The Day of Salvation

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 13, 1887

The Day of Salvation

THE “day of salvation” is the entire time during which God’s mercy to man is manifest in the gospel. In this day—this acceptable time—Christ is heard in behalf of the people, and is given for the objects mentioned in verses 8 and 9. One of these objects is the opening of the prison, and saying to the prisoners, Go forth. It might appear to some, from the words that immediately follow (verse 10), that this has reference to the opening of the graves at the last day; but from almost identical language used elsewhere in prophecy, and applied by our Lord himself, we are obliged to place the opening of the prison within the “day of salvation.” We quote Isa. 61:1, 2: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

When our Lord went into the synagogue at Nazareth and read this much of the prophecy, he closed the book, and said to the people: “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” Luke 4:16-21. The fact that he said this, and that he refrained from reading the next clause,—“and the day of vengeance of our God,”—shows that all that he read is fulfilled in the day of grace. But the dead are not raised until the day of mercy is past. Therefore the “opening of the prison to them that are bound” must be during the “day of salvation.”