² The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor [in Spirit]; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted [who mourn their slavery to sin], to preach release to the captives [of sin], and recovery of sight to the [spiritually] blind, to deliver [free] those who are oppressed [in slavery to sin]. The gospel is the ministration of the Spirit — grace, which separates man from sin. From the Word of the Lord within: The Spirit of Grace both charges and removes, just like Jesus said 'repent,' and also healed. The gospel is the ministration of the Spirit to totally free you from sin, as you repent from your old ways of selfishness on the inward cross of self-denial; to be washed, cleansed, and purified; to then be translated into the kingdom of Christ; and then to live in union with Christ and God, on earth and forever. To receive this ministration of the Spirit, you must go to Him daily: silently sit and wait on him, watch, listen, hear, and obey the commands you hear; this is picking up your cross, the inward cross of self-denial. Our hope in attaining the promises of the gospel is what motivates us to make seeking God's kingdom and his righteousness as the top priority in our life, Mat 6:33, by daily bearing the inward cross.

to preach the gospel to the poor — what poor? The poor in God's Spirit; those who lack sufficient Spirit from God to walk without sin.

he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted — This part of the verse appears to have been added by scribes, (see Footnote 4 in Net Bible link), in later manuscripts to make it more compatible with the prophecy of Isaiah, which should match — the brokenhearted are those who have sought God and have been shown the secret sins in their heart by the Holy Spirit; and when they see their slavery to sin, they mourn. They wish to be clean and righteous but realize they can do nothing themselves to correct their condition, and so their heart is broken. True Christian religion is about a change of heart. Your heart and spirit must be broken by God, before you can receive his powerful change by grace to a new heart.

The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart and saves those who are of a contrite spirit. Psalm 34:18
(Contrite means: feeling or expressing pain or sorrow for sins or offenses.)
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Psalm 51:17
For thus says the high and lofty one, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy;
“I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit,
to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." Isa 57:15

"Cast away from you all your transgressions, by which you have transgressed; and get a new heart and a new spirit.
For why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies," says the Lord GOD.
"Therefore turn [from you evil ways] and live!" Eze 18:31-32

I will also give you a new heart , and I will put a new spirit within you. Eze 36:26

To preach release to the captives, .. deliverance to those who are oppressed. Captive and in slavery to what? Free from what? 1) Free from the prison of the world's darkness, and 2) free from the slavery to sin!

captive in the prison of darkness

The prison of darkness is the absence of light to guide us, walking in the light, with only perfect words to speak and perfect deeds to do. Until crucified, all men are imprisoned by darkness of the world and their hearts, with their spiritual eyes blind, stumbling through life like blind men groping the wall. Every man is living in spiritual darkness in his fallen nature inherited from Adam's fall in the Garden of Eden. We are all stumbling through life in darkness on our own brain's selfish, defective decisions; but when the light has dawned in you, you can walk by the light of God, always given perfect words of virtue to speak and shown perfect deeds of virtue to be performed. Jesus promises to bring us out of darkness to live in his marvelous light while still alive on the earth and then forever. Jesus is the Light, the light who enlightens every man who comes into the world, given to every man so that he might believe, John 1:7,9; so that every man might believe the truth of what the light shows him about his evil behavior. Jesus is the light of the world [in every man]; if a man follows Jesus, (believes what he is told), that man will have the light of life and be reconciled and restored to God, who is light, to become a child of the light.

captive to the slavery of sin

Every man is a slave to his passions, pleasures, anger, lusts, envy, greed, pride — and that is sin. Every man is a selfish, grasping, wanting, creature. Some men realize they are helplessly enslaved to their habits, anger, lust for things, lust for sex, lust for drink, envy, greed, etc. To these men, the good news that he came preach was: the time has come, you can be released from the power that sin has over you, you can be purified by faith, you can enter the Kingdom of Heaven, which is in you and around you —to live free from lusts and rage, to have control of your emotions — and enjoy everlasting peace.

