Redemption (xiv)

The Philippian Jailer 

"And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers, And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans. And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely: Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed. And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house." (Acts 16: 19-34)

The irony in this story is seen in the fact that the real or superlative prison was not the one in which Paul and Silas were then confined, within the city of Philippi, but is rather the spiritual prison into which all men are held, including the "jailor" or "keeper of the prison." Though the bodies of Paul and Silas were bound, their souls were not. On the other hand, the jailor (or jailer) was (ironically) the one who was in prison in his soul or spirit. It was this realization that brought the jailer to seek deliverance from his own spiritual bondage.

The earthquake was divinely caused and for the purpose (at least) of bringing the imprisoned soul of the jailer to freedom and making him into a slave or prisoner of Christ. The purpose behind the earthquake was not to liberate Paul and Silas and the other prisoners from their bodily confinement, which did not happen, but was rather to liberate the jailer by freeing his heart and soul from bondage to moral depravity. The shaking of the earth was in order that the jailer, or prison keeper, might have his depraved heart shaken, that his spirit might be set free from the powers of darkness. It is at this time that the jailer, a slave to sin, was "called to faith in the Lord." Wrote Paul:

"Were you a slave when you were called? Don’t let it trouble you—although if you can gain your freedom, do so. For the one who was a slave when called to faith in the Lord is the Lord’s freed person; similarly, the one who was free when called is Christ’s slave." (I Cor. 7: 21-22)

Before the earthquake, the jailer was a "free person," not a prisoner in prison; And, not only was he not himself a prisoner, but he was the one who made sure the prisoners remained imprisoned! But, looking at the state of the soul of the jailer, prior to his earth shaking experience, he was not free, but was in a state of bondage to his depravity. He fit the description of "one who was free when called," being no slave or prisoner; Yet, when brought to faith in Christ he became "Christ's slave." It is when men are "called to faith in the Lord" that they become the slaves of Christ.

Wrote John Gill on this verse:

"is the Lord's freeman; he is free from sin, not from the being, but from the servitude, guilt, and damning power of it: he is free from Satan, not from his temptations and insults, but from his dominion and captivity; he is ransomed from him, by the redemption of Christ, and is turned from his power in conversion..." (Commentary)

This is what has been stressed in the several chapters on conversion. Conversion is actual redemption, the time when slaves and prisoners experience release and liberation from their confinement.

Wrote another commentator:

"Christ’s service is perfect freedom, and the Christian’s freedom is the service of Christ. But here the Apostle takes, in each case, one member of this double antithesis from the outer world, one from the spiritual. The (actual) slave is (spiritually) free: the (actually) free is a (spiritual) slave. So that the two are so mingled, in the Lord, that the slave need not trouble himself about his slavery, nor seek for this world’s freedom, seeing he has a more glorious freedom in Christ, and seeing also that his brethren who seem to be free in this world are in fact Christ’s servants, as he is a servant." (Greek Testament Critical Exegetical Commentary)

Wrote Dr. Charles Hodge:

"The connection is with the first, not with the last clause of 1 Corinthians 7:21. ‘Care not for your bondage, for,' etc. He that is called in the Lord; or, as the words stand, ‘The slave called in the Lord.' That is, the converted slave. Is the Lord's freeman, i.e. is one whom the Lord has redeemed. The possession of that liberty with which Christ makes his people free, is so great a blessing, that all other things, even the condition of slavery, are comparatively of no account. Paul, in Romans 8:18-23 says that the afflictions of this life are not worthy to be compared with the glorious liberty of the sons of God, towards which the whole creation, now subject to vanity, looks with longing expectation. A man need care little about his external condition in this world, who is freed from the bondage of Satan, the curse of the law, the dominion of sin, and who is made a child and heir of God; that is, who is conformed to the image of his Son, and made a partaker of his exaltation and kingdom. Likewise also he that is called, being free, is the Lord's servant (i.e. slave, הןץ ͂ כןע). The distinction between master and slave is obliterated. To be the Lord's freeman, and to be the Lord's slave, are the same thing. The Lord's freeman is one whom the Lord has redeemed from Satan, and made his own; and the Lord's slave is also one whom Christ has purchased for himself. So that master and slave stand on the same level before Christ." (Comp. Ephesians 6:9)

Prior to being saved, the jailer was shackled and chained, metaphorically speaking. His heart and mind were chained by his depravity, and the chief yoke was that of unbelief.

