Sometimes I wish John would have been more Paul Harvey-like. Why didn’t he give us the rest of the story? I mean, come on – wouldn’t it be great to know what happened to Lazarus after he walked out of his own tomb and the graveclothes dropped away? (John 11)

He must have been quite the celebrity. His story would have hit our Yahoo headlines within minutes. Yet we know more about his sisters, Mary and Martha, than we do about Lazarus.

Surely, after that astounding day, his family lived every hour knowing the life they had together was a gift from the One with power to give life to the dead. Surely, for years afterward, they would sit in reflection of how their friendship with Jesus completely changed the course of their lives.

But do we need to know what life was like for Lazarus after he was called out of the darkness of his tomb? Isn’t it much more exciting to think about what our lives are since Christ called us from the darkness of the grave and gave us new life? Everything we have, we have because of Christ.

Keith Getty and Stuart Townend wrote “In Christ Alone,” a song about our Lazarus lives. It deserves to be a “Christmas song,” because it celebrates what Christ came to give us: all of life as children of God. Through Him alone, we are now sons and daughters of the Almighty Creator of the universe. Only because of Christ, we are the new people of God (Galatians 5:16 NLT).

Everything we have in this new life, we owe to Christ.

His love gives us hope and strength, comfort and peace.

His death paid for the wrongs I’ve done and gave me a way back to God.

His victory when caught in Satan’s most powerful trap—death—released me from the power of that curse.

I can live with “no guilt in life, no fear in death.” Wow. Wow. (Help me, Spirit, I do want to live that way!)

His power is greater than anything I can imagine or anything I will meet here on earth, and nothing, nothing, can separate me from that love and comfort and power.

That’s the new life, the new way of living, that Christ gave us.

What if the “rest of the story” was that, once the furor had died down, Lazarus drifted away from his friendship with Jesus, eventually forgot he owed every breath to the One whose power had given him life. How sad and what a waste if, after being given such an amazing gift of life, he did not live it to the fullest!

Do not forget who brought you from the grave. Everything has changed because you know Him. Live the life He came to give you.

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Listen to “In Christ Alone” (I recommend skipping the ad at the beginning!) at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENtL_li4GbE . It’s a song to be sung with great reflection; and if you do so, you’ll fall in grateful tears and awed worship at the feet of the One who has power to give you such life.