Let us now apply this to our experience of salvation. Just as the year of jubilee came after seven complete courses of years, so many of us experienced salvation only after we had passed through several “courses” in our human life. On the one hand, it is very good to be saved early in life, in our youth. But on the other hand, there is also a good point to being saved after passing through a number of lengthy courses in human life. For example, suppose a man is saved in his fifties. He has passed through a number of courses: youth, college, marriage, and advancement in his profession. Having passed through all these courses, he experiences a real jubilee when he is saved. For years, as indicated by the seven weeks of years before the year of jubilee, he may have tried to redeem himself, but without success. Then one day he hears the trumpeting of the jubilee through the preaching of the gospel, and he is saved. He had come to hate, to despise, all the courses in his life. Now he enjoys the release of the jubilee.
A person who is saved early in life, perhaps at the age of twelve, may not have much realization of the significance of the jubilee. To him, it may make little difference whether or not there is a jubilee, because he has not passed through many courses in life. But one who has passed through many courses will surely appreciate the jubilee.
In one sense, the earlier a person is saved, the better. We certainly should not delay the preaching of the gospel to others. My point here is that when a person is saved later in life, he has a greater enjoyment of the jubilee than one who is saved as a child. Suppose a boy is saved at the age of six. Since he has not passed through even one or two courses in human life, he cannot have much appreciation of the jubilee. But one who has gone through many courses will have much appreciation of what it is to be saved.
Do not misunderstand me and think that I would encourage someone to wait to be saved. Those who are saved at an early age have the opportunity to learn more of the Bible and to experience and enjoy more of the Lord. From this point of view, it is better for a person to be saved at an early age. Nevertheless, those who are saved later in life have the opportunity to have a greater enjoyment of the jubilee.
Suppose a certain person has never sold his possession or sold himself into slavery. When such a person hears the sounding of the jubilee, he will not have any joy, because the jubilee does not mean anything to him. However, a person who has lost his possession and himself will rejoice in the year of jubilee. The more a person has lost, the more he will enjoy the sounding of the jubilee.
Years ago, I met a brother whose experience illustrates the point we are making concerning the enjoyment of the jubilee. This brother had been an opium smoker for over forty years before he was saved. One day he was saved and was released from smoking opium. That was a real jubilee to him.
This brother always carried two pictures of himself: a picture of himself as an opium smoker and a picture of himself as a Christian. The opium smoker was sickly and undernourished; the Christian was healthy and strong. In testifying he would display these two pictures and ask people which they liked better. Of course, they always preferred the picture of the Christian. Then this brother would explain the meaning of these two pictures, that the one was a picture of him before he was saved and that the other was a picture of him after he had become a Christian. He was happy in giving a real testimony of the jubilee.
Someone who is saved as a very young child cannot testify of the jubilee as did the brother who was once an opium smoker. Because a young child has not passed through complete courses in life during which he has tried to redeem himself, he does not have much to say about the joy of the jubilee. Therefore, being saved later in life does have a good point, and this point is the enjoyment of the jubilee.
The year of jubilee, the fiftieth year, can only come after seven weeks of years. It can only come after the completion of the courses of human life. This means that the jubilee has a blessing which no one can reach by his own effort. Someone may try in course after course to return to his possession and to redeem himself from slavery. But of himself he cannot return or be redeemed. The jubilee comes only from God. God returns us to our possession, and God releases us from bondage.
I was saved at the age of nineteen. Before I received the Lord Jesus, I tried to be good. I was raised in Christianity, and I had been taught the Bible. I knew I should be good, but no matter how hard I tried, I could not be good. I even tried to turn to God but I was not able to turn to Him. But one day I experienced the jubilee. God came in and brought me into the enjoyment of the jubilee. On that day I had a rich enjoyment of the jubilee. I was returned by God to Him as my possession, and I was freed from my slavery.
We have seen that the two main blessings of the jubilee are being returned to our possession and being released from slavery. In the New Testament these are two great blessings of the gospel. The gospel declares that God has returned us to Himself as our possession and that He has set us free from bondage, from slavery, especially from the slavery of sin. The bondage of sin is the worst kind of bondage. Those who live in sin are bound in many ways. But when a person is set free from sin, he is also set free from many things. When we were set free from sin, we were also set free from the slavery of the law.
By the Lord’s mercy I can testify that I enjoy God as my possession, as my food, house, clothing, and transportation. I can also testify that I have been released from bondage. I am free from the slavery of sin and from the bondage of law and religion. Praise the Lord for the blessings of the jubilee!
We need to apply this understanding in our reading of the Gospel of Luke. If we read Luke with such an understanding, this Gospel will become a new book to us. In the parables and cases recorded in the Gospel of Luke we shall see the blessings of the jubilee. We shall realize that the jubilee proclaimed by the Man-Savior in chapter four of Luke is a principle that governs all the following chapters.
We all need to learn how to enjoy the jubilee. When we enjoy the jubilee, we shall be able to go out to proclaim the jubilee. We shall sound the trumpet of the gospel and tell others that now is the time for God to accept them, that now is the time for them to be returned to God as their possession and to be freed from every kind of slavery, bondage, and entanglement. Those who have been returned to God and who have been released from bondage are free to enjoy God. To proclaim this is to sound the trumpet of the jubilee, to announce the jubilee of God’s New Testament economy. May we all enjoy the blessings of the jubilee and then sound forth the jubilee as the gospel.
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