The Chain Of Unbelief

In the previous chapter we cited from Spurgeon and his reference to the shackles and chains that bind the souls of men in their lost depraved state. The chiefest of these chains, these "icy chains," is that of "unbelief." Notice these scriptures on the sin of unbelief.

“Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.” (Hebrews 3:12 NKJV)

“So we see that they could not enter in (rest) because of unbelief.” (Hebrews 3:19 NKJV)

“He who believes in the Son of God has the witness of himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son.” (1 John 5:10 NKJV)

The reason why sinners will be condemned in the day of judgment is because "when I called you refused." Wrote Solomon about the call of Wisdom:

"Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you." (Proverbs 1: 23-27 kjv)

The Lord said that the Holy Spirit would "reprove the world of sin." This he does in the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ and thereby says to men "turn you (repent) at my reproof." The promise to the one who obeys and "turns" to the Lord in repentance in faith, as a result of being "called," is that they will have God's own "spirit" to be poured out upon them and will be made to know the words of the Lord. On the other hand, those who "refuse" the call, who do not "turn" at the reproof, who "set at naught" the gospel message, will suffer a mocking calamity, an everlasting destruction.

In the Apocalypse we are told that "all unbelievers" will "have their part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone." (Rev. 21: 8) Jesus said "he that does not believe will be condemned." (Mark 16: 16)

In "The Great World Prison and the Liberator," C.H. Spurgeon said (emphasis mine):

"When I was preaching in Dover, England, the mayor of the town let us rent the old town hall for our service. As I was walking by the building, I noticed a large number of windows on the lower level with metal bars on them. These windows belonged to the prison cells where the prisoners were confined. It struck me as an unusual combination, that we would be preaching the gospel of liberty on one level of the building while there were prisoners of the law beneath us. Perhaps the prisoners heard us when we sang praises to God, but the words of freedom above did not give them liberty, nor did the words of the song free them from their bonds. What an accurate picture this is of many people. We preach liberty to captives and proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, but how many remain year after year in the bondage of Satan, slaves to sin?

This little circumstance fixed itself in my mind and impressed itself upon me in my private meditations. I daydreamed that some angelic warden was leading me along the corridors of this great world prison. He asked me to look into the various cells where the prisoners were confined, and he kept reminding me, as I looked sorrowful, that it is God who sets the prisoners free. He who does justice unto the oppressed; who gives bread to the hungry. The LORD looses the prisoners (Psalm 146:7)."

Spurgeon also said:

"The first cell is called the common prison – the ward of sin. All people have been prisoners here. Those who today live in perfect liberty once wore the heavy chains and were confined within the dark walls....nothing but that iron door of unbelief that the prisoners persisted in shutting securely made it a prison at all....It was unbelief that shut the prisoners in..."

Unbelief is the damning sin.

Spurgeon said:

"I passed that cell and stopped at another. This one also had an iron gate of unbelief, as heavy and as huge as the one before.

For he has looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from the heavens the LORD beheld the earth to hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death (Psalm 102:19-20).

I saw some of them trying to file their chains with rusty nails. Others endeavored to melt away the iron by dropping tears of remorse on it, but these poor men made little progress at their work. The warden told me that this was the chain of habit, and the ball that dragged behind was the old propensity to lust and sin. I asked him why they had not been able to get their chains knocked off. He said they had been trying a long time to get rid of them, but they could never do it the way they were trying, since the proper way to get rid of the chain of habit was, first of all, to get out of prison. The door of unbelief must be opened, and they must trust in the one great Deliverer, the Lord Jesus, whose pierced hands could open all prison doors. After that, their bonds could be broken off upon the anvil of grace, with the hammer of love."

Beautiful thought! - "bonds could be broken off upon the anvil of grace, with the hammer of love"! This hammering first occurs in conversion but it continues throughout the life of the newborn soul. God's word is a "hammer that breaks the rocks into pieces." (Jer. 23: 29) It breaks the hard heart and beats away the imperfections in the believer continuously in sanctification.

Spurgeon said:

"I mourned that there were so many who still loved this house of bondage and would not escape..."

Do we who have experienced liberation in Christ not weep for our lost loved ones who are still imprisoned in their sins?

Who would ever choose to be entangled with a “yoke of bondage” again? In the next chapter we will address that question. We will also begin to focus on how the believer is daily being redeemed in his sanctification and growth in Christ.