grave and asks the people to open it up. They protest because of the smell, but they do it anyway. Jesus calls in “Lazarus come out!” and he does! Jesus tells the people there to “take off his grave clothes and let him go” John 11:44

It seems that Jesus removed his own grave clothes, but Lazarus need help – his friends had to take them off for him.

There are times when we need help taking off the old death clothes. You may recognize areas of your life where you have struggled with the things from your old life. You may have a nagging sin that you just can’t seem to rid yourself of. You may respond to people in ways that break relationships instead of build them, you may feel the stabbing pains of past events and lash out when someone says or does something in complete innocence.

We find these things trip us up and keep us from living the life that Jesus has promised.

Hebrews 12:1-2

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith,