When the Lord Jesus began His public ministry as the Servant of Jehovah, He went to Nazareth where He was brought up. "And, as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read" (Luke 4:16). The book of the prophet Isaiah was given Him and He found the place where it was written: "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 broken hearted, to PROCLAIM LIBERTY to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord" (Isa. 61:1,2). Luke tells us at that point He closed the book and sat down with every eye fastened upon Him. He had stopped in the middle of the verse! He had omitted the words: "And the day of vengeance of our God." Why? Ah, He had not come to execute judgment but to save; the time of judgment was yet future, and it still is, for it is still the day of salvation. How accurate the Word of God is!

Liberty Proclaimed

Going to Capernaum, in Galilee, the Lord Jesus showed He fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy by casting a demon out of a man. All were amazed at this, saying, "What a word is this! for with authority and power He commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out of him" (Luke 4:36). In so doing, He proved His power to break the chains of sin, deliver from the bondage of Satan and set men free eternally. Yes, He had come to proclaim liberty!

Liberty Effected

This liberty, however, could only be effected at the tremendous price He alone could pay. Satan's bondage and sin's chains could only be broken by His atoning death on the Cross of Calvary. Hence, in love He came, became true man—God manifest in flesh—"that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Heb. 2:14,15).

Liberty Received

The good news of His victory over sin and Satan by His finished work of redemption on the Cross, is the "power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth" (Rom. 1:16). It is the message of TRUTH from the One who is "THE TRUTH" (John 14:6) that sets one at liberty. Jesus speaks of this in John 3:32: "Ye shall know the TRUTH, and THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE," and "If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed" (John 8:36).

As Jesus spoke and gave liberty to the man possessed of a demon; as He spoke and gave deliverance from darkness to the blind man; as He spoke and gave liberty from death to a young man being carried out to be buried, just so, through the Word of the Truth of the Gospel He set men free from Satan, sin and death into "the glorious liberty of the children of God" (Rom. 8:21). Faith's response to His Word breaks the chains of bondage, and forges the chain of the glorious and eternal relationship in the family of God.

Liberty Enjoyed

This newly-possessed liberty is enjoyed as the Lord, the Emancipator, is enthroned in our hearts and allowed to reign in our lives. The "perfect law of liberty" for the believer is to be "doers of the Word and not hearers only" (James 1:22-25). As the Psalmist says, "I will walk at liberty: for I seek Thy precepts" (Psa. 119:45). True liberty for the believer is freedom from one's own will, and a yielding to the Lord's will as led by the Holy Spirit and the Word. The Spirit will always lead one to follow the Lord Jesus, and "where the Spirit of the Lord is, THERE IS LIBERTY" (2 Cor. 3:17). Putting oneself under legal ordinances of any nature, or acting according to our wills, is but bitter bondage.

Let us set our eye upon our Deliverer and follow Him by His Word and Spirit. We shall then know the JOY OF LIBERTY that is found in Him. "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage" (Gal. 5:1).