Open Your Graves

 

“Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.” -Ezekiel 37:12

 

The gospel hinges on the resurrection.  When the Apostles asked the Holy Spirit to appoint a replacement for Judas, they wanted that person to be “ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.”  Jesus was not the first person to rise from the grave, rather the first to conquer the grave.  Saying truly: “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.”  He brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.  A gospel that is centered on his death and resurrection. 

 

Paul writes in the book of Corinthians chapter fifteen: “And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.”  Christ said himself that he was the resurrection and the life.  He said that he would stay three days in the heart of the earth and rise again.  He said it, and he performed that which he said he would do.  He was resurrected so that we could be, that I could be.  He did it for me and he can do it for you.  The resurrecting power of Jesus is for each one of us.  He can raise you out of your grave.  The grave of sin.  The scripture tells us that we are born in sin.  That in Adam all die.  When we come into this world we are “dead in trespasses and sins.”  The passion of Christ that was demonstrated at the cross, and the power of God that was demonstrated by the resurrection, can be a reality in you.  You can be resurrected from the deadness of sin to live for God in holiness and righteousness.  The same power that raised Jesus can raise you.  This one event stands forever in heaven and earth as a beacon of hope to a dead world.  To a sin sick, hurting and broken world.  It is the hope of the gospel, and on it the Church is built.  You and I who are sanctified, born again Christians; we are built on the foundations of the apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone.  When disputing about if or how we can be cleansed from sin and delivered from the power of sin.  When discussing if or how we can be sanctified wholly and walk in holiness, purity, living free from sin.  Then one must only look to the power of the resurrection.  The power of the resurrection proves to all that all things are put under him. 

 

As a preacher in our crowd once said: “all things are put under him, YES even this.”  Even carnal sin, even this sin of pride, this sin of drunkenness, of adultery, of lust, or bigotry, and malice.  The many unholy tempers, things, and practices both within and without.  They are put under Him and he has the power, and will give you that power.  The past can be past and the and the new can be new.  The keeping power of Christ can come and you can have a personal Pentecost; after you have been crucified and raised to new life.  You can have a living testimony because he has opened your graves. There is none or nothing too hard for him.  That resurrection can be a present-day reality in your life.