Escape from Prison

by Kenneth R. Lawson

"Under armed escort I walked from the police van, through the courtyard of the first buildings of the prison complex, then down a seemingly endless dark hallway to a series of huge steel doors. As the last door clanged shut, gloom descended upon me. I couldn't breathe; I began to sweat. My heart seemed to stop beating. I was overcome with an indescribable fear. This was to be my home for the rest of my life. I had no hope ever to be free again. Despair and loneliness gripped me."

Every prison, county jail, city jail, work farm, and detention hall in America is filled beyond capacity. Men, women, and young people who, for wrongs committed against society, have been sentenced to a period of time behind bars or to death row to await execution.

The fear and despair is as real as crimes they have committed. Loneliness and remorse alter their health and even their sanity. One only has to visit any jail or prison to see the people locked away from free society are at the very bottom of life, with little or no hope.

Most of us have never been in prison or in jail except to visit someone. We have never experienced their riptide of emotions day after day, night after night. We have not had to keep constant company with hundreds of murderers, rapists, and thieves. We have our freedom to breathe clean, fresh air, to make decisions, to come and go, to eat what we like, to travel, to laugh, to plan. We have hope! We are free!

The darkest prison

Yet all of us have been in another kind of prison -- not the county jail, Leavenworth, Alcatraz, or Soledad. Every human who has ever lived has been in this prison.

Except for the compassion of God and the death of Jesus Christ for our sins, we would still be in this prison with no hope of parole, no hope of freedom. God has pardoned us and set us free from the prison of sin. He did this through the shed blood of His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus paid our debt of sin and cleansed us. We have walked out of the world's darkest prison. We are free!

Prophecy of freedom

How exactly did this happen?

The prophet Isaiah tells us in Isaiah 61:1.

"The Spirit of the LORD GOD is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound."

Isaiah speaks of a message that will be preached (called "good tidings") and that will result in healing, liberty, and the granting of freedom to those bound in prison. What is Isaiah talking about? The miraculous deliverance of early church leaders, such as Peter, Paul, and Silas? As wonderful and inspirational as such accounts are, Isaiah isn't referring to these.

Is Isaiah speaking of some future event when the doors of prisons, jails, and detention centers will be flung open, granting freedom to thousands of convicted criminals? No.

To find the answer, we need to read the words Jesus Christ uttered at the start of His public ministry.

Freedom from sin

In Luke 4:16-21 we read that Jesus returned to His hometown of Nazareth and entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day. When He stood up to read, someone handed Him the book of Isaiah. Jesus read the same passage quoted above. When Jesus finished reading, "He closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, 'Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing'" (vv. 20, 21).

Both Jesus and Isaiah referred to the same work of emancipation. Isaiah spoke of it being yet future; Jesus spoke of it being fulfilled on the same day He read about it in Isaiah.

What was Jesus talking about? Did He have a plan to open all the prisons of Judea and free the convicts? No. What Jesus was referring to affects all people, from Adam's fall to the end of the age: release from Satan's prison, from the confinement of sin, and from the death penalty pronounced on mankind for the crime of sin.

At one time we were in Satan's prison. We were pronounced guilty. We were on death row. We had no hope of release. We were not free. But Jesus came and preached the gospel, healed our broken hearts, opened our blind eyes, opened the doors of Satan's prison, and set us free.

Choosing captivity

Unfortunately, millions do not accept the pardon God offers through Jesus Christ. They choose to remain in Satan's prison. In speaking of false teachers who choose to be in bondage to Satan, the biblical writer, Peter, offers this analysis:

For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through licentiousness, to ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also is he brought into bondage. For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning (2 Peter 2:18-20).

Still others, having accepted freedom in Christ, allow themselves to be bound again by sin. They have returned to the clutches of Satan.

Choosing freedom

Jesus Christ is our escape from prison! We are pardoned through Him for our crimes and sins. We are set free by the simple choice of accepting the freedom He offers. Paul, another biblical writer, says:

Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves righteousness (Romans 6:16-18).

Yes, we were in prison -- guilty, deserving confinement. We didn't deserve to be set free. We hadn't sufficiently paid for our crimes. But God's love for us and the gift of freedom through Jesus Christ His Son are ours to claim (see Romans 6:21-23).

"Hesitantly, I followed the prison guard as he led me across the prison yard. We went through several gates, and as they slammed shut behind me I began to think maybe this wasn't a dream. Maybe I was really going to experience freedom again. Down the long dark hallway I could see light ahead. One final door. It opened. I walked through. Warm sunlight beamed down and warmed me. I breathed the fresh air. I heard the birds singing again. I ran away from the prison, into the sunlight. I AM FREE! I AM FREE!"

A version of this article appeared in a past issue of the Bible Advocate magazine. For a free subscription, contact us at bibleadvocate@cog7.org.

Kenneth R. Lawson is pastor of the Church of God (Seventh Day) in Redmond, OR. Scripture quotations were taken from the New King James Version.

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