Redemption (xi)

Redemption of Prisoners

"Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me." (Psa. 142:7)

We do not often think of prisoners as being "slaves." But, they are indeed such. They have lost all freedom. For all practical purposes, they are owned by the enslaving authority. Prison life is often worse than slave life. A prisoner is a slave and a slave is a prisoner. Neither are "free." Both need freedom and deliverance.

Historically, probably most slaves became such by being captured in war. Prisoners of war, if not killed, were imprisoned for life, with little hope of escape or redemption.

The metaphors of being enslaved and imprisoned are used by the Spirit in Scripture to depict the state of bondage that sinners who are "alienated" from God and "enemies" against him and his word in both their minds and regular habits and activities. (Col. 1:21) Salvation for the soul occurs in conversion when, as David said, the soul is brought "out of prison," or when the "captive" sinner is emancipated.

The apostle Paul said that Timothy should teach men the good news of the the word of God in order that enslaved sinners and prisoners "may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will." (II Tim. 2:26) These lost souls are "ensnared" by the devil via his traps, and they are his "captives" or prisoners. It is when the soul is converted in an act of redemption that the sinner is set at liberty and experiences recovery and complete deliverance.

In the gospels we read of the demoniac man with the unclean spirit who was healed of that affliction by the Lord Jesus. Prior to his salvation we are told that the evil spirit "had seized him many times" and that "he was bound with chains and shackles and kept under guard," but was unable to be so restrained, for with superman strength "would break his bonds," and then would be "driven by the demon into the desert." (Luke 8:29) This is a picture of the sinner who is "wild by nature" (Rom. 11: 24, Job 11:12), untamed, fierce in his opposition to God and righteousness.

It is ironic that this wild demoniac could break the chains and shackles that bound his body, but he could not free himself from the chains of his depravity that bound his soul. It took exertion of divine power to cast out the demon and bring this sinner to the feet of Jesus, which is where we see him after his redemptive deliverance.

On all being imprisoned by sin, the apostle Paul wrote:

"But the scripture hath concluded all under sin" (Gal. 3:22 KJV).

But, this translation is unfortunate. "Concluded" is not the word in English that conveys the meaning of the Greek. Holman Christian Standard Bible says:

"But the Scripture has imprisoned everything under sin's power" (Romans 11:32), "God hath shut up all men unto disobedience (συνέκλεισεν ὁ Θεὸς τοὺς πάντας εἰς ἀπείθειαν), that he might have mercy upon all." 

Dr. John Gill said that the idea is "shut up, as in a prison" (Gill's Commentary).

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown says in their commentary:

"concluded—"shut up," under condemnation, as in a prison. Compare Isa 24:22, "As prisoners gathered in the pit and shut up in the prison." Beautifully contrasted with "the liberty wherewith Christ makes free," which follows, Ga 3:7, 9, 25, 26; 5:1; Isa 61:1."

 The declarations of God made in scripture has, according to Meyer's NT commentary, "brought all into ward under sin...sin has them, as it were, under lock and key."

Wrote MacLaren in his Expositions:

"The Apostle uses here a striking and solemn figure, which is much veiled for the English reader by the ambiguity attaching to the word ‘concluded.’ It literally means ‘shut up,’ and is to be taken in its literal sense of confining, and not in its secondary sense of inferring. So, then, we are to conceive of a vast prison-house in which mankind is confined. And then, very characteristically, the Apostle passes at once to another metaphor when he goes on to say ‘under sin.’ What a moment before had presented itself to his vivid imagination as a great dungeon is now represented as a heavy weight, pressing down upon those beneath; if, indeed, we are not, perhaps, rather to think of the low roof of the dark dungeon as weighing on the captives...Now the Apostle says two things--and we may put away the figure and look at the facts that underlie it. The one is that all sin is imprisonment, the other is that all men are in that dungeon, unless they have come out of it through faith in Jesus Christ." 

Sinners are slaves in prison and weighted down with shackles and chains!

