St. Paul – The Prisoner of Christ

St. Paul – A Prisoner in Christ.

Does this sound like a man who is enjoying his freedom? Would you ever call this man free?

• Paul’s heart was captured by Christ, seemingly without a choice in the matter (Acts 9:1-9);
• The mind of Paul was apparently under the ownership of Jesus (1 Corinthians 2:16);
• Paul’s ministry was directed by the Holy Spirit, and he fully submitted (Acts 16:6);
• Paul was held captive to the hope of glory by his faith in the unseen (Colossians 1:27, Heb. 11:1);
• Every day Paul had a one-track mind, zealous and perhaps borderline obsessive, about sharing the gospel ( 1:16; 1 Cor. 1:12-18 and 1 Cor. 15:1-11);
• There was never any question, after his conversion, about who controlled Paul and his ministry.
• Paul repeatedly referred to himself as a prisoner of Christ, a prisoner because of Christ, a prisoner for Christ, a prisoner within (in) Christ, and a prisoner united with (Eph. 3:1; 4:1; Philippians 1:12-14; Colossians 4:18; 2 Tomothy 1:8; Philemon 1:9). Paul fully believed that he was imprisoned by Jesus Christ, completely dependent upon Him for his very life and being. He handed everything over to his “Warden,” including his independence of thought and action;
• Paul also considered himself to be a bondservant (“doulos”) of Christ ( 1:1; Titus 1:1). During Roman times, a bondservant was a person who volunteered his services for permanent servitude to a master. He gave up his rights, his identity, his independence, even his very name. As a servant in bonds, he was completely devoted to the master’s purpose and commands. The synonym for bondservant at that time was simply slave, because he was bound to the ownership of the master without receiving wages.
• Paul spent a number of years, some estimate as much as five years, in one type of jail or another for preaching the gospel. From 60-62 AD he was under house arrest in Rome. During those two years he enjoyed relative freedom during the day, but was literally chained to Roman guards every night so he wouldn’t escape. During his house arrest, Paul wrote his letters to the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and to Philemon. Logically, these four books of the New Testament are called the “Prison Epistles.”

From all appearances, calling himself a prisoner and bondservant lead us to believe that Paul lived his life with a spirit of docility, servitude, dependence, and constraint. Yet Paul considered himself completely free in Christ. “For freedom Christ has made us free,” he says, and “You have been called to liberty,” (Galatians 5:1, 13). Paul had the courage to tell the Romans in his church there that they were set free in order to become slaves of God (Ro. 6:27). But of course Paul was only teaching what the Holy Spirit wanted him to say, and so his words directly reflect the words of Jesus Himself. Jesus said that He is the only source of authentic freedom, and that “if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed, really free!” (John 8:36). As Paul so beautifully puts it, “The Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has set me free… for where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (Ro. 8:2 and 2 Cor. 3:17). So another way to put this is… in Christ we are prisoners, yet free; we are incarcerated, but liberated as well; we are captives of Jesus who experience true freedom.

Freedom: (Greek, “aleutheroo”); to liberate from captivity or bondage; to deliver from a certain fate; to set free from a hopeless addiction or dependence; to remove the shackles of confinement; to save from an internal prison of woundedness; to remove whatever it is that has us bound; to enjoy a carefree, childlike spirit after being squelched or limited in some way.

In Christ, We are Freed From:

…  A certain destiny of condemnation, a guilty verdict on Judgment Day;

…  The automatic impulse to satisfy our sinful nature;

…  Being subject to the inner decay and corruption of our fallen world;

…  Moral confusion in a world with no absolutes;

…  The emptiness and futility of selfish ambition;

…  The tendency to deceive ourselves and others;

…  A broken and unsatisfying relationship with God;

…  The stain of shame and guilt from our past;

…  The tyranny of the Self;

…  Our vulnerability in the spiritual warfare with Satan and the forces of evil;

…  Our stubborn and foolish ignorance of the truth;

