Christ as Jubilee Redeemer
Based on Creation’s Jubilee by Dr. Stephen E. Jones
Introduction
Who is Jesus Christ, and what exactly did He accomplish on the cross? This question stands at the centre of the work of American Bible teacher Dr. Stephen E. Jones. In his book Creation’s Jubilee he answers this question from an unexpected angle: the Old Testament law of the Jubilee (Lev. 25). That law, he argues, is not merely a socio-economic prescription for ancient Israel — it is “the most fundamental law of all creation” and the key to understanding the person and work of Christ.
The Law of the Jubilee as Theological Framework
The Jubilee in Israel was the fiftieth year, in which all debts were cancelled, slaves were freed, and sold lands returned to their original owners (Lev. 25:8–13). Jones reads this as a prophetic pattern running through the entire history of salvation:
“The law of the Jubilee is the basis for forgiveness and grace. It is the institution and purpose of the law itself. It possesses a climax of earthly history and a complete end to the rule of darkness and sin.”
Central to this framework is the figure of the kinsman-redeemer — the nearest blood relative who has the duty to buy free an impoverished or enslaved family member. It is from within this legal category that Jones explains the meaning of the incarnation and the atoning death of Christ.
The Incarnation: The Right to Redemption
Why did the Son of God have to become human? Jones gives an answer rooted in the Hebrew law of the kinsman-redeemer. Only a near blood relative — not a friend, and certainly not an angel — holds the legal right to buy someone free:
“Jesus came to earth to redeem, to ransom His people (Luke 1:68). He did not come as an angel, but as a man, specifically from the lineage of Abraham. He did this in order to have the legal right under the law to effect redemption. Had He come as an angel, He would legally have been only a FRIEND of sinners, who under the law would have had no right to redeem.”
Jones grounds this argument in Hebrews 2:16–17:
“For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.”
For Jones the incarnation is not merely a pedagogical or solidarity act, but a legal necessity: Christ had to be of flesh and blood in order to exercise the right of redemption in a legally valid manner:
“From this we can conclude that Jesus was born of flesh and blood in order to be able to lawfully redeem the whole world.”
Atonement: The Blood as Price for Creation
The death of Christ on the cross is, for Jones, the payment of the ransom price required by the Jubilee law. The scope of this atonement is crucial. Jones appeals to 1 John 2:2:
“At every level the Jubilee obtains its power through the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross: ‘He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.‘”
And to 2 Corinthians 5:19:
“We have been given the ministry of reconciliation with the message of good news for the world. It is NOT the bad news of endless torment and damnation, but the good news that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, who paid the price for their release and salvation.”
The reconciling power of Christ’s blood is thus for Jones cosmic in scope — not limited to the elect. This follows logically from his kinsman-redeemer framework: a redeemer who pays the full price has the right to complete redemption — not merely a portion of it.
Christ as the Second Adam
A second christological category is the Pauline contrast of Adam and Christ (1 Cor. 15:22–28). All who died in Adam will be made alive in Christ — universally, though not simultaneously:
“Just as all mankind died in Adam, so in Christ, the Second Adam, all mankind will be made alive — but not all at the same time. Some will be made alive at the first resurrection, others at the general resurrection, but all others at the great Jubilee of Creation.”
Jones connects this to John 1:3: through the Logos all things were created, and through Him all things will be reconciled:
“Through the Logos, the Word, Jesus Christ, all things came into being (John 1:3), and through Him all things will be reconciled to Him. At the end nothing will fall outside His dominion.”
Universal restoration is thereby the logical consequence of the christology: if the Second Adam has the same scope as the First Adam, His restorative work encompasses all the descendants of Adam.
The Jubilee of Creation: Eschatology and Christology
The eschatological horizon is the Jubilee of Creation — the moment at which all debt is definitively cancelled. This jubilee cannot be separated from Christ:
“We are His brethren. For this reason the law requires that Jesus Christ redeem everything that was lost in Adam. The only relevant question is whether Jesus Christ has actually done this. I believe He has, because the blood never loses its power.”
The end of history is the moment at which Christ presents a completed Kingdom to the Father:
“When all people have accepted Christ as Saviour and King, He will present a perfect and completed Kingdom to His Father.”
Then the promise of Revelation 5:13 will be fulfilled:
“Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: ‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honour and glory and power, for ever and ever.‘”
Theological Positioning
Jones’ christology shows kinship with the patristic Christus Victor tradition (Irenaeus, Origen), but distinguishes itself through the emphasis on the legal dimension of the kinsman-redeemer law. Christ is not primarily the victor who defeats the devil, but the Near Blood Relative who exercises the legal right to buy back God’s lost inheritance. This legal framework simultaneously grounds a universalist soteriology: the kinsman-redeemer law sets no limit on the number of people who can be redeemed, and the Jubilee knows no exception:
“In other words, no one can be so great a sinner that he cannot be set free in the Jubilee. No one can accumulate so many debts that he cannot be set free in the Jubilee.”
Conclusion
For Stephen Jones, Christ is the Jubilee Redeemer par excellence: He became human in order to obtain the legal right to redemption; He died to pay the ransom price for the sins of the whole world; He rose as the Second Adam whose restoration is as universal as the fall of the First Adam; and He will return to present to the Father a Kingdom in which all things are reconciled. The law of the Jubilee is thus not merely biblical background scenery, but the legal foundation of the entire christology.
Source: Dr. Stephen E. Jones, Creation’s Jubilee (5th English edition, 2000). All quotations translated from the Dutch edition (Het Jubeljaar van de Schepping, translated by Remmer Remmers of Berea-Studies) and rendered into English.