Title: 13
Author: Joe G
Last saved by: Matt Lawson
Company: GDC

© 2004 Joe Griffin		04-11-04.CC02-363 /

New Covenant: Fulfilled in 2 Parts: Incarnation: The Lord Quotes Himself, Isa 61:1-2a & Luke 4:16-21; Analysis: The “Blind” & the “Captives” in Isa 61:1

Isaiah 61:1 - The Holy Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me [ Christ ], because the Lord [ God ] has anointed Me [ jv^m* mashah: to be set apart as Messiah: Servant & King ] to bring good news to the afflicted [ the Gospel ]; He sent me to bind up [ vb^j* habash ] the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, and open the prison to those who are bound;
The Lord quotes this passage in the synagogue at Nazareth in:
Luke 4:16 - And Jesus came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and, as was His custom, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day to read.
v. 17 -	There the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to Him.  He unrolled the scroll, and found the place where it was written in Isaiah 61:1-2a,
v. 18 -	“The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed [ cr…w, chriō ] Me to preach the Gospel to the poor [ ptwcÒj, ptōchos: those who are afflicted by circumstances both material and spiritual ].  He has sent Me to heal [ „£omai, iaomai: to restore someone from sin and its consequences ] the brokenhearted, to proclaim deliverance to the captives, the recovery of sight to the blind [ figurative for literal restoration via miracle & spiritual restoration via salvation ], and to set free those who are oppressed [ qraÚw, thrauō: those literally broken of body and those spiritually broken of soul by false doctrine ],
v. 19 -	in order to proclaim the acceptable year [ ™niautÒj, eniautos: a period of time, i.e., the Incarnation; the First Advent ] of the Lord.”
v. 20 -	And He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon Him.
v. 21 -	And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
The issue that the Lord addresses is His First Advent and the mission He is to accomplish during His Incarnation.  Both Isaiah 61:1-2a and His reading in Luke 4:18-19 speak of those things that will resolve the sin problem of the human race and how His ministry and sacrifice will be applied to various categories of people.
Where the Lord stopped reading is where Isaiah concludes His remarks with reference to the First Advent.  The Lord thus applies the principle of dispensational theology since the remainder of the verse speaks of the Second Advent:
Isaiah 61:2b -	“… and the day of vengeance of our God [ the Second Advent ] …”
There was no reason to read further in the passage since this is all that pertained to His current mission although it was not customary to break off a reading in the middle of a sentence.  The priests were amazed that this Jesus was Joseph’s son and were impressed with His reading.  However, the Lord then made it clear that they were not impressed with the content of the reading and remained in unbelief.  His following comments strongly implied their negative volition and they in rage (verse 28) sought to kill Him (verse 29) but He escaped (verse 30).
We need to examine in a little bit of detail several words and phrases in Isaiah 61:1:
“Bind up the brokenhearted” is Qal infinitive of vb^j* habash and refers to the binding of wounds.  The context has to do with the work of Messiah and the mission of His Incarnation.  The word habash refers to binding a wound.  But there is no physical healing in salvation. 
The application here is to the salvation of the soul with emphasis on the kardia where doctrine is stored once it is believed.  Those who are born in sin and have need of a savior have a “broken heart” in the sense that it has not been regenerated.
“Proclaim liberty to the captives” refers to the transfer of all Old Testament saints from the Paradise compartment of Hades to the Third Heaven.  Prior to the ascension of Christ, the souls and human spirits of believers were assigned to Paradise.  Their faith in the coming Messiah was credited to their account ( bv^j* chashav in Genesis 15:6 compared with log…zomai, logizomai in Romans 4:3) for the imputation of righteousness.  Their presalvation sins were forgiven at the point of faith alone in Messiah alone but they were held “captive” in Paradise until these forgiven sins were judged in Christ.  Once their sins were judged they qualified to be transferred to heaven in interim bodies.  This occurred at the ascension of our Lord according to:
Ephesians 4:8 - “When He ascended up on high [ the Third Heaven ], He led captives [ Old Testament saints ] from a state of captivity [ Paradise compartment of Hades ] …”
The Lord’s proclamation of “liberty” makes reference to His pronouncement to the inhabitants of Paradise of their imminent release.  To understand this we must review our Lord’s conversation with the believer criminal at Golgotha:
Luke 23:39 - And one of the criminals who were hanged there [ Golgotha ] was hurling abuse at Jesus, saying, “Are you not the Christ?  Save Yourself and us!”
v. 40 -	But the other answered, and rebuking him said, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?
Luke 23:41 -	“And we indeed justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.”
v. 42 -	And he was saying, “Jesus remember me when You come in Your kingdom!”
v. 43 -	And Jesus said to him, “I am telling you the truth, today you shall be with Me in Paradise [ shortly the human souls of Jesus and the criminal will transfer to the Paradise compartment of Hades ].”
In addition, our Lord’s human spirit was dismissed by Him into the care of the Father:
Luke 23:46 -	And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit My spirit [ the Lord’s human spirit was transferred to the care of the Father in the Third Heaven ].”
Finally, the Lord’s expired human body was taken to the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea:
Luke 23:50 -	And behold, a man named Joseph, who was a member of the Council, a good and righteous man,
v. 51 -	a man from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who was waiting for the kingdom of God;
v. 52 -	this man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.
v. 53 -	And he took it down and wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid Him in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had ever lain.
During the three days and three nights His body was in the tomb, our Lord visited Paradise and made this proclamation to the Old Testament saints held “captive” there.
David speaks of the Lord’s visit to Hades in the third of his 16 Messianic Psalms.  These Psalms include chapters 2; 8; 16; 22; 23; 24; 40; 41; 45; 68; 69; 72; 89; 102; 110; and 118.  We now note:
Psalm 16:9 -	Therefore I have perfect happiness in my stream of consciousness and the glory of my norms and standards of doctrinal viewpoint rejoice; my body shall be at rest from soul tranquility.
v. 10 -	[ David’s prophecy of his greater Son’s destiny following the crucifixion. ]  God will not abandon My soul to Sheol [ loav= Sheol: the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek ¯dhj, Haidēs: Paradise compartment ]; neither will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay [ because of the resurrection ].

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