From Death to Life

I have entered the final day of my trip to New Zealand.  It has been an absolute delight visiting with friends, speaking with the students from the Calvary Chapel Bible Institute, and witnessing the power of God to transform minds and lives.  Most of the week has been filled with rain, but this morning is clear and sunny.  My time here has been inspiring and refreshing as I have received and held forth the timeless truths of God's Word.  I cannot be the same, for I have tasted and seen again the goodness of God.

When I travel, one of the aspects I enjoy the most is being an eye-witness of God's work in every place.  There is not a place in the world outside the reach of God's miraculous power to redeem and save.  No one is beyond the love, mercy, and grace of God to transform.  I heard the testimony of someone yesterday who God delivered months ago out of addictions and a destructive lifestyle.  This person was trapped in a generational cycle of sin.  This individual was distant from God, stubbornly resistant to the message of the Gospel, and yet has completely been transformed through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.  My eyes welled with tears as I heard the testimony of the saving grace of my God who has extended this salvation and redemption to all who will repent, believe, and receive.

As I read the Bible this morning, I came across this passage in 2 Kings 13:20-21:  "Then Elisha died, and they buried him. And the raiding bands from Moab invaded the land in the spring of the year. ²¹ So it was, as they were burying a man, that suddenly they spied a band of raiders; and they put the man in the tomb of Elisha; and when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet."  In the space of these two verses we read of a radical, unbelievable transformation.  Elisha the prophet of God died and was buried.  After some time had passed, another man had died and a grave was being dug.  As they worked, the diggers become aware of a band of raiders.  They abandoned their excavation and hurriedly placed the man's remains in the tomb of Elisha.  When the corpse of the dead man came into contact with the bones of the prophet Elisha, life returned to him.  He "revived and stood on his feet."  This transformation was not merely improbable:  it was impossible!  What a change, to go from being dead to being alive!

This is the transforming change that occurs to anyone who comes in contact with Jesus Christ through receiving the Gospel.  The bones of Jesus are not in a tomb somewhere, but was resurrected and lives!  He still seeks out those who are lost and dead in sins, desiring they would repent and be saved.  No one is too far off to be brought near to God by grace through faith; no one is "too dead" to be born again.  God does an inner work inside all people who respond to His call, and how glorious it is to see it firsthand.  If we are in Christ we are a new creation.  Every Christian is like that man who was dead and then was miraculously restored to life.  I tell you truly:  he could never be the same.  He lived with an understanding of his own mortality, and had a new life laid before him.  Every day was a precious gift to be treasured.  He was no doubt glad to have been touched by a dead man's bones:  how much more should we glorify the living God because He has chosen to touch us?