Free

I'm back in Singapore after close to a day of travelling from York. One of the movies which I watched onboard my flight back to Singapore was The King of Jail Breakers, a Japanese show about an inmate (Suzuki) who repeatedly breaks out of prison and allows himself to be caught so that he can be transferred to a higher security prison (and break out again). Eventually, he is transferred to the highest security prison in the country, where his father is imprisoned for life.

If this sounds familiar, the American TV series Prison Break is about an engineer who robs a bank so that he can go to prison and break his brother out of it.

What struck me most about The King of Jail Breakers was not the prison setting or even the prison breaks, but what the inmate's first governor (Kanemura) tells Suzuki when he realises that Suzuki is set on going to the highest security prison in the country.

"I had one hope for you... for you to die free. Now that will never happen."

I guess it depends on what you mean by "free".

*****

"Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment..." - Hebrews 9:27 (NIV)

"...so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him." - Hebrews 9:28 (NIV)

And Can It Be

Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature's night
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light

My chains fell off, my heart was free
I rose, went forth and followed Thee
My chains fell off, my heart was free
I rose, went forth and followed Thee

O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing

He breaks the power of cancelled sin
He sets the prisoner free
He sets the prisoner free

His blood can make the foulest clean
His blood availed for me
His blood availed for me
His blood, His blood availed for me

To God be the Glory

O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood
To every believer the promise of God
The vilest offender who truly believes
That moment from Jesus a pardon receives

Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!
Let the earth hear His voice!
Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!
Let the people rejoice!

O come to the Father, through Jesus the Son
And give Him the glory, great things He hath done

"So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." - John 8:36 (NIV)

"Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him." - Acts 2:22-24 (NIV)

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit." - Romans 8:1-4 (NIV)