In Luke 4:19 we see that the Man-Savior was anointed to “proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” This acceptable year is the New Testament age typified by the year of jubilee (Lev. 25:8-17), the time when God would accept the returned captives of sin (Isa. 49:8; 2 Cor. 6:2) and when the oppressed under the bondage of sin would enjoy the release of God’s salvation.
In 4:18 and 19 the Man-Savior proclaims the jubilee of grace. This indicates that He began His ministry by proclaiming the jubilee of grace. The term “the acceptable year of the Lord” denotes the jubilee described in Leviticus 25. According to this chapter, the year of jubilee was a time when slaves were released and property was returned to the rightful owners. Hence, the year of jubilee was a year of release, freedom, and return of lost property. Those who had been sold into slavery were released during the year of jubilee.
Luke 4:22 says, “And all were bearing witness to Him and marveling at the words of grace proceeding out of His mouth; and they were saying, Is this not Joseph’s son?” The words of grace refer to the words in verse 21, including the words in verses 18 and 19, which are words of the gospel. Verse 22 indicates that those in the synagogue knew the Savior according to the flesh (2 Cor. 5:16), not according to the Spirit (Rom. 1:4).
Although the people marveled at the words of grace that proceeded out of the Lord’s mouth, it is not likely that they understood these words. This was the actual beginning of the dispensation of grace. The dispensation before that day was the dispensation of law. But in Luke 4 the divine jubilee, the jubilee of grace, was proclaimed by the Man-Savior.
In 4:23-27 the Lord Jesus warned the people using the case of the widow of Sarepta, a case of feeding, and the case of Naaman of Syria, a case of cleansing. The case of the widow of Sarepta was a case of feeding, signifying the Lord’s feeding of the hungry (John 6:33, 35). The case of Naaman was a case of cleansing, signifying the Lord’s cleansing of sinners (1 Cor. 6:11). The Savior’s mentioning of these two cases implies that His gospel would turn to the Gentiles (Acts 13:45-48). This does not mean that His standard of morality was unable to cover the Jews; on the contrary, it indicates their hardhearted rejection of Him.
Luke 4:28-30 says, “And all in the synagogue were filled with anger when they heard these things; and they rose up and cast Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down the cliff. But He, passing through their midst, went away.” It certainly was not reasonable for those in the synagogue to be filled with anger. Although they marveled at the words of grace proceeding out of the Lord’s mouth, they were nevertheless filled with anger. They rose up, cast Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill. But He passed through their midst and went away. This shows His steadiness under the threatening of His opposers.
In 4:31-44 the Man-Savior carried out His fourfold commission. This commission included teaching (vv. 31-32), casting out demons (vv. 33-37, 41), healing diseases (vv. 38-40), and preaching the good news of the kingdom of God (vv. 42-44). When the crowds tried to detain the Lord Jesus, He said, “I must bring good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this I was sent” (v. 43). As in verse 18, the Greek word translated “bring good news” is euaggelizo. This word means evangelize, to announce good news, to declare (bring) glad tidings, to preach the gospel. Hence, to bring good news of the kingdom of God is to preach the kingdom of God as the gospel, the good news.
The kingdom of God is the Savior (17:21) as the seed of life, sown into His believers, God’s chosen people (Mark 4:3, 26), and developing into a realm which God may rule as His kingdom in His divine life. Its entrance is regeneration (John 3:5), and its development is the believers’ growth in the divine life (2 Pet. 1:3-11). It is the church life today, in which the faithful believers live (Rom. 14:17), and it will develop into the coming kingdom as an inheritance reward (Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5) to the overcoming saints in the millennium (Rev. 20:4, 6). Eventually, it will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the eternal kingdom of God, an eternal realm of the eternal blessing of God’s eternal life for all God’s redeemed to enjoy in the new heaven and new earth for eternity (Rev. 21:1-4; 22:1-5, 14). Such a kingdom, the kingdom of God, is what the Savior preached in Luke 4 as the gospel, the good news.
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