Released from Prison

He stood and walked to the door. Instead of leaving, he put his hand on the light switch, turned to me, and asked, “Is it okay if I turn out the light? I’m too ashamed of what I have to say.” The only light coming into the room was the light from the hallway through the small window in the office door. He told me how lonely he had been since his divorce, how he had felt so all alone in the world, and how he had sinned against his wife in the most grievous way. “Pastor, can God ever forgive my sin?”

Can God forgive? What makes this question extra difficult to ask is the presence of an adversary. Satan accuses us of our sin, past and present, to keep us from believing that God can forgive us. He wants to imprison us in our sin.

But while Satan is strong, Jesus Christ has conquered Satan. He has bound the strong man and His victory delivers us from sin’s prison and there are two results of His victory that opens wide the prison gates.

The first and most important result of being set free is that you are forgiven. Our Gospel text shows that Jesus was locked in a struggle against the devil. Throughout His ministry, Jesus was always doing battle against the devil. We see today that Jesus’ own family thought He was out of his mind (vv 20–21). In those days, to be separated from one’s senses was associated with being possessed by a demon, one of Satan’s agents. What this means is that Jesus’ own family thought He was losing a battle with Satan!

To make things even more difficult, Jesus’ enemies claimed that He was in league with the devil (v 22). They’d seen Jesus thwart Satan by casting out many demons, but they still charged Him with serving the devil because they weren’t willing to believe He was their Savior. It’s a crazy accusation really, but they still make it against Him (vv 23–26)!

And although many expected Jesus to do battle with Satan in a way that would be epic and deserving of God’s glory, Jesus would instead achieve victory over our terrible adversary by bearing our sin on the cross. Jesus would win by having God condemn Him for your sin. We triumphed by Jesus suffered eternal judgment for you. And when Jesus cried, “It is finished,” your sin was gone.

The resurrection on Easter morning isn’t the victory that sets you free, but it proves that Christ took away your sin and set you right with God (Rom 4:25). Jesus empowered and proved the promise of God assuring us that because of His great love for all His people, “God forgives all sin.” His victory was not a physical contest of biceps and triceps or a contest of wit. And even as Jesus freed you from sin’s guilt and death, He also bound Satan by taking your sin away. Because you are forgiven, you no longer have to believe Satan’s lies and accusations (vv 27–28). The Tempter’s power has been broken and you are set free from guilt’s prison.

And so of the two results of Jesus’ victory on the cross the greatest one is that you are forgiven. But the second result of the cross is that you now belong. If we are so certain of God’s promises in Christ and His salvation that Satan cannot shake your trust in God’s forgiveness, he will try with every trick he knows to make you feel like an outsider.

The devil will say, “You don’t fit with these people. What you did was so much worse. If they knew who you really are, they would march you to the church door and tell you to leave and not come back.” Truth be told, we are susceptible to these accusations. It is part of our fallen human nature to compare ourselves with others. We recognize clearly when we fall short of God’s expectations, but tragically, we fail to see that in comparing ourselves to others, we are trying to justify ourselves.

When the devil tries to convict us of our failures and suggests to us that we are disqualified from remaining in the fellowship of the saints, Christ silences Satan with this promise to us: “You belong to my family” (vv 31–35). Jesus makes this point in this morning’s story when He looked at those around Him and said, “The one who does the will of my Father is my family.” The devil wants us to hear Jesus telling us that we cannot be in our Savior’s family because we don’t perfectly follow the will of our Father, but God’s will is, first and foremost, that we repent and believe the Good News of Jesus! When we believe in the forgiveness of sins in Christ, we are doing the greatest will of our Father. And Jesus assures us that as we believe in the forgiveness of sins through His blood, we belong to His holy family. We belong!

So what could I say to this man who believed that his sin was so dark that he had to shut off the light in order to tell his story? Better still, what does Jesus Christ say about his sin? Jesus says, “God forgives all sin. Your sin is forgiven.”

After we looked at the Scriptures together and prayed, he walked out a free man, forgiven and belonging. Christ’s victory over Satan had set him free from sin’s prison. And Jesus does the same for you. Abide in His peace and rejoice with hope. Amen.