THE
OPENING OF THE PRISON
by F. F.
Bosworth
(1877-1958)
Isaiah 61:1,2 "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; 2} To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn." (Moffatt's translation) "To tell prisoners they are free and to tell the captive that they are released."
Our Release From Bondage
"The opening
of the prison" is God's own
figurative illustration of our release from bondage or imprisonment to
sin, sickness and everything else that reached us through the fall. It
covers every phase of our redemption and salvation. It's instruction is
for all seekers for the blessings of redemption.
What I have
to say applies equally to every bondage known to man But to help the sick
and afflicted I am, at this time, thinking of the physical phase of the
Gospel. But, if you are physically well, and your problem is one of the
many others covered by redemption, then think of your problem as an open prison, and follow these
same instructions. You can thus keep God busy fulfilling His promise to
you and live in the experience and enjoyment of your freedom.
Opening of the Prison
What is
meant by "The opening of
the prison?” It means that the
prisoners are free accordingly. Moffatt so translates it, "To tell
prisoners they are free, to tell captives they are
released."
Jesus
opened the prison for us by bearing our punishment. "Jehovah hath
caused to meet on him the punishment of us all" (Isaiah
53:6 Dr. Young's translation). In
Deuteronomy 2 all
sickness is listed among the punishment of God for rebellion. However in
Galatians
How are the sick to
get out of their prison?
First, they
must know that the prison door is open. Faith must have a divine act to
rest upon. They must know the "joyful news." Accordingly Jesus
said, "The Lord hath sent me to proclaim good tidings...to
announce release to the prisoners"
(
Jesus used
this word "bound" when he
said, "Ought not this woman whom Satan hath bound be
loosed...?" Sickness is a bondage from which
we have been redeemed. Jesus also said, "He hath sent
me to set free the oppressed"
(Moffatt).
All sickness
is called "oppression of the
devil" in Acts 10:38.
"How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost
and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were
oppressed of the devil; for God was with him."
The sick must have the WORD in their mouth and in their heart. Romans 10:8, "But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach."
It is
important to say here that, connected with "the word of faith," in each of God's promises, is the provision,
"If
thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus AS LORD" (Romans
10:8-10). When coming to God for
salvation in it's initial form, and then in every successive form
afterwards, our confession and acceptance of His Lordship over us is the
condition. Christ does not save
those whom He cannot govern. "For to this
end Christ both died and rose and revived, that He might be LORD, both of
the dead and living" (Romans 14:9).
Until we
gladly acknowledge His Lordship over us our priorities are wrong. It is
always a principle in the Christian life that you "make God's
Kingdom and righteousness your chief aim" (Matthew
We are not
to seek our redemptive blessings selfishly that we may waste them on our
pleasures. Because of this selfish motive James says to some, "Ye ask, and
receive not, because ye ask amiss"
(James 4:3).
Right Thinking and Right
Believing
After
knowing that the prison is open, the first thing God requires of man is to
accept God's requirements of man and that he forsake his way and thoughts
and accept God's way and thoughts (Isaiah
55:7). One reason why so many fail
to obtain and enjoy the things which God has provided and given to them is
they try to discern them by one or more of the five physical senses
instead of by faith.
Faith requires no evidence
but the Word
It is blind
to all but the Word of God. Paul says, "We look not
at the things that are seen." When
we rely upon physical evidence we repudiate the Word and faith has no
opportunity to exercise itself. "Let him
forsake his thoughts."
Right
thinking and right believing must replace wrong thinking and wrong
believing before we can
intelligently act on the freedom which is already ours through redemption,
Man's thoughts have been that the prison is locked and that he is not
free. He must forsake such thoughts and think the truth, the truth that the prison is open, and therefore he
is free to walk out.
One man
thinks that his disease will kill him. While the enlightened man knows
that he can be healed. Both of these men have faith. But one has faith that his disease will
kill him, while the other has faith in God's promise to heal him. The
sick man must "forsake" his
way of judging according to the
walls of the prison, by his symptoms, and he must accept God's way of
reckoning according to the open
door. A man can be in a prison
without being locked in; in that case he is free. This is a "joyful
message."
In the next place, this is a "joyful message"- "good news" - "Glad tidings of great joy to all people."
As soon as
it is believed it produces joy. Jesus says in this text, Luke
4:18, "The Spirit of
the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to
the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance
to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty
them that are bruised, 19 To preach the acceptable year of the
Lord."
The Gospel
age was typified by the Old Testament year of Jubilee. The Hebrew word,
translated jubilee means,
"A time of shouting." It was a happy year
because God said on the day of atonement, in this 50th year, "Ye shall
return every man to his possessions." Just as the Gospel Age is a "Time of
rejoicing" over the restoration of
all our lost possessions through the fall; Health for soul and body and
every other blessing included in our redemption. God's promises
themselves, when truly believed, become the rejoicing of our heart before
they are fulfilled (Jeremiah
A pardon from the governor read to a man sitting in
an electric chair that to be electrocuted would make him happier before he
got out of the chair that he would be in a month
later. David said, " I rejoice in
thy word as one that findeth great spoil."
Believing
and rejoicing that we are free precedes our first step out of our prison
or bondage to sickness. The absence of rejoicing would prove that you do
not really believe the proclamation that you are free. Faith is believing
that you are already free before walking out. The sick person must forsake
the thought that his freedom is a future act. It is not a future act, it is a past act. Your use of your freedom may be a
future act on our part, but it should not be - you should walk in the light now.
The door to your prison has been open a long time. "By His
stripes ye were healed."
"Himself took our
infirmities and bare our sicknesses” (Matthew
The "Emancipation Proclamation" by
Abraham Lincoln made the slaves of
the South free before they knew it; but they did not use their freedom until
they were informed of it. Then they did not judge according to their
surroundings, but by the proclamation.
Your Part in Receiving
Healing
The sick
person must believe he is free because of the open prison door and then
act accordingly. Unless faith has corresponding actions God's Word says
that it is as dead as a body without a
spirit (James
Even in the
Old Testament times Jonah sacrificed with a voice of thanksgiving, calling
his prison walls "lying vanities,"
not after, but before, he got
out. Naaman was required to dip in the
The greatly
out-numbered Israelites under Jehoshaphat, because of the Word of God
spoken through human lips, praised God with a loud voice, and then sang
praises on their way to battle (2 Chronicles
20).
Christ's
"joyful message"
to the prisoners that "they are free" is
the "word of faith"
which is not only in the Bible, but is to be, as the scriptures say,
"in
thy mouth and in thy heart" before
its benefits are manifested (Romans 10:
8-10).
Now suppose
you were in prison, longing to get out, and the warden, pointing to an
open door should say to you, "Look, that door is open for
you!" Would you rejoice? Would you lay on your bunk and wait for
the warden to carry you out? Would you ask your friends to pray you
out after they have already paid the court for your pardon and
release? Your friends could come in and walk out with you, but not
for you.
Fix your
eyes on the open door and keep on rejoicing and walking, and the walls of
your prison will soon be behind you,
the manifestation of your healing will become history. Not only is,
"The opening
of the prison" release from
every bondage, it is freedom to all the blessings revealed by the
"exceeding great and precious" promises of God. "Christ is
able to save to the uttermost." Not
only from the lowest depth of sin and misery, but into all the positive
enjoyments of divine favor. "To the
uttermost" extent of personal need,
external life.
His
salvation is eternal, including an "eternal
inheritance," an "eternal
crown," an "eternal
kingdom," and "pleasures
forevermore."