Jehovah Provides for Your Liberty - JESUS PROCLAIMED LIBERTY

All of us need to be liberated because we are slaves in one grim scene-slaves to sin. As a result of being sinners, we are subject to aging, sickness, and death. Many see evidence of that when they look into a mirror or go to see a doctor for treatment.  We are also discouraged when we commit sins.  The apostle Paul admitted that he was led "captive to sin's law that [was in his ] body."  He added: "Miserable man that I am!  Who will rescue me from the body undergoing this death?" - ROMANS 7:23, 24. 

Happily, God arranged a way for us to be rescued, or freed from sin.  Jesus is the key to that liberation.  In the eighth century before our Common Era, the prophet Isaiah foretold a future grand liberation.  That grand liberation would accomplish far more than did the liberation during Israel's Jubilee year. He wrote: "The spirit of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah is upon me, because Jehovah anointed me to declare the good news to the meek.  He sent me to bind up  the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives." (Isaiah 61:1) To whom does that prophecy apply?

That important prophecy about liberation began to be fulfilled after Jesus started his ministry. When he went to the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth, Jesus read those very words of Isaiah to the Jews assembled  there.  Jesus applied to himself the words: "Jehovah's spirit is upon me, because he anointed me to declare the good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and a recovery of sight to the blind, to send  the crushed ones away free, to preach Jehovah's acceptable  year." (Luke 4:16-19)  How did Jesus fulfill the prophecy?

Next time: Jehovah Provided for Your Liberty - THE FIRST TO BE LIBERATED

From the jw.org publications