The raising of Lazarus is a figure of the regeneration of the sinner. Continuing the analogy, the “graveclothes” are also significant. When the Lord called Lazarus from the tomb, he did not leave the hampering graveclothes behind him, but came forth “bound hand and foot.” Likewise, when a sinner is born again, the marks of death are still upon him. Though we are new creations in Christ (2 Cor 5:17), we remain in fleshly bodies where the remains of the body of death impede the movement of the “new man.” Though we have been spiritually resurrected, the “new man” needs to be “loosed” from things he has carried with him from the grave of his deadness.
Upon the miracle of the new birth, a sinner is categorically changed. His soul which was dead is now alive; his once blind eyes are open to spiritual truth; he is enabled to repent; and thus his moral or ethical condition is radically changed as he becomes united to Christ. In one sense of the word, he is sanctified; that is, he is positionally sanctified. Though more than merely a position, a believer is definitively sanctified in that true regeneration necessitates a life characterized by holiness and repentance. However, this sanctification is imperfect in this life – there remains in every man remnants of his now dead corrupt nature. When we think of sanctification, we most often refer to the ongoing, progressive work that begins with regeneration. This is progressive sanctification, or the process that a born-again believer undergoes in pursuing holiness and the setting apart of one’s conduct from sin unto righteousness. This is portrayed here in the loosing of Lazarus’ grave clothes.
