for he had often been bound with chains and shackles, but he had broken the chains and smashed the shackles, and no one was able to restrain him.
This description reveals a painful contradiction. That man outwardly had such strength that he broke the chains, but in reality that strength was not a sign of freedom, but a testimony to even deeper slavery. From this it is clear that demonic influence sometimes manifests in a person with unusual and dangerous power. Yet that power is never the power of life. It is a suffocating and destructive power. That man shattered the restraints, but he could not shatter the invisible bonds that had seized his soul. No one could restrain him, because his problem was far deeper than a matter of outward behavior. Here we see one of the images of fallen humanity. A person may seem strong, rebellious, unbreakable, yet inwardly be under a dominion that gradually destroys him. This is also an important spiritual lesson: without the grace of God, the human will does not become true freedom, but often becomes merely an instrument of even deeper captivity.