Wrote Don Fortner:

"THE DELIVERANCE OF A DEBTOR FROM PRISON (Isa. 49:8-10; 61:1-3) was another picture of redemption by Christ. In ancient times a man in debt was liable to be arrested and cast into prison. There he would have to remain in bondage until his debt was paid, either by himself or another. Our sins are debts. They are debts which we can never pay. We are all, therefore, shut up in debtor’s prison by nature. But Christ paid our debt and set us free! John Gill wrote, “Christ, as he has engaged to pay the debts of his people, has paid them, cleared the whole score, and blotted out the hand writing that was against them; in consequence of which is proclaimed, in the gospel, liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; and in the effectual calling Christ says ‘to the prisoners, Go forth’, opening the prison doors for them; and to them that sit in darkness, in the gloomy cells of the prison, ‘show yourselves;’ all which is done in virtue of the redemption price paid by Christ for his people.” Just as Paul assumed the debts of Onesimus (Phile. 1:18), so Christ assumed the debts of God’s elect." (see here on his "five pictures of redemption")

Said the prophet Isaiah:

"I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house." (Isa. 42:6-7)

On this passage Dr. Gill commented:

to bring out the prisoners from the prison; who were concluded in sin, shut up in unbelief, and under the law, the captives of Satan, and held fast prisoners by him and their own lusts, under the dominion of which they were:

and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house: of sin, Satan, and the law; being under which, they were in a state of darkness and ignorance as to things divine and spiritual. The allusion is to prisons, which are commonly dark places.

Lawful Captives

Said Isaiah again:

"Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children. And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob." (Isa. 49: 24-26)

The thing that is different between being a human prisoner of war slave and a prisoner slave of sin is that in the first case not all prisoners in human conflict have been "lawful captives," for many were taken prisoner illegally, against the laws of most moral governments and generally recognized international law. But, as some wars are just; So the taking of prisoners is not unjust, such being "lawful captives."

On this Charles Spurgeon said:

"They were "lawful captives," as they had broken certain conditions and made themselves subject, according to the articles of war, to be lawfully taken prisoners."

Sinners are legally captured and imprisoned by sin.

Continued Spurgeon:

"Every creature of Adam born, who has not been saved by Grace, is a prisoner to sin. He is a lawful captive to God's Law. His nature is in thralldom under the power and dominion of sin, for that nature is evil. The man does not sin by accident—he sins because he wills to sin! He wishes to do it—he takes delight in it—he casts his heart into it. As the fish naturally swims in the stream, so the unconverted man finds sin congenial to his depraved instincts. He chooses to do that which is evil, and revels therein! He omits to do that which is good, and recoils from it. Who shall set free the man whose nature is thus enslaved? Moreover, the chains of habit become more and more highly riveted on those who indulge their lusts, but never restrain their passions."

Spurgeon, in this sermon, went on to talk about several of the various "shackles of sin" that bind sinful men and women. Spurgeon said - "Each man, according to his own order, has some peculiar chain to bind and chafe him." Continued Spurgeon:

"This is another chain and how heavy an one it is! How difficult to take it off! Some of the victims of self-flattery are faster bound and harder to set free than the most reckless and profligate of their neighbors, with whom they would count it an insult to compare them! So it was in Christ's days. Publicans and harlots, the dregs of the town, the refuse of the population, entered into the Kingdom of God, hailed it with joy and were received into it with welcome, while Scribes and Pharisees, the upper circle of society, the chief and representative men of the synagogue, clogged and bound with their self-righteousness, scorned the sinner's hope, refused the Savior-King, and perished in their infatuation! And oh, how many are there upon whose hearts a willful unbelief lays its icy chains...How hard it is to rescue men that are thus manacled and fettered, whose heads and hearts are alike enslaved!"

Spurgeon spoke of "willful unbelief" being the "icy chains" of man's moral and spiritual state of imprisonment. These are indeed his shackles. Continued Spurgeon:

"And are not full many of you chained hand and foot—fastened, as it were, in the stocks—your spirits so crushed that you cannot move? You have forgotten the meaning of spiritual liberty, if you ever had an idea of it. By nature, lost, by practice, lost, by custom, led astray, by evil habits, bound and fettered, by all manner of vice, enslaved, you are under the dominion of Satan!"

