Did you know the biggest problem we have is spiritual blindness to what Christ has done for us? Blindness is the greatest bondage there is. Think about a blind person. Physically speaking, he’s in a prison of darkness. Imagine being in a brightly lit room with black duck tape on your eyes so that no light comes in. If you try to walk around, you’ll stumble. You may even fall. You’re in the light, but you can’t see it!
We are in the kingdom of light if we are in Christ, but if our eyes are blinded to the pure Gospel of grace, then we’ll stumble around groping to feel our way through life. Our natural senses will be our guide. Spiritual blindness will cause us to be controlled by our emotions and will cause the voice of the Holy Spirit to be muddled by our doubts and fears and the gamut of all the other emotions. We won’t walk in wisdom and peace. Instead, we’ll make bad decisions based on how we feel rather than the truth of the wisdom of God.
In Isaiah 61 we find a quote of the coming Messiah. This prophecy was fulfilled when Jesus stood up in the temple and declared “the Spirit of the Lord is upon Me.” In Isaiah 61 and Luke 4 we find almost identical passages, with one editorial change made by the Lord Himself. Here is the passage in Isaiah 61:
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, and the OPENING OF THE PRISON to those who are bound;… (Isaiah 61:1)1
Now let’s look at this verse in the passage in Luke 4:
So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, To set at liberty those who are oppressed… (Luke 4:16-18)
Interesting… In Isaiah 61, all the phrases are the same, except for one:
Good tidings to the poor — same
Heal the brokenhearted — same
Proclaim liberty to the captives — same
Opening of the prison doors — oops! Different! In Luke 4, Jesus says, “recovery of sight to the blind.”
Did Jesus mis-quote Himself?
I used to read that passage in Luke 4 and wonder why Jesus chose to mention only one kind of healing: recovery of sight to the blind. Why didn’t He mention leprosy or all the other kinds of sicknesses? Did it mean that we could only be assured of physical healing of blind eyes, and every other kind of sickness was perhaps on a case by case basis? I seriously pondered this years ago.
However, Jesus wasn’t talking about physical eyes in Luke 4. He was talking about spiritual eyes to see the unseen. In the Hebrew of Isaiah 61, the phrase “opening of the prison” is the word “peqach-qowach.”2 It’s a double word that literally means “the opening of the eyes” to those who are bound! This is one of my favorite nuggets of truth in the Bible. It’s just awesome to me.
Jesus came to bring the opening of the eyes to those who are bound! Jesus came to open the prison doors of spiritual blindness so that the captives could be set free. What was the captivity that Jesus came to set people free from? What was He referring to? Jesus came to release the captives from the law that declared them unrighteous and unacceptable to God. When our eyes are opened to Jesus and His grace, we will no longer be in held captive to performance based religion.
(from pages 120-122 of Unveiling Jesus)
Want more from Tricia Gunn? Check out excerpts from the Unveiling Jesus 20-part series!
Unveiling Jesus, by Tricia Gunn, is a verse by verse study of the pure gospel of grace. It’s an amazing journey of love, identity, and freedom in Christ.
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1All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New King James Version. Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.
2H6495 (pĕqach-qowach), Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon, website: http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=H6495&t=KJV, accessed 5-22-14″
