Throughout much of Scripture there are references to “setting captives free”, “being set free”, being “cut free from the cords of the wicked”. My visualization has always been of someone in prison, bound and shackled.
Yet isn’t that what sin does to us? Binds us, shackles us, puts us in a prison? But because we aren’t physically restrained we don’t think of ourselves as needing to be set free. The illusion of freedom is strong, we can’t see our cords, our restraints.
As important and necessary as physical freedom is, freedom from the spiritual, emotional, and/or mental prison we unconsciously reside within is perhaps a greater freedom. Even when we have put ourselves there.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners – Isaiah 61:1b
Just Sayin' 