The prophet Isaiah looked forward to the ministry of Jesus Christ as one that would set spiritual prisoners free. We recall that Jesus applied the words of Isaiah 61:1-2 to himself while preaching on the Sabbath in the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth (Luke 4:18-19). Isaiah 61:1-2 prophetically puts these words in the mouth of the Messiah:
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. . .
The reference to setting prisoners free is mainly spiritual. Jesus Christ-- by the grace of God-- sets gloriously free those who have been held captive and prisoner by their own sin. These lines from Isaiah 61:1-2 thus make great sense of the marvelous third stanza of Charles Wesley’s great hymn “And Can It Be?”:
Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
fastbound in sin and nature’s night.
Thine eye diffused, a quickening ray;
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light.
My chains fell off; my heart was free!
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
Amazing love, how can it be
that Thou my God shoulds’t die for me?
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