(Nuggets from Isaiah 61:1)
This scripture highlights the CHRIST’S MISSION as He proclaims His first and second coming. This is buttressed in Luke 4:16-21.
The anointing of JESUS CHRIST referred to in this verse was the SANCTIFICATION of His human nature by the HOLY SPIRIT which commenced in the womb of His mother, the BLESSED VIRGIN, Mary. (Luke 1:35). This SANCTIFICATION continued as He grew to manhood (Luke 2:40,52), and was openly MANIFESTED at His BAPTISM, and never ceased till He took His GLORIFIED BODY and SOUL to Heaven.
Our Lord Jesus Himself, who read this in the synagogue at Nazareth (perhaps it was the lesson for the day) and applied it entirely to Himself, saying, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears (Luke 4:17,18,21), and the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth, in the opening of this text, were admired by all that heard them.
As Isaiah was authorized and directed to proclaim liberty to the Jews in Babylon, so was Christ, God's messenger, to publish a more joyful JUBILEE to a lost world, and here we are told,
I. How he was FITTED and QUALIFIED for this work: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me”, Isaiah 61:1. The prophets had the Spirit of God moving them at times, both instructing them what to say and exciting them to say it. Jesus Christ had the Spirit always resting on Him without measure, as a Spirit of counsel and a Spirit of courage, Isaiah 11:1-3. When He entered upon the execution of his prophetical office the Spirit, as a dove, descended upon him, Matthew 3:16. This Spirit which was upon Him was TRANSFERRED to those whom He sent to proclaim the same glad tidings, saying to them, when Je gave them the GREAT COMMISSION, “Receive you the Holy Ghost”, thereby ratifying it.
II. How he was APPOINTED and ORDAINED to it: “The Spirit of God is upon me, because the Lord God has anointed me”. For the service God called Him to, He furnished Him adequately, by giving Him His Spirit, because He had by a SACRED and SOLEMN unction set Him apart to this great office, as kings and priests were of old destined to their offices by anointing. Hence, the Redeemer was called the Messiah, the Christ, because He was anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows. Our Lord Jesus did not go unsent. He had a commission from Him that is the FOUNTAIN OF POWER. God the Father sent Him and gave Him His DIVINE BACKING. This is a great satisfaction to mankind, that, whatever Christ said, He had a WARRANT from HEAVEN, for His doctrine was not His, but His that sent Him.
III. THE NATURE and SCOPE OF THE WORK to which he was APPOINTED and ORDAINED:
1. He was to be a PREACHER, and EXECUTE the office of a PROPHET. So well pleased was He with the good-will God showed towards men through Him that He would Himself be the preacher of it, that an honor might thereby be put upon the ministry of the gospel and the faith of the saints might be confirmed and encouraged.
He must preach good tidings to the meek, to the penitent, and humble, and poor in spirit to them the tidings of a Redeemer will be indeed good tidings, pure gospel, faithful sayings, and worthy of all acceptation. The poor in Spirit are commonly best disposed to receive the gospel (James 2:5), and it is usually profitable when it is received with meekness, as it ought to be.
2. He was to be a HEALER. He was sent to bind up the brokenhearted, as pained limbs are rolled to give them ease, as broken bones and bleeding wounds are bound up, that they may knit and close again. Those whose hearts are broken for sin, who are truly humbled under the sense of guilt and dread of wrath, are furnished in the gospel of Christ with that which will make them easy and silence their fears. Those only who have experienced the pains of a penitential contrition may expect the pleasure of divine cordial relationship with God, and total consolation.
3. He was to be a DELIVERER. He was sent as a PROPHET to PREACH, as a PRIEST to HEAL, and as a KING to ISSUE out PROCLAMATIONS of two kinds:
(1) Proclamations of PEACE to his FRIENDS: He shall proclaim liberty to the captives (as Cyrus did to the Jews in captivity) and the opening of the prison to those that were bound. Whereas, by the guilt of sin, we are bound over to the justice of God, and His lawful captives, sold for sin till payment be made of that great debt, Christ lets us know that He has made satisfaction to divine justice for that debt, that His satisfaction is accepted, and if we will plead that, and depend upon it, and hand over ourselves and all we have to him, in a grateful sense of the kindness He has shown us, there shall be no condemnation to us, and whereas, by the dominion of sin in us, we were bound under the power of Satan, and sold under sin, Christ lets us know that he has conquered Satan, destroyed him that had the power of death and his works, and provided for us grace sufficient to enable us to shake off the yoke of sin and to loose ourselves from those bands of our neck.
The Son is ready by his Spirit to make us free and then we shall be free indeed, not only discharged from the miseries of captivity, but qualified to access all the immunity and dignity as citizens of Heaven. This is the gospel proclamation, and it is like the blowing of the jubilee trumpet, which proclaimed the great year of release (Leviticus 25:9,40), in allusion to which it is here called the acceptable year of the Lord, the time of our acceptance with God, which is the origin of our liberties. It is called the year of the Lord because it publishes His FREE GRACE to His own glory, and an acceptable year because it brings glad tidings to us.
(2) Proclamations of WAR AGAINST HIS ENEMIES. Christ proclaims the day of vengeance of our God, the vengeance He takes,
[a] On sin and satan, death and hell, and all the powers of darkness, that were to be destroyed. In order to secure your deliverance, Christ triumphed over these at the cross, having spoiled and weakened them, shamed them, and made a show of them openly, therein taking vengeance on them for all the injury they had done to man, (Colossians 2:15)
[b] On sons and daughters of men who OPPOSE THE GOSPEL and stand as obstacles, preventing sinners from receiving His offer of SALVATION.
THE MESSIAH’S MISSION was such an ALL-INCLUSIVE one, BRINGING RELIEF TO A DOOMED WORLD, and RESTORING HOPE TO A LOST HUMAN RACE.
THANK GOD FOR CALVARY ✝️
This is HOLINESS CHALLENGE
DAY 333 OF 365 🔥
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