217 of 365 - Burial clothes

​“Unbind him and let him go,” Jesus commands. John 11:44b

No longer dead, Lazarus emerges from the tomb he was in for four days. Hands and feet still bound; face still wrapped with cloth.
 
Jesus instructs the men to unbind him; to take off the burial clothes.
 
Pastor Joby Martin says, “Living people don’t wear dead people clothes; they don’t fit anymore.”

We too have experienced death – death to our sins; death to our old ways; death to trying to do the impossible on our own; death to condemnation and shame – when we put our faith in the work of Jesus. We can walk out of that pit of death and into a new life of freedom and purpose.
 
Do we live like it? Are we still walking around in dead people clothes, doing the same things, wallowing in the same weak faith, striving for the same worldly things that disappointed us in the past, prioritizing the same shallow tasks?

You don’t have to do the things you used to do because you are not the person that you used to be. Not only are you forgiven and free, but you are also now imputed with the righteousness of Jesus. When God looks at you, He sees His Son.
 
Time to shed the burial clothes and walk in the redemptive freedom of Jesus.

Question: Imagine Jesus saying to you, “______ [your name], come out of the grave! Unbind yourself. Take off those dead people clothes…they don’t quite suit you anymore!” What things might you need to take off to live the life God has called you to?