Unbound

This week we have been talking about death preceding life in the economy of God. We

must die so we may truly live. Die to self, die to selfish ambition, die to be freed from

enslavement to sin, even sometimes die to preconceptions we may have regarding God’s person and God’s will for our lives. As we wrap up this week looking at the miraculous raising of Lazarus and the lessons Jesus taught regarding the belief of those witnessing the event, let’s take a moment to look one more time at the end of this encounter.

One of the key statements that Jesus makes to Martha is found in 11:40, “Did I not tell

by Lyman Green Sr

you that if you believed you would see the glory of God.” Moments later, Jesus calls out and the previously dead Lazarus emerges from the tomb, with grave-clothes still covering him. The instinctual understanding is that Jesus’ statement from 11:40 has been fulfilled—they have seen the glory of God—displayed not only in the authority of the Son of God to command such obedience and demonstrate such power over life and death, but also displayed in the new life of Lazarus.

To stop here seems a natural fit, but falls short of seeing the actual end of the recorded

encounter. Verse 44 ends with Jesus commanding that Lazarus be unbound and let go. Jesus is not content for Lazarus to embrace a new life still wearing grave-clothes. Those grave-clothes are appropriate garments for one who is dead, but not for one who is alive. Not only were they inappropriate to his new life, from the description they hindered his movement and ability to function with the new life he had received.

Like Lazarus, we are all dead in our sins until Christ restores us to life and commands us

to be unbound from that which holds us back (11:44). What kind of things might serve as

restrictive grave-clothes for us today? From what must we be unbound and set free?

Let me offer a few brief suggestions:

1. 

   by Dazzie D Freedom

   We must be unbound in our thinking. (See 1 Cor. 3:18-19) We cannot rely on worldly wisdom when it comes to following God, for obedience to Him may not fit within our logical reasoning. In Isaiah 55:9 God says, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
2. We must be unbound in our worship. In Tozer on Worship and Entertainment, A.W. Tozer writes, “Worship is to feel in your heart and express in some appropriate manner a humbling but delightful sense of admiring awe and astonished wonder and overpowering love in the presence of that most ancient Mystery, that Majesty which philosophers call the First Cause, but which we call Our Father Which Are in Heaven.” I love the list of adjectives in this statement: humbling, delightful, admiring, astonished, overpowering. Do these words describe your worship of God? (Think 2 Samuel 6) We must not be hindered by anything in our worship of God, whether it be physical, emotional (our pride or inhibitions restricting us), or spiritual (unconfessed sin).
3. We must be unbound in our service. Since Jesus says things like “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve...” (Mark 10:45), we must serve, particularly those deemed the “least” of all of God’s creation (Matt 25:40). If Jesus has called you to new life, then know for certain that He also calls you to be unbound. And once we’ve been unbound, we are free to do what He desires. The glory of God is displayed in our being unbound and free.

--Jeff Roe