In the Gospel of Luke, Christ is presented as the One who proclaimed the jubilee (Luke 4:18-22). The jubilee is a release. In the Old Testament jubilee any man who had sold his land or had sold himself into slavery would be released from captivity and brought back to his own inheritance (Lev. 25:8-17). The background of the Lord's New Testament jubilee is that all men are captives. Why is everyone so busy? Because they all are captives. The students are captives, and the professors are also captives. Even the world rulers are captives. All of fallen mankind has been carried away and is held captive by Satan. Therefore, all have lost their inheritance, which is God Himself. Although God is man's portion and man's inheritance, all of fallen mankind has lost God. They all have become captives; they all have become poor. According to Luke's Gospel, Jesus came to proclaim the jubilee, to announce the release of the captives, to set them all free from Satan, and to bring them all back to God.
Luke chapter fifteen tells the story of the prodigal son. He was one who lost all the inheritance in his father's house. But one day he was brought back. That was his being set free. He was brought back to his father's house to enjoy the riches of the father's house. That was his being brought back to his inheritance. Before we were saved we were all captives, carried away from God by many sinful things and even by things that may be considered good. But one day the Lord Jesus brought us back. He set us free from our captivity and brought us back to God. Now we enjoy our inheritance. Now we are in the enjoyment of the jubilee. This was the work of Christ, to announce the jubilee and to carry out the jubilee among us.
After Mark presents Christ coming to preach the gospel of God and to sow the seed of the kingdom of God, Luke presents the same Christ coming to proclaim the jubilee, to set the captives free, and to bring them all back to God as their inheritance. This is Christ's dynamic salvation which is by the virtue of His highest standard of morality.
This dynamic salvation is seen in Luke chapter nineteen in the case of Zaccheus. Zaccheus was a sinful tax collector, robbing people by means of extortion. He was an infamous tax collector, rejected and condemned by his community. One day he heard that Jesus was coming. But he was a short man, and a large crowd was gathered to see Jesus. So in order to see Jesus, he climbed a sycamore tree. As Jesus came to the place where he was, He looked up and called him by name, "Zaccheus, hurry and come down; for today I must stay in your house" (v. 5). Although Zaccheus was rejected by everyone, this Jesus nevertheless called him by name and told him that He was coming to visit his family. Simply by Jesus visiting the house of Zaccheus, there was a great change in the life of Zaccheus. He immediately told the Lord Jesus that he would give half of his wealth to the poor, and that whatever he had taken from anyone by false accusations, he would restore four times as much (v. 8). Following this, the Lord Jesus said, "Today salvation has come to this house." This is the Lord's dynamic salvation.
The salvation we have received is not a weak salvation but a powerful salvation, even a dynamic salvation. This dynamic salvation is by virtue of the highest standard of the Lord's morality, which is composed of His divine attributes mingled with His human virtues. The virtues of Confucius cannot compare with those of Jesus. To compare the virtues of Confucius with those of Jesus is like comparing gold and brass. The standard of Jesus' morality is much higher than that of Confucius. The morality of Confucius was merely human, but the morality of Jesus is heavenly and divinely human. The Lord's morality was produced by the divine attributes in the human virtues, and it was a morality of the highest standard. This highest morality is the virtue of Christ's dynamic salvation.