He Came To Set The Captives Free

And the boundary that made it possible.

This post is a little different from what I usually share.

It started with a note I shared recently about the innocent, child-like way in which my granddaughter explained her understanding of the gospel to her mom:

Adam and Eve broke the rules and were put in prison.

Because of that we were all born in prison.

But Jesus came and opened the prison doors.

Now everyone gets to decide if they want to walk out of prison or not!

When I shared this note, I guess I was hoping it may encourage a few people.

What I didn’t anticipate was the incredible outpouring of support and interest it has generated.

As I’m writing this post, we stand at 6,133 likes and 787 re-stacks and counting – to me that is just mind-blowing.

And while it’s not about the numbers, or maybe it is, I do believe the Father is teaching me something through this.

Apart from confirming the hunger for a simplified explanation of the gospel, there’s a deep, unshakable feeling taking hold within me that this simple note is meant for more.

It may be the evangelist in me, having spent 14 years in full-time ministry, but I have a genuine desire for the whole world to know how deeply loved they are by Jesus.

However, since starting this Substack in January, the Lord has made it clear that my specific mission here is to encourage His sisters on how to set godly, spiritual boundaries to honour their identity and calling in Christ.

So, I’ve been sitting with Jesus asking for permission to share my heart, and asking how the analogy of a "prison" fits with the theme of "boundaries."

The thought that immediately came to mind was this:

If God hadn’t put that boundary in place in the Garden, we would all still be in prison with no way out.

The Boundary of Tough Love

We read about this “boundary” in Genesis 3 v 24:

After he drove man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

Why We Needed That Boundary

We read in Genesis 1 v 26:

Then God said: “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness,”

Something we need to understand about God is that He is a God of relationships. Not some far-off creator of the universe who created us and then left us to get on with it.

No, He desires nothing more than an intimate, personal relationship with each of His children.

For those of us who are parents, let’s think back for a moment to the time our children were born – it didn’t take long before people started saying “Ooh, he/she looks just like his/her father or mother.”

How proud did it make you feel when people said things like that?

I can imagine God’s excitement at the thought of creating children who would be just like Him, full of everything good and knowing everything that would be possible for them as His children.

He Gave Us More Than Breath

When He breathed life into man, he wasn’t simply blowing air into his lungs, he was breathing the breath of life, His very Spirit into him.

A spirit that carries His DNA and was meant to display the fruit of the Spirit, His character.

We were meant to display His love, his joy, his peace, his patience, his kindness, his goodness, his faithfulness, his gentleness, and his self-control.

Everything that is part of His character, is part of who we are meant to be.

These characteristics were given to us, they’re not something we have to work at achieving.

So when Adam and Eve disobeyed God (broke the rules) about not eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, He, knowing what was about to take place, had no other option but to prevent them from also eating of the tree of life and living in that fallen, disobedient state forever, with no way back.

Hence, we see Him driving them out of the garden and putting the boundary in place. Both to prevent access to the tree of life, and to protect the future of his children.

Boundaries are always about protecting our identity and calling in Christ.

God Hates What the Enemy Has Done

Psalm 5 v 4-6

For you are not a God who is pleased with wickedness,

With you, evil people are not welcome.

The arrogant cannot stand in your presence.

You hate all who do wrong;

You destroy those who tell lies.

By deceiving God’s children into disobeying their Father and following him, Satan had essentially abducted us.

It broke God’s heart that He had to practice “Tough Love” and let his children go (to prison) because He knew what suffering awaited them when they were no longer in His presence – which is what the Garden of Eden represented.

God Acknowledges His Part

We see in Jeremiah God acknowledging the part He played in the suffering of His children.

Jeremiah 32 v 42:

“This is what the Lord says:

As I have brought all this great calamity on this people,

So I will do all the good I have promised them.

Now in the context of this verse, it was spoken during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, a time of extreme suffering for the Israelites.

But it’s equally true of how He felt about having to send His children out from His presence, because all the suffering the Israelites endured was a direct result of that first instance of disobedience to God.

He knew what was awaiting His children in a world governed by the devil, but He also never forgot the plans He had in mind for them. Plans to set them free.

Jeremiah 29 v 11

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”

Jeremiah 29 v 14

“I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity”. (I will bring you out of prison)

So, when God put that boundary in place, and drove His children from the garden and out of His presence, He knew exactly what He was doing.

These were not the actions of an uncaring, unloving God, but of one who loves His children with an everlasting love, even though He knew they would betray Him.

He was making a way to get His children back, and He knew that would only be possible through His first-born Son, (our Brother) Jesus Christ.

It Had Always Been The Plan

We tend to think that God came up with the plan to rescue His children after they chose to disobey him, but that’s not the case.

Revelation 13 v 8

All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast – all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the earth.

1 Peter 1 v 20

He was chosen before the creation of the world but was revealed in these last times for your sake.

We see here that the Father and Son established an eternal plan of redemption, even before the earth was created.

