LUKE 4:19.
Bible Reading: Luke 4:14-21.
“To preach the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:19).
The expression, “the acceptable year of the Lord” includes everything in the previous verse: that is, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, He has sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised” (Luke 4:18).
It includes the healing of the sick (Luke 4:38-40), and the raising of the dead (Luke 7:22). It includes bringing Christian salvation to the house of the ‘whosoever will’ (Luke 19:9; John 3:16): people like you and me!
There are two Old Testament equivalents suggested here. One is what we might call the ‘sabbath for the land’ (Leviticus 25:5). If this command were ever kept, it would require both faith, and a double miracle (Leviticus 25:20-22).
However, we have reason to doubt whether it ever was kept, because the seventy year exile appears to have been ‘to fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate, she kept sabbath, to fulfil seventy years’ (2 Chronicles 36:21; Jeremiah 29:10; cf. Leviticus 26:34-35). The equation appears to be, 70 years exile for 490 years of not keeping sabbath!
The second Old Testament equivalent is the ‘year of jubilee,’ the festival of the fiftieth year (Leviticus 25:10). This is the ‘proclamation of liberty’ whereby everyone returns to their possession, and to their family. Mortgages were to be cancelled, and slaves set free! This, too, prefigures in a big way the return from exile.
Which in its turn anticipates what we might call ‘the Christian Jubilee’: that proclaimed by Jesus in His hometown of Nazareth. This is the dispensation of grace, the year of God’s favour, the age of the Holy Spirit. ‘This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears,’ said Jesus (Luke 4:21).
It is the ‘today’ in which we are now living (Hebrews 3:13). ‘Today, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts’ (Hebrews 4:7). ‘For He says, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation’ (2 Corinthians 6:2).
In this era the true captivity is exposed: the captivity of sin and of death. In the gospel, sin is remitted through the blood of Christ, and death is dealt a mortal blow by His resurrection (cf. Romans 4:25). This is for our justification: that we might be ‘declared the righteousness of God in Him’ (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Man in sin is in bondage to the world, the flesh, and the devil. Man under the law is also in bondage, still waiting for the redemption which has already been revealed. Jesus came as the new man, to set us free: out of bondage to the fear of death (Hebrews 2:14-15), into eternal life (Romans 6:23).
The pass mark in God’s ‘school’ is not 50 per cent, or 60 per cent: it is one hundred per cent. So we have all failed (Romans 3:23). If one link in my anchor chain is broken, the whole chain is broken. If we break one law, we have broken them all (James 2:10).
The law was not given to bring salvation, but to expose sin, and thereby lead us to faith in Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:22-24). Salvation from sin is not brought about or bought by our own efforts, or by balancing our good deeds over our bad deeds, but only by the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:24-26).
Jesus said, ‘Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly of heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light’ (Matthew 11:28-30).
This is the day when Jesus is standing outside the door, knocking. This is the day when He comes in, and sups with us (Revelation 3:20). Will we leave him standing there? Because, if we refuse Him, we will one day be found knocking at His door, and His reply will be, ‘I know you not’ (Matthew 25:12).
The ‘year of Jubilee’ anticipates the whole Christian age, the era in which we are now living. This is the time of opportunity, the epoch in which the Lord is ‘long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance’ (2 Peter 3:8-9). The year of God’s favour; “the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:19).
