“And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying: ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
For He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people,
And has raised up a horn of salvation for us
In the house of David His servant—
As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old—
Salvation from our enemies,
And from the hand of all who hate us;
To show mercy toward our fathers,
And to remember His holy covenant,
The oath which He swore to Abraham our father,
To grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies,
Might serve Him without fear,
In holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.
And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
For you will go on before the Lord to prepare His ways;
To give to His people the knowledge of salvation
By the forgiveness of their sins,
Because of the tender mercy of our God,
With which the Sunrise from on high will visit us,
To shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,
To guide our feet into the way of peace.’” (Luke 1:67-79 NASB1995)
Zacharias was the father of John the Baptist, and he spoke these prophetic words right after his wife Elizabeth had given birth to their son, John, whom God called to be “a voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said” (John 1:23 NASB1995). John was to preach and to baptize for repentance, to prepare the way of the Lord Jesus Christ, to get the people of Israel ready to receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Messiah, the promised seed of Abraham (see Galatians 3:16).
For the redemption of the Israelites spoken about here, which is available for all people ever since Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, is about Jesus’ sacrifice of his body and his blood on that cross to buy us back for God out of our lives of living in slavery to sin and for self, so that, by God-persuaded faith in Christ, we will now serve the Lord with our lives in walks of surrender to God in obedience to his commands in holy living. For by faith we are rescued from what enslaved us so we can live holy lives, pleasing to God.
And John the Baptist fulfilled God’s calling upon his life to prepare the hearts of the people to receive Jesus Christ as the promised seed of Abraham, their Messiah, although most of the Jews at that time chose not to believe in Jesus. And many of the rulers and teachers of the law, and people of influence in the temple of God (at that time), were strongly opposed to Jesus Christ, and so they continually harassed him and tried to trip him up with his words, in hopes that they would have cause to accuse him of wrongdoing.
But John the Baptist was to give the Israelites (the Jews) of that time the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins. But this salvation is not a free pass to keep living in sin and in disobedience to God without conscience and without remorse, as many people teach it today. For by faith in Jesus we are delivered (saved) out of our addiction to sin so we can now live for God in walks of obedience to his commands. For repentance is turning away from sin so we can live for our Lord in surrender to his will.
For by God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ, which is not of our own doing, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to righteousness in walks of obedience to God’s commands. We are no longer to permit sin to reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires. For if sin is what we obey, it results in death. But if obedience to God is what we obey, it results in sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God (see Romans 6:1-23).
[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]
But that knowledge of salvation from sin was not meant to be for the Jews only, but to include the Gentiles, which God had planned all along. And by faith in Jesus Christ, Jew and Gentile became one, no longer separate, but one people of God, one holy nation, the Israel of God. And all Jews who rejected Jesus as their Messiah (the Christ) were cut out of Israel. But by faith in Jesus Christ they can be united with the Israel of God. So there is only one biblical nation of Israel, and it is all who believe in Jesus Christ.
[Genesis 17:7-9; Genesis 18:19; John 8:18-19,38-47; Romans 2:28-29; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 9:4-8,25-28; Romans 11:1-36; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 3:16,26-29; Galatians 4:22-31; Ephesians 2:11-22; Ephesians 3:1-6; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-16; Hebrews 8:6-13;1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 2:22; Jude 1:5; Revelation 2:9; Revelation 3:9]
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
Anonymous/Unknown
Tr. By John M. Neale, 1851
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who orders all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in its ways to go.
O come, Thou Branch of Jesse’s stem,
Unto Thine own and rescue them!
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them vict’ry o’er the grave.
O come, Thou Key of David, come
And open wide our heav’nly home;
Make safe for us the heav’nward road,
And bar the way to death’s abode.
O come, Thou Bright and Morning Star,
And bring us comfort from afar!
Dispel the shadows of the night
And turn our darkness into light.
O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid all our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
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The Knowledge of Salvation
An Original Work / December 18, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love