Isaiah 61:1-2

This was all accomplished in His first coming. His redemptive work for which He was sent, is broken up into three parts here, healing, or as the margin says, binding up the brokenhearted. The second one is proclaiming liberty to the captives, and the third is opening the prisons to those who are bound. So His work included binding wounds, announcing freedom or a kind of amnesty or pardon, and also releasing those who were in prison.

Now it may be helpful to see the background of this passage as a war scenario. Maybe you had not thought of it this way, but I think it will help you to understand what is going on here. The war scenario is that there has been a revolution against the anointed or rightful king. Wounded rebel prisoners have been taken and jailed. These are all the sinners in rebellion against God. Through their sin they have been wounded and because of their sin they have been jailed. They are guilty. They have not only been put in jail, but they have been tried and convicted of rebellion. They just are waiting for the sentence to be executed.

Now to end this war, the king anoints His heir to preach good news to the captives. And what is that good news? Reconciliation with the king is available to all you rebels. Repent and believe the good news (Mark 1:14-15). Then in addition, He sends His heir to the prison to bandage those among the prisoners who were wounded in the fighting and doomed to die. But not all of them; only those who were brokenhearted about joining the rebellion. Then the king declares to those brokenhearted amnesty, pardon, forgiveness for their rebellions against Him. He says their sins will be wiped away. If they accept the conditions of amnesty, they will go free. Their rebellion will be wiped off the books.

Then the heir opens the prison and releases those brokenhearted, repentant ones from their chains once they have accepted the conditions. Their day of salvation—the acceptable year of the Lord—has arrived. And now they can live at liberty because they and the king are at peace with one another.

Isaiah 61:1-2

Jesus quoted Isaiah 61:1-2 and one verse out of Isaiah 58 (verse 7). "The acceptable year" is not a time when God is acceptable to us, but when God—in His sovereign mercy—moves to make men acceptable to Him. In other words, it is an appointed extension of His grace, of His calling of men, to make them acceptable to Him. It is a time when He moves to deliver people.

More specifically, "an acceptable year" is referring to two Old Testament institutions—which these people would have undoubtedly recognized. He is referring here specifically either (1) to the seventh year land Sabbath or (2) to the Jubilee year—one or the other. If it was the sabbatical year, think about the purpose of the sabbatical year. It was given to give the land rest. That is, to relieve it of the responsibility of growing food. The land was to lie fallow and to produce food voluntarily for the poor, for the dispossessed, and for animals. Also in the seventh year, slaves were freed and debts were remitted.

An additional thing occurred in the Jubilee year; and that is, the restoration of property to the original owners. They may have lost it many, many years before that. But they were, then, relieved of the burden of their indebtedness. And the ability and power, therefore, to earn money once again (because all wealth comes out of the land) was given back to the original owners, so that they could be free of the burden that they very likely put upon themselves.

Isaiah 61:1-2

Christ came to proclaim liberty to captive people and in a general sense, everyone has been captive to sin until being called and being released from that. And we continue to overcome for the rest of our lives, right? It is the process of sanctification. Since Jesus started no physical liberation to free slaves, His well-known statement in this vein is spiritually intended when He claims in Luke 4:18 that God has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and to set at liberty those who were bruised.