As I am revising my book, I was reminding of what has recently become a favorite passage of mine.
Luke 1:67-75 is breathtakingly powerful in putting Christ's salvation in the context of 2nd temple Judaism. We have a prophet being "filled with the Holy Spirit" and proclaiming (of Christ):
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, because he has come to help and has redeemed his people. For he has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from long ago, that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us. He has done this to show mercy to our ancestors, and to remember his holy covenant -- the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham. This oath grants that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, may serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him as long as we live.
This passage is breathtakingly powerful in clearly describing salvation as a fulfillment of the promises to Abraham while delineating in specific terms what that promise was. In particular the as long as we live part places the blessing squarely in the present. We see the end goal not our immortality but rather God's glory. Not deliverance from God's wrath but protection from anything that would hinder our serving God.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
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4 comments:
Hi David.
You wrote, "protection from anything that would hinder our serving God."
What does that mean? Followers of Christ were serving God, yet being persecuted and tortured and killed. That's a bit of a hindrance. What is the nature of this protection you speak of?
Welcome back, Bev! Hadn't seen you around here in a while.
That's a good point, and perhaps the covenant promise will only be fully fulfilled in New Jerusalem. I was speaking more in spiritual terms of our slavery to self/sin that hinders people from serving God.
Ahh, OK. That makes perfect sense, then. :-)
Luke 1:67–75 (NASB)
67 And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying: 68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people, 69 And has raised up a horn of salvation for us In the house of David His servant
The problem is that Zechariah and all the Jews and prophets before him were wrong. Jesus was not from the house of David. He even asked how can he be David's son?
Both of the embarrassing genealogies lead to Joseph who was not the father of Jesus.
Jesus gets his house from Mary who was a Levite.
Preachers try to claim Mary is from Judah but neither genealogy traces the lineage to Mary anyway.
Its a man made doctrine.
Just because Luke says Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit doesn't make it so.
Only one man's words are spirit and truth. Any statements made by the Apostles are commentary and to be taken cautiously and weighed against the words of Jesus. If he says he's not from David then it doesn't matter how many writers say he is, they are wrong.
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