You might think it was a short sentence. But these men had not committed any offence. They were not wrongly imprisoned either. In fact, they had not been arrested at all.
Instead, these men chose to spend a night in London’s Newgate prison.
Their names were John Bray and Charles Wesley.
In 1738, about 100 years before London City Mission was founded, Wesley and Bray had spent a week sharing the gospel with inmates at the central city prison.* Newgate Prison no longer exists. It was finally demolished in 1904, having been London’s most notorious prison for over 700 years, infamous for its harsh conditions.*
It was overcrowded, filthy, and disease-ridden. The prison was said to be so foul that the floors crunched as people walked because of the infestation of lice and bedbugs.* It was also known for its brutal treatment of prisoners.
While sharing the gospel that week, Bray and Wesley met men who were condemned to die by hanging. Instead of turning away from those who desperately needed the hope of the gospel, they asked if they could be locked in with the prisoners overnight as they faced execution the next day.
And that night, Wesley and Bray strived to share the gospel with these men.
The next morning, Wesley followed these men to the gallows. He described them as cheerful, full of comfort, peace, and triumph, with an assurance that Christ had died for them and was ready to receive them in paradise.
He even said that one of the men smiled and had the “most composed, delightful countenance” that he ever saw. One man described it as the “most blessed” hour of his life underneath those gallows just before he died.*
The next morning, Wesley followed these men to the gallows.
As Christians, we know that our great Saviour has left no sin undefeated. Even at our worst, Jesus has forgiven us and given us freedom.
Bray and Wesley sacrificed their time to share that message with people we'd usually ignore or pretend don't exist, bringing light to a desolate place of darkness. The transforming hope of the gospel was brought to people with no more hope left. Freedom was brought to those behind bars.
Granted, we no longer have the death penalty in the UK, nor have I experienced crunching floors of lice and bedbugs (thankfully), but it is true that our prisons are still overcrowded and places of spiritual darkness. So, what will it take to see that sort of transformation in prisons today?
I met Jay while I was working at Pentonville Prison.
Pentonville prison is an old building that opened in 1842. It is overcrowded and understaffed. It is full of noise – whether it’s the slamming of doors, shouting, or keys jangling. Tensions are high and things can kick off in a moment.
These are the conditions we visit prisoners in today. Those are the places we bring the light of the gospel, sharing that same hope that Wesley and Bray did nearly 300 years before us.
And it’s in these places that it’s also possible to see real transformation. At Pentonville, Jay began to come to chapel, where we preached the word of God. Many prisoners say that they felt peace coming to the chapel and that it made them feel normal as they left the chaos of the prison landings.
For Jay, life had never been especially easy. Growing up in north London, his father wasn’t around, and his mum struggled. Things started to go in the wrong direction when Jay fell in with a bad crowd. He felt misunderstood and angry.
“I went on a downward spiral of criminality, which eventually put me in prison. It was hard. There’s a lot of violence and it can kick off at the click of a finger, so I was paranoid a lot of the time,” says Jay.
“But it was there I met LCM’s prisons and resettlement team at the chapel and for the first time, I started to take my faith seriously.”
Through sharing Jesus with him, Jay decided to put his trust in him. Jay was released a few years ago, and we connected him to a church and secured temporary housing through our Corner House project.
He might have struggled in faith, but the Bible studies with LCM’s prisons and Corner House teams kept his focus on Jesus. He was nervous about going to church, but Christians trained by LCM to support former prisoners welcomed him into their fellowship with open arms.
We might not need to do what Wesley and Bray did back in the 1730s, but we can still meet prisoners like Jay where they’re at today, sharing the gospel message, seeing lives transformed.
What’s most important to remember is that we don’t go into prison as good people visiting bad people, but as people who recognise that, as our Lord Jesus said, no one is good except God alone.
This is so important because it is common to hear people say in prison, “Oh, you guys, you're so good coming in here.”
But knowing the gospel allows us to say, “I do not come in here because of any goodness in me. No. I deserve far, far worse than any earthly prison could ever do to me. But God has saved me from that.”
We then go into prison, understanding that we get to heaven the same way as anybody else does in prison. We get to heaven through Jesus.
We are saved the same way as the thief, the fraudster, the sex offender, and the murderer.
There's not a single person in heaven that deserves to be there apart from God. This means that whoever we minister to, whether it is people who are homeless or in prison, we're on a level ground with those we meet.
We cannot work our way into God’s good books. This is key. It was key for the prisoners at Newgate Prison. They wouldn’t have walked to death row with joy in their hearts if they thought they could simply walk into God’s good graces.
We'll often be sharing the gospel with prisoners today, labouring to give this message of grace. Yet frequently, we will hear people talk about the changes that they've made.
And that is great! It's great to see change - but not when it's seen as getting a ticket into heaven.
Good works should flow from our faith, in thanksgiving and obedience to God. They are proof that we love our Father in heaven. While nothing we do can save us, true and lasting change comes about because of salvation.
And so we share that God loves sinners and loves to save them. Each of us is more sinful than we know, yet God is more gracious than we realise.
So how do we see transformation in our prisons today? By sharing the same gospel message that was shared at Newgate Prison nearly 300 years ago: there is freedom to be found in Jesus – as much for the prisoner as the one who walks free.
It is the power of the gospel that saves people. Thanks to the Holy Spirit, belief in Jesus changes our lives now and into eternity. It offers us freedom from the chains that bind us – our sin, guilt and shame, allowing us to lead lives for him.
Visit lcm.org.uk/freedom to see how the gospel changed Jay’s life.
LCM shares the gospel alongside the local church of London, equipping everyday Christians to lovingly bring a message of hope in Christ to those least likely to hear it.
Registered Charity No. 247186
