And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Loose him, and let him go."
John 11:44

Lazarus was dead. Completely. With no hope of walking out of his grave.

But Jesus spoke the word and Lazarus was raised from the dead.

When Lazarus came out of the grave he was still bound hand and foot with the clothing of a dead man.

But Jesus commanded that he be “loosed,” meaning that no longer dead but alive, Lazarus needed to remove the clothing of death so that he would go forth as one who is alive.

Two simple lessons:

First, Lazarus did nothing to raise himself from the dead. Why? Because he was dead and dead people do not, nor can they cause themselves to be alive. Likewise, salvation is God’s work in and for us. It is not our work. At all. And His work of raising the spiritually dead [saving those who are dead in sin] happens by His “word.”

Second, though Lazarus was no longer dead, but fully alive, being clothed in the apparel of the deceased, he was still displaying the marks of the dead.

The Lord didn’t want this man He had raised from the dead to go about clothed with death. Just as Jesus commanded that the clothing of death be removed from Lazarus so he could go forth as a fully alive men, the Lord does not want those He has saved to continue walking like those who are still spiritually dead. Salvation is more than release from the grave. It is liberation into life. May we who were dead, but are now alive in Christ, no longer be clothed in the rags of the dead. Let us instead, shed the vestiges of spiritual death and live in the light of newness of life in Christ.