What a picture! How dire is the sinner's situation!

Continued Spurgeon:

"But the worst remains to be told. That which aggravates the horror of the situation is this—that such persons are lawful captives to the Law of God. They have violated the precepts, transgressed the ordinances, offended the Divine Majesty—therefore, they must be punished! It is inevitable that every offense against God's Law should ensure the penalty due to the offender. God will by no means spare the guilty! From Sinai's summit there sounds no note of mercy. Justice and judgment hold undisputed sway. "Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things that are written in the Book of the Law, to do them." That curse falls on everyone of us by nature—it leaves us bruised and mangled, and incapable of rescue! Who can deliver the man who is God's lawful captive? Who can claim exemption for him that has broken God's Law? Such is the helpless, hopeless case of the sinner! Believe me, I do not overstate it. Though my words may sound rough, they do not fully describe the state that you are in, my unconverted Friend. You are in such a state, that unless One interpose for you whom I will tell you of soon—you will have but a short reprieve!"

In a sense, sinners become "institutionalized" while in their spiritual and moral prison. They are like "Brooks" in the famous movie "Shawshank Redemption." Brooks was released from Shawshank prison after spending all his life in prison, the only life he knew. His release from prison, the obtaining of his "freedom," did not go well, however. His freedom turned out to be no freedom at all. He became a suicide. Brooks felt comfortable and secure in prison life, though it was no easy life. Sinners are like this in their depraved state.

Isaiah 49: 24 is similar to II Tim. 2:26, previously cited. Both speak of sinners being captives and of them being set free, or delivered, by the Lord in the experience of conversion.

"Shackles Of Sin"

"O LORD, surely I am Your servant, I am Your servant, the son of Your handmaid, You have loosed my bonds." (Psa. 116:16)

As we have seen, the salvation or conversion experience is a being "loosed" from "the bonds" that bind the depraved heart and soul. Of the false convert, "Simon the Sorcerer," the apostle Peter said "I perceive that you are in" both "the gall of bitterness" and in "the bond of iniquity." (Acts 8:32) On these two descriptive adjectival phrases Albert Barnes wrote in his "Notes" (emphasis mine):

In the gall - This word denotes properly "bile," or "that bitter, yellowish-green fluid that is secreted in the liver." Hence, it means anything very bitter; and also any bad passion of the mind, as anger, malice, etc. We speak of "bitterness" of mind, etc.

Of bitterness - This is a Hebraism; the usual mode of expressing the "superlative," and means "excessive bitterness." The phrase is used respecting idolatry Deuteronomy 29:18, "Lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood." A similar expression occurs in Hebrews 12:15, "Lest any root of bitterness springing up, trouble you." "Sin" is thus represented as a "bitter" or poisonous thing; a tiring not only "unpleasant" in its consequences, but ruinous in its character, as a poisonous plant would be in the midst of other plants, Jeremiah 2:19, "It is an evil and bitter thing that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God"; Jeremiah 4:18; Romans 3:14, "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness"; Ephesians 4:31. The meaning here is, that the heart of Simon was full of dreadful, malignant sin.

Bond of iniquity - Or, that thou art "bound by" iniquity. That is, that it has the rule over you, and "binds" you as a captive. Sin is often thus represented as "bondage" and "captivity," Psalm 116:16; Proverbs 5:22, "He shall be holden with the cords of his sins"; Romans 7:23-24. These expressions prove conclusively that Simon was a stranger to religion.

Wrote Isaiah:

"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." (61:1)

Who are the "captives" and those "bound" in "prison"? What kind of captivity and imprisonment is this for the soul? When does the enslaved and imprisoned soul obtain the promised "liberty"? When is the prison "opened" for release of the prisoners? By what means are they set free? In this series we have thus far attempted to give answers to these all important questions. We will continue to address them in the remainder of the series.