This is what the Lord read in the synagogue, and as he finished, he rolled up the scroll of Isaiah and sat down; and eyes of all those who were in the synagogue were fastened on him because they could hear the Spirit speaking through him; Jesus had just fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah 61:1-3, to begin the ministry that was foretold to be the following:

1. to preach the good news to those who are poor, (those poor in spirit and still controlled by sin),
2. to heal the broken-hearted, (those who are in sorrow over their sins, whose hearts have been broken by the Spirit of God, showing them their selfishness, their evil, their beastly nature).
3. to proclaim deliverance to the captives: (those prisoners of sin, who know they are slaves to sin, who cannot control their emotions, who say: "For I didn't do what I intended to do; but what I intended not to do, that I ended up doing. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?")
4. to open the door of the prison house to those who are bound, (for those who are sitting in the darkness of the prison, bound in slavery to sin, bound in darkness, walking in darkness, stumbling in darkness, guessing in darkness, miserable in darkness).
      From the Word of the Lord within:
   • "Life's curse: a dark house."
     (The house is your heart; darkness is the absence of the light of God to guide your words and deeds.)
   • "Religion has rejected the status of men."
     (All the world's religions ignore that man is a fallen creature. Instead the world's religions teach that we can become pleasing to God with some ritual, ceremony, prayer, meditation, reading scriptures, attending sect services, tithing, fasting, etc.; none of which changes us from being defiled in our thoughts, unacceptable to God, and banned from heaven when we die.)
   • "All sin is darkness."
   • "The whole world lies in wickedness; the wickedness knows no shame."
   • "Darkness mocks the earth; darkness covers the earth."
   • "He who seeks not to hear my voice gropes in the dark."
   • "Walking in the light is to be guided through life by God; walking in darkness is making your own decisions as to what to do and say."
   • "I am the light of the world; he who follows me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life."
   • "First the light arises, then the kingdom."
   • "Light come from faith in the voice."
   • "The way is clear: listen and obey."
5. to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord (the beginning of the Kingdom of Heaven, open to men to enter while still on earth — the end times)
6. to proclaim the day of vengeance of our God (vengeance against sin, the destruction of sin in those who seek him as their first priority in life).
7. to comfort those who mourn. (those who mourn because of their lack of purity, lack of holiness, slavery to sin, lack of the Holy Spirit).

There are other verses in Isaiah that speak similarly of bringing the prisoners (captives) out of darkness and out of the prison where they sit in darkness:

• He says, 'It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will also give you for a light to the Gentiles, that you may be my salvation to the ends of the earth.'
  Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and its Holy One, to him whom man despises, to him whom the nations abhor, to a servant of rulers: "Kings shall see you and arise, princes also shall worship you, because of the LORD who is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, who has choose you."
  Thus says the LORD, "In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you; and I will preserve you and give you for a covenant to the people, to restore the earth, to cause them to inherit the desolate heritages;
  So that you may say to the prisoners, 'Come forth,' to those who are in darkness, 'Show yourselves.' "They shall feed in the way, and their pastures shall be on all the high places." Isa 49:6-9
  
  
• "I the LORD have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand; I will keep you and give you for a covenant to the people, for a light to the Gentiles to open the blind eyes, to deliver the prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness imprisoned." Isa 42:6-7

Until a man is crucified, he is cursed, living in darkness of the world and his heart without the guidance of God's light, sitting in the earth's prison of darkness, groping the wall like blind men, guessing what to do and say, even unaware that they are in prison, until they attempt to get free, when the prison guards begin their afflictions to offend and discourage him from even trying to get free and be restored to the image [Christ] of righteousness and holiness, walking in the light, guided by God with every word to say and everything to be done.

Look at the Net Bible's appalling footnotes to Isa 42:7:

• to open blind eyes: The Net Bible translators wrote in Footnote 1 to this verse: "This does not refer to literal physical healing of the blind. As the next two lines suggest, this is a metaphor to freeing captives from their dark prisons, where their eyes have grown unaccustomed to light."
• to release prisoners: The Net Bible translators wrote in Footnote 2 to this verse: "This does not refer to hardened, dangerous criminals, who would have been executed for their crimes in ancient Near Eastern society. This verse refers to political prisoners or victims of social injustice."

YET GOD SAYS IN ISAIAH 42:6 AND 49:7, THAT HE IS GIVING CHRIST, (the New Covenant of Light), AS A COVENANT TO THE PEOPLE, (the preserved of Israel and to the Gentiles...to the ends of the earth), not "to political prisoners or victims of social injustice;" the new covenant is announced by the gospel. The translators of the Bibles and the leaders of Christianity are clueless to the gospel, clueless to sin, ignorant of darkness, ignorant of light, and ignorant of salvation; these merchants of Babylon, (those, who from their carnal minds and evil imaginations, erroneously interpret and preach the scriptures, making a living doing so), do not understand that all men are in a cursed, fallen nature — in bondage, (slaves), to sin — walking in darkness, cutoff from walking in the light of God that would guide them in words and deeds of righteousness — blind to what is righteousness, blind to what is light, blind to what is the true gospel, and blind to what is the truth; they do not understand that every man has in them the spirit of Satan, a carnal mind that is enmity with God, and an evil imagination thinking evil thoughts continually, all which must to be destroyed, killed, mortified, and crucified so that man can come out of darkness to walk and see by the light; and this must occur while man still lives on the earth so that when he dies, he is fit for the company of heaven.

From the Word of the Lord within:

• I further decry those who make a living preaching the scriptures.
• The leaders of Christianity are dogs — blind, dumb, ignorant dogs; professing to know everything, they know nothing; professing to know everything, they live their lives as fools.
• They want to be sons; they recognize the scripture, "he that is born of God has no sin," but they blithely go on.
• They do everything for show.
  Those who preach against perfection have a lack of earnest faith.
• These people are far from me, living in sin and teaching others the inevitability of sin until death.
• Outside the faith, they are teaching an equilibrium between good and evil.
• Those who follow the advice of these unpurified leaders, their life is like a bubble.

The truth frees us from sin. And Jesus makes us free from sin. Freedom from sin: For this purpose the Son of God is revealed [in us], that he might destroy [in us] the works [sin] of the devil. 1 John 3:8. A slave to sin is someone whose master and Lord is sin. If you are still sinning, Jesus is not your Lord. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. 1 John 3:9. So if you are still sinning, you have not been born of God. Do you not know that to whom you yield yourselves slaves to obey, you are the slaves of whom you obey; whether of sin that leads to death, or of obedience that leads to righteousness? Rom 6:16. As Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin." John 8:34.

recovery of sight to the blind — not just the physically blind, but those who are spiritually blind. After the fall of Adam, all men became spiritually blind, walking in darkness, walking in sin, walking without the light of God to guide their thoughts, words, and deeds. Instead men became controlled by the Spirit of Satan, walking in the lusts of their flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the thoughts of their mind. The Lord came to restore us to the spiritual image of God so that man again could see the righteous things to do and hear the righteous words to say, so that man could again walk in and by the light with His guidance, so that man's conduct could again be right, (as in righteousness) — righteous because man would be guided by God's light, not the natural light of the sun and moon. Jesus came to give man the recovery of the light of life, given to those who daily deny themselves and pick up their cross to follow him. This ability only comes after we have crucified our selfish spirit, as sin is destroyed by the Spirit with your obedient repentance, which is to bear the inward cross of self-denial.

"I have come into the world for judgment, that the blind might see; and that those who see might be made blind." John 9:39. Obviously he did not cause people to become physically blind; but he did expose the Jews, who thought they could see spiritually, to rage against him so that they became totally blind to spiritual truths. To recover one's spiritual sight is by his teaching and changing grace, given to those who know they are spiritually blind, poor in spirit, and believe his gospel of repentance with release from the bondage of sin, giving them the light (to see) of life: I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of Life. John 8:12. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overcome you, because he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going, John 12:35; walking in spiritual darkness, not knowing where one is going, is walking spiritually blind. I have come as a light into the world, so that whoever believes [depends on, trusts, obeys] in me should not abide in darkness. John 12:46. You who name yourselves Christians, beware if you think you can see because you believe in Jesus; the Lord told the believers of the Laodicean church:

Because you say, 'I am rich and increased with possessions, and am in need of nothing;' and do not know that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined and tried in the fire, so that you may be rich; and white garments, so that you may be clothed and the shame of your nakedness may not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye salve,* so that you may see. Rev 3:17-18

*Eye salve is a metaphor for the Spirit of the Lord; after purging your heart from the evil desires within it, the Lord replaces your selfish spirit with His Spirit. The Lord purges your heart of evil when you deny yourself and pick up your cross daily to follow him, forsaking all, obeying his will, not your own.

From the Word of the Lord within: "I work with the blind; but if you think you can see, and you are not with me in heaven, I will make you a laughingstock."

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