Ephesians 4:7-8
But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. [8] Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men.”
Jesus came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly – John 10:10. Jesus Himself is that abundant life. God’s original vision for mankind was that we would share in all that He is and all that He has. Of course, the fall complicated that, and the reign of sin set in. As the second Adam, Jesus came to restore to humanity what was lost in the first Adam.
The resurrection of Lazarus is a great metaphor for what Jesus came to accomplish on our behalf. When Jesus called Lazarus forth, He restored to Lazarus the life that he had lost, but more than just that, Jesus wasn’t satisfied that Lazarus was alive. He had the grave clothes removed from him so that Lazarus could enjoy, in glorious freedom, the life that had been restored to him. Jesus came that we might all be partakers of the heavenly calling of participating through our union with Christ in all that God is and all that God has, but to accomplish that, He had to set us free from the reign of sin. The incarnate Christ clothed himself with our fallen and sin-wracked humanity, gathering up and Himself all that was wrong with us under sin’s reign. Dying as us on the cross, we in him died to sin, and the old man who had been held captive to sin was buried. On the third day, we rose up in Christ as new creations participating in His newness of life, free from the captivity of the reign of sin. Jesus took our captivity captive so that we could be free to fully enjoy the life lost in Adam, now restored to us in Christ. It would have been tragic if Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead and left him bound up to the grave clothes that kept him captive. Jesus raised Lazarus so that he could fully live, and Jesus raised us up in His person so that we, freed from all forms of captivity and one with His resurrection life, can enjoy the supernatural victorious life that Jesus lives.