…  Our frustrated and powerless attempts at perfecting ourselves and others;

…  A pointless life with no hopes of an ultimate purpose and meaning;

…  A nagging, troubling uncertainty about life after death;

In Christ, We are Freed Up to Enjoy:

…  A new spiritual DNA, while our sinful nature is disintegrating;

…  The unspeakable relief of forgiveness of our sinful nature, the consequences of sin, and our past sins;

…  The wonderful prospect of being able to grow in goodness and wisdom;

…  The certain hope of eternal life with God in the land of Glory;

…  The deeply satisfying friendship with other believers who form our new family in God;

…  The transforming experience of worshipping God in all sincerity with adoration and reverence;

…  The guidance of a godly moral foundation from which to make moral choices and God-honoring decisions;

…  The experience of a heavenly peace that passes understanding;

…  The fresh air of grace, God’s unearned and merciful favor;

…  The assurance that we will become increasingly like Jesus in character and innocence;

…  Our adoption by the Father into His family through the Holy Spirit, free to roam in His kingdom;

…  God’s welcome to join the intimate fellowship between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit;

…  The growing ability to think with the mind of Christ;

…  The agape love that is being poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit;

…  A fulfilling and meaningful life following Jesus into the adventure of Faith;

…  The stimulating and exciting pursuit of knowledge and understanding of God’s world and His truth;

… The resurgence of the creative imagination as we are living into the inspiration of the Holy Spirit;

…  The profoundly life-giving absorption in the Word of God, the holy Scriptures;

…  The satisfying ability to love and forgive others at a deeply genuine level;

…  The supernatural power of the Holy Spirit transforming our whole being into a new creature;

…  The significant privilege of approaching the Almighty God in prayer and intercession;

…  The profound encouragement of God’s intimate presence with us in life’s inevitable dark valleys;

…  A renewed, hopeful and grateful appreciation of the gift of life.

“If you continue in my teachings, abiding in what I have said and done, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. And if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed… If you make yourself at home in my Word and make yourself a student of mine, you will intimately experience the Reality of Christ, and you will be spiritually liberated into freedom. And when Jesus, the very Son of God and the Author of Truth, liberates you, you will be completely free.” (John 8:31-32, 36).

In both Ephesians 4:1 and Romans 8:2, Paul refers to being free “in” Christ, or “within” Him. If there is an ultimate “free spirit,” of course, that Spirit is God, who is utterly unconstrained. Within Jesus therefore is the very essence of freedom. Christ contains the liberating Spirit of the universe, which is His Holy Spirit. So it follows that in our union with Christ, Christ is not only within us but we are within Christ, and He dwells in us while at the same time we dwell in Him. “Abide within me,” the Lord pleads in John 15. Within Christ as our dwelling place, we are able to absorb and feed on His qualities, partaking in His character, receiving the DNA. This is much like an unborn baby receiving the nutrients he needs to develop and survive from the mother. Christ contains freedom, so when we are within Christ, we receive that freedom that only He can provide. His freedom is waiting for us in Him. We who are “hidden within Christ, inside of God,” (Col. 3:3), are in union with Him, and He is gracious enough to pardon our sins, break down the jailhouse door of sin, and share His freedom with us.

That sacred jailbreak is described in graphic detail in Psalm 107:10-18. Before Christ, we were hopelessly held in captivity within our own hearts, locked into the dark dungeon that doesn’t have a key, without any freedom whatsoever. Only Jesus is strong enough to liberate us from those chains of captivity, and bring us authentic spiritual freedom. Jesus, our Savior, “saved” us from certain death.

‘He saved us.” The word for save here is “Yasha,” which means to be set free into the wide open; to be delivered in a time of desperate need; to be saved from destruction and certain death. “Salvation” literally means to become spacious, and refers to “the sense of deliverance from an existence that had become confined, compressed, or cramped.” (Eugene Peterson). When Jesus delivers us from our inner spiritual prison, we are liberated into a wide open, broad, expansive place.

There are three passages in psalms that describe this soul freedom beautifully:

Psalm 118:5 =  From my distress, I called upon the Lord. He answered me and set me on a large place. After being in a tight spot, the Lord placed me into a broad space. Because I was hemmed in, I called on Lord Yahweh. He answered me and gave me room.

Psalm 31:8 = Lord, you have not given me over into the hands of the Enemy; You have liberated me and set my feet in a wide expanse, a good and spacious land. You have given me the freedom to roam at large, where I can freely move. You have given me room to breathe.

Psalm 18:19 = The Lord rescued me because He delighted in me. He brought me out to freedom into a wide open space. My soul has been delivered because of God’s love for me, and my soul finally has some elbow room!  (The word for “wide open space” is the opposite of a straightjacket. Without Jesus, our soul will never be freed from our spiritual straightjacket).

So Paul was in his right mind after all. Because he was saved into a wide open space, delivered from sin, Paul enjoyed true freedom within his union with Jesus. He saw himself as a prisoner, yes, a prisoner of love.

These are Paul’s last recorded words before his execution by Nero. “As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. And now the prize awaits me, the crown of righteousness… The Lord will deliver me from every evil attack and will bring me safely into His Heavenly kingdom. All glory to God forever and ever! Amen. May the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. And may His grace be with all of you.”  (2 Timothy 4:6-8, 18, 22).

Imagine languishing in a cold, dank Roman dungeon awaiting execution, “chained like a criminal.” (2:9). Consider your bleak disappointment in this your second imprisonment after having been acquitted the first time years ago. Reflect on all the friends and associates who have deserted you when you needed them most. Think about the loneliness you experience, the literal chill you have because you don’t even have your winter coat. Note your mental restlessness because you don’t have your books or papers. You would be forgiven if you were depressed, or at least discouraged, and mortally fearful. And then when you carefully consider your long life of faithful service to God, you might wonder if this end-of-life scenario is some cosmic joke, if what you are experiencing seems more a punishment than a reward.

But that’s not Paul. Rather than wallow in his miseries, he wants to offer his last words of wisdom to Timothy, his spiritual “son,” Paul’s loyal disciple and former traveling companion on his missionary journeys. This letter of 2 Timothy is Paul’s last will and testament, his final thoughts as he awaits execution under Nero around 66/67 AD. Paul is confident of Timothy’s calling. Paul is content with his own life of service and zeal, and he is triumphant in Christ’s ultimate victory over evil and death. In Paul’s mind, his place is secure in the Lord’s eternal reward, and he rightly anticipates the crown of righteousness.

St. Paul knows the end is near, but he earnestly wants to pass the baton of leadership to Timothy. Paul uses his last letter to encourage new leadership in the Church. He wants to inspire a toughness and resilience to all the resistance Timothy will experience within the church and from outside the church. Paul wants Timothy to overcome all the adversity he will face, to be steadfast in living and preaching the truth of the Good News. Pursue a life of purity and godliness, Paul is saying, and use those spiritual gifts that have been given to you. Resist the false teaching, and rely on the solid doctrines and truths of holy Scripture.

In his last letter, Paul’s imagination was in high gear. In 2 Timothy he tries every way conceivable to describe God’s followers. Paul compares believers to soldiers (2:3), athletes (2:5), farmers (2:6), ministers (2:15), kitchen containers (2:21), and servants (2:24). Paul is trying to deepen Timothy’s understanding with many word pictures, and he has certainly displayed creative ways to inspire Timothy in his ministry.

Paul’s final thoughts are his closing benedictions, his confident statements of faith and love. Could there be a more fitting way for Paul to conclude his earthly life? Paul ends his last letter by passing the torch as Timothy’s spiritual father, commending upon Timothy the eternal hope of the Gospel message and a hopeful confidence in the grace of God.