The Opened Prison

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
Because the Lord has anointed me
To bring good news to the afflicted;
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to captives
And freedom to prisoners.”  Isaiah 61:1

The Lord Jesus appropriated this beautiful verse of the prophet Isaiah to Himself, preaching from it open day in the Nazareth synagogue and proclaiming: “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). Note that He came to preach the gospel to the meek, not the arrogant, and to bind up the brokenhearted, not the hardhearted.

He also came to set the captives free. This was not, however, to deliver the Jews from Roman bondage as many had hoped, but a far greater deliverance. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed” (Luke 4:18).

The “prison” which Christ came to open is evidently a spiritual prison; a binding of the soul; a blinding of the mind. “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). Free from the bondage of sin, translated, “out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9).

There was also another prison, a very real prison deep in the heart of the earth, to which He came. While His body slept in the tomb, His spirit descended into Hades, where the spirits of all who had died in faith were awaiting Him, and “When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, And He gave gifts to men....He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things” (Eph. 4:8, 10).