Entombed in Sin
Uncle Bud Robinson's book The Story of Lazarus paints a real picture of Lazarus as a sick, then dead, then bound man. Now let’s see how Lazarus goes into the tomb. The stone is rolled across. And Uncle Bud sees in this the most heartbreaking stage of all.
The Tomb of Despair
He writes on page 34: "Lazarus, in the tomb, is the type of every sinner when he gives up all hope. I have seen sinners by the thousands give up all hope and go into the tomb of despondency, and spiritually speaking, they were as much in the tomb spiritually as Lazarus was physically."
This is the stage beyond bondage. The bound man is still fighting, still struggling against the cords around him. But the entombed man has stopped. Hope is gone. The stone has been rolled across the entrance and darkness is complete.
Uncle Bud paints a vivid picture of what this looks like on page 35: "Every hope has fled, every friend is dead; they have an empty purse, an aching head, and an empty stomach, with no Christ, no God, no salvation, and no hope of heaven."
I have met people like this. You probably have too. People for whom life has simply ground them down so completely that they have given on the idea that things could ever be different.
A Cycle of Failure
Uncle Bud tells the story of the man who tried to get free - and couldn't. He describes someone who was converted, ran well for a while, backslid, got reclaimed, tried again, failed again, and eventually went to his pastor asking whether there was any hope of deliverance from this inward struggle. The pastor told him there wasn't any hope - that this cycle of defeat was the normal Christian life until death.
Uncle Bud, being a holiness man, emphatically disagrees! He believes there is victory over this cycle, for the sanctified Christian. His great concern is that a person who has been told there is no remedy for this cycle yields to sin again and again, and eventually goes down into the tomb of despair. Uncle Bud writes on page 37: "There he will stay until some outside power calls him out."
When Hope Goes
Friends, don't despair! There is hope for the sinner. There is power over sinful cycles. There is life to be given to the sick, dead and bound soul.
Lazarus did not keep going back into his tomb and then coming out again. The power that saved him delivered him from that tomb.
We will get to that part of the story next week. But for now, please hang onto this: the cycle of defeat need not define your life. There is hope beyond that tomb, for those who hear the call of Jesus Christ.
The tomb of despair is a real place, and many people are living in it today. But no tomb is sealed too tightly for Jesus.