Are You Still Taking Flowers to Your Grave?
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Hi and Happy Easter! “Christ is risen!”
This is John, Jan’s husband, a Guest Branch today.
One line of the lyrics for Got to Let It Go by MercyMe draws a picture that is in keeping with Jan’s most recent post Are You Guarding an Empty Tomb?
“Stop taking flowers to the grave of the old you that died.”
Let’s edit the main point of her blog to fit this new image:
But why are so many of us believers taking flowers to the grave of the old us that died, allowing the shame of memories, regrets, sins of the past to impinge themselves on our present as if these offenses are still remembered...and unforgiven?”
Guarding an empty tomb and taking flowers to an old grave both present the image of hanging onto our past rather than moving on in our new life in Christ.
The apostle Paul no longer memorialized his old life. He had let it go.
After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. 1 Corinthians 15:6-11 (NASB)
The apostle Paul found that, despite his persecution of the church, God’s grace toward him allowed him to let go of his old life and to live according to the new person he was in Christ, an effective preacher sent to Corinthian unbelievers by the resurrected Christ. All our offenses, continually being absorbed by the free unmerited forgiveness found in Christ, are remembered no more. They are buried with our old man, allowing us to now, like Paul, live as the masterpieces that we are by God’s own creation.
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Ephesians 2:8-10 (NASB)
As the chorus of the song encourages us, “You gotta let it go.”
Gotta Let It Go
MercyMe
Brand new
Is that person in the mirror looking back at you
It’s true
But you can’t see it ‘cause you’re stuck on what you've been through
You got that white knuckle, red faced
Kung fu grip on all your chains
But that's not who are
I'm here to let you know
You gotta let it go
You were made for something more
So come on and let it go
Oh oh oh
Tell me why
You'd think that you deserve a life of just getting by
You are alive
Stop taking flowers to the grave of the old you that died
If God can take your sin and free ya
Forget just like amnesia
Why are you holding on
I'm here to let you know
You gotta let it go
You were made for something more
So come on and let it go
Oh oh oh
I'm here to let you know
You gotta let it go
You were made for something more
So come on and let it go
Oh oh oh
You gotta let it go
I'm here to let you know
You gotta let it go
You gotta let it go
I'm here to let you know
You gotta let it go
You gotta let it go