God, being all-knowing, knew beforehand that His children would disobey him and be thrown into prison.

As a result, through no fault of our own, we were all born in prison, with the sinful nature of our earthly father, the devil.

Jesus Opened The Door

Jesus set the opening of the prison doors in motion the moment He entered Mary’s womb.

His life here on earth was about way more than dying on the cross for our sins. He spent His whole life demonstrating to us what it looks like to display the image of God, in whose likeness we were created. He was the perfect image of God.

It’s important to remember, that while He was on earth, He was no longer acting as God.

He came in our likeness as a human being, but without the sinful nature of the devil, so that He could stand in the gap for us and take the punishment we deserved.

Just like someone who abducts a person claims a ransom before letting them return to their loved ones, Jesus came and paid the ransom by exchanging His life for ours, so we could be returned to our heavenly Father.

You Have A Choice

After Adam and Eve made the choice to disobey God, He could easily have decided that mankind couldn’t be trusted to make wise choices and taken that privilege away.

But He didn’t. Still today we have the choice to decide how we want to live and where we want to live.

John 3 v 16

For God so loved the world (you) that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish (stay in prison), but have everlasting life.

The choice is yours – are you happy living in prison, in the darkness, or are you ready to return home, to the Kingdom of your heavenly Father?

Jesus has opened the doors of the prison and made a way for you to be returned to your loving Father.

Colossians 1 v 16

He has delivered us from the power of darkness (from prison) and returned us to the kingdom of the Son He loves.

Jesus isn’t waiting for you to decide to follow Him before He opens the prison doors, He’s already done it - for every human being that ever walked the face of this earth, and that ever will.

My Story:

This is where I felt the Holy Spirit nudge me to share my own story with you – so here goes.

As a young child I never really knew if God was real. Mostly when I heard His name being spoken, it seemed to be used more as a curse word.

Still, I remember making “deals” with this God I wasn’t even sure existed, hoping that He would hear me.

To make a long story short, I married at the age of 19, and although my husband is a good man, our marriage, like most others, suffered its share of challenges.

To be honest, there was a time I would pray to this “uncertain God” to help me make an end to everything. Praise Him, He knows which prayers to answer with a firm “No”!

In 1989, at the age of 29, I’d finally had enough. I fell on my knees at the foot of my bed and said:

“God, if you are real, you need to come and take over my life – I cannot, and don’t want to continue without you!”

That’s it. Those were my exact words.

I then fell asleep, and when I woke a couple of hours later, I could feel in my spirit that something had changed.

The challenges of life were still there, but the way I handled them started to change.

Then, a couple of weeks later, my husband and I had an argument. It upset me so much, the thought that I could still behave like that when I was supposed to be a child of God, that I started questioning if I really was His child.

In tears, I randomly reached out to a “daily bread” ornament on a shelf and took out a scripture card.

What I read on that card, once again brought me to my knees:

Isaiah 43 v 1

Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by your name,

You are Mine.

Wow! I remember feeling so loved and so seen, and so forgiven in that moment – there was no more doubt that God is real, or that I am His child. I still get goosebumps remembering that day.

Am I a perfect, well-behaved child – no! But I now understand that becoming the daughter of God I was meant to be, created to reflect His image, is a journey.

One that I don’t have to face alone because He is right here with me, slowly transforming me into the daughter He dreamed of.

But it all started when I fell on my knees and surrendered my life to God.

Philippians 2 v 13

“… for it is God who works in you to want to, and to do His good pleasure.”

Another Wow! After years of trying in my own strength to be a “good” daughter of God, I finally understand that it’s not all up to me – instead, I get to co-operate with Him in my transformation.

What’s Your Story?

Have you walked out of that prison cell yet?

In Luke 4 v 18-19 we find Jesus in the synagogue, just after He’d been tempted by the devil, reading from the book of Isaiah:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,

Because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor;

He sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

And recovery of sight for the blind,

To set the oppressed free,

To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

When Jesus spoke about the “Year of the Lord’s Favour” he was referring to the Old Testament Year of Jubilee, a year when all debts were cancelled, all slaves were set free, and all land was returned to its original owners.

By quoting this, Jesus was saying:

“I am the ultimate Jubilee. I’m here to cancel your spiritual debt and return you to your rightful place as a child of God.”

You don’t have to remain imprisoned. Your debts (sins) have been cancelled (forgiven).

Jesus has made the way for you to be returned to your heavenly Father. What will you choose? To stay in prison, or walk free?

Romans 10 v 9

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord”, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (You will be set free).

Jeremiah 29 v 13

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart”.

John 3 v 16

For God so loved the world (you) that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

It’s as simple as falling on your knees before Him and saying “I’ve had enough, I want to come home”!

A Last Word

For those of you who have already chosen the freedom that Christ gave His life for, if you think this post can help someone else, please feel free to share it with them. You may just give someone the courage they need to finally take that step.