Luke 1:74-80 - Redeemed, Delivered, and Saved to Serve

After Zacharias has his mouth open and his tongue loosed (v. 64), he immediately begins to praise God. And as the Holy Spirit fills him, he first speaks about the imminent fulfilment of the Old Testament prophesies concerning the Messiah and His salvation and deliverance for Israel and all people. But Zacharias makes it very clear that Jesus didn’t just come to redeem, deliver and save us to sit and soak, but that we might “serve Him without fear” (v. 74).   I will never forget years ago, as a young pastor, hearing or reading this quote: “Some people live to eat and some people eat to live”. Someone else wrote: “It is a great and cruel fallacy toward God and man to believe that we are saved merely to be satisfied. Such a debased thought is not worthy of the grace of God. The man who eats only to be satisfied is a selfish glutton and a worshipper of his stomach. We eat to live, and love, and labor. The provision of God made for us in Christ is to enable us to live before God, to love our fellowmen, and labor for Christ and His cause.”   This reminds me of a great message by a well-known pastor of our day. He said that we can live life on one of three levels. The first level is survival. This is where most people of the world live. They wake up wondering if they will be alive by the end of the day. They do whatever they must do to survive themselves and to provide and protect their family. The next level that a portion of the population lives, is the level of success! This is where most Americans live. We have plenty but we want more. We live for more money, bigger and better houses, more friends and greater fame. But there is a third level where a smaller group live, is the level of significance! These people live for God and others, and to make the world around them a better place! Which level are you living on?   Jesus gave a story on this same subject in Luke 10:30-37, of the “Good Samaritan”. There you discover the three philosophies of life that people live by. The thieves who beat and robbed the man traveling down the Jericho Road from Jerusalem, basically said, “What is thine is mine, and I am going to take it”. (This sounds like our present government and politicians today!) The priest and the Levite who came upon the poor man lying and dying in the ditch simply looked and walked by on the other side. They basically said, “What is mine is mine, and I’m going to keep it for myself”.   But then, when the Good Samaritan came by, he went where the poor wounded man was, put oