The word “deliverance” is only found two times in the King James Version. Its first occurrence is in Luke 4:18 where the Lord Jesus was quoting a passage from Isaiah 61:1. It reads, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.” In this verse it means “a release from bondage.” Because men are born in sin, they are in bondage to sin. In John 8:32 the Lord Jesus offered men freedom from this bondage with these words, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” In verse 33 the proud, self-righteous Pharisees responded by saying, “We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free.” They missed the point entirely for the Lord was not referring to being in bondage to men, but of their being slaves to sin. So He went on to say in verse 34, “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.” This, dear friend, is the plight of all mankind, for Romans 3:23 declares, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” We have all sinned and we are all captives to sin. But praise God for Jesus’ words in verse 36, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” The Lord Jesus was on His way to the cross of Calvary to set men free from sin by taking their sin upon Himself and by bearing the judgment our sin deserved. All who believe on Him as their Savior are FREE! He preached “deliverance to the captives,” and through His death and glorious resurrection we are DELIVERED! Have you experienced this deliverance?

The second reference to this word is in Hebrews 11:35 which says, “Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection.” Here the word “deliverance,” in the Greek, means “redemption.” It has the thought of “being released by the payment of a ransom.” This verse is describing men and women of faith from the Old Testament and many of them were tortured for their faith and yet they refused to be delivered from their sufferings. I can well imagine that their persecutors offered to spare their life if they would deny the faith, but the “price for being released” was too great and thus they faithfully sealed their testimony in their blood.

But God often grants His people deliverance from death by the hands of their enemies. If you were to peruse the list in Hebrews 11:32-33 you would see that God “stopped the mouths of lions” to deliver Daniel, and He “quenched the violence of fire” to deliver Daniel’s three friends. The Apostle Paul wrote often of God’s faithfulness in delivering him from death. Consider his testimony in 2 Corinthians 1:9-10, “But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that He will deliver us.”

You also asked, “What is the purpose of deliverance in one’s life?” I trust that you have seen the dire need that men have to be “delivered from the bondage of sin” in their life. And after one is saved we can also count on God to “deliver us from suffering and physical death” if it is His will. In both cases God’s purpose is to bless us and to bring glory to Himself.  (175.2)  (DO)