September 11, 2025 - Acts 28:28 - "The Word of God Cannot Be Bound"

Acts 28:28

"Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it."

In Acts 28, we find the apostle Paul in chains, a prisoner in Rome. Bound by men, kept by soldiers, yet preaching freely the kingdom of God. Though Paul was bound, the Word of God was not bound.

Many in Paul’s day were concerned with freedom—freedom of religion, freedom of worship, freedom from the power of Rome. But Paul reminds us that true freedom does not rest in the hands of politicians or legislation. Promotion and direction come from the LORD, Who directs all things to His honor and glory. If He gives freedom, it is from Him. If He removes it, it is still His doing. And so it was that Paul, for preaching Christ and Him crucified, was bound with a chain. Yet, by the purpose of God, that very chain brought him to Rome where he preached Christ to many who would not otherwise have heard.

Paul explains his imprisonment this way in verse 20: “For the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain.” What was the Hope of Israel? It was the Messiah, the LORD Jesus Christ—foretold in the Law and the Prophets, Who came to fulfill the justice of God, to lay down His life for His people, to rise again, and to establish His everlasting kingdom. The Jews looked for an earthly kingdom, but Christ came declaring, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Paul, sent by God as the apostle to the Gentiles, proclaimed that this Hope was not reserved for Israel after the flesh, but for the true Israel of God—those chosen in Christ from every tribe, tongue, and nation (Galatians 6:16). This was the scandal of his message: Christ crucified for both Jew and Gentile alike. And for this cause, he was bound.

Yet Paul never considered himself a prisoner of Caesar. He writes in Ephesians 3:1, “For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles.” Again in Ephesians 4:1, “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.” What confidence! He knew his circumstances were not accidents. He knew the Hand of God had purposed it all. He belonged to Christ, and if Christ put him in chains, it was for the furtherance of the Gospel.

This is why he could write in 2 Timothy 2:9, “I suffer trouble, as an evildoer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound. Therefore, I endure all things for the elect’s sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.” Paul’s body might be chained, but Christ’s Word ran free. The Salvation of God is unstoppable.

Here we see the fruit of the Word (Christ) in the preaching of the Gospel of Christ. Paul reasoned with the Jews, “persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets, from morning till evening” (Acts 28:23). Some believed. Some did not believe in the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy: “Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not." (Isaiah 6:9). “For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed...” (Matthew 13:15). Many thought themselves free, but they were bound in unbelief.

But then comes the glorious declaration of verse 28: “Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.” Men may resist. Nations may oppose. Kings may rage. But God has decreed the salvation of His people, and it shall stand (Psalm 2). Christ did not shed His blood in vain. He is “the Savior of the world” (John 4:42)—not every person without exception, but all His people whom the Father gave Him out of the world (Revelation 5:9). Jew and Gentile alike, from every nation, Christ will draw His redeemed.

We see that some who are outwardly free are in reality bound as blind, deaf, and dead in sin. Yet those whom the world calls bound and narrow for looking uniquely to the LORD Jesus, come in the flesh as all their Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, and Redemption—are despised, rejected, and opposed for Christ’s sake—yet truly free. Free in Him Who said, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36)

Here then is the comfort of the Gospel: Christ crucified has finished the work. He has paid the sin-debt of His people. He has risen in triumph. And now His Word goes forth, unstoppable, unbound, sovereign, calling sinners out of darkness into His marvelous Light.

Those who are God's elected ones, redeemed and justified by the shed blood of the LORD Jesus unto death, need not fear chains, opposition, or rejection. We are not to fear when the world speaks against this message, for “everywhere it is spoken against.” Instead, let us rejoice that Christ reigns. Let us rejoice that Salvation is of the LORD and rejoice that the Word of God cannot be bound!