Persons who have been accused of a crime, and there is sufficient evidence to warrant a trial, can be incarcerated awaiting their trial date, or they can be released under certain conditions. The judge must decide whether or not to release the prisoner based on his reliability to show up for trial and on the nature of the crime. If he decides to release the prisoner, he may ask for a deposit as a guarantee of the prisoner's future appearance. This guarantee is called bail.
Many times the prisoner is not able to raise the bail from his own financial resources. In this case he avails himself of a person, called a bail bondsman, who will loan him the money. The bondsman deposits with the court a certain amount of money as determined by the court as a guarantee that the prisoner will appear for trial. When the accused person meets his appointment with the court, the bond money is refunded. If the accused does not show up by the trial date, a warrant is issued for his arrest, and if he is not found within 180 days the bondsman's money is forfeited. Naturally, the bondsman is very anxious to find the escapee and bring him or her to justice. To do this he hires a bounty hunter for a certain fee, usually ten percent, to retrieve the escapee, preferably alive. As the deadline approaches, however, the fee could go as high as forty percent or more.
Ever since Adam and Eve rebelled against God, the human race has been accused of high treason against the government of heaven. We have all been sentenced to death in sin's prison house. This is such a serious crime that bail has been set at a very high price. We cannot begin to pay the price for our deliverance, so God has bailed us out by agreeing to allow His Son to be our bail bondsman. Jesus died on the cross to pay our bail and also erase our guilt. If we accept that sacrifice, and agree to stand trial and throw ourselves on the mercy of the court, then it has not been in vain, but those who flee from God's plan are renegades, and a warrant is issued for their arrest. We have been commissioned to find and persuade the renegades to return to God and accept His sacrifice for their sins, to bring back those who have 'skipped bail.' In a sense we have been commissioned as 'bounty hunters', to seek and save those who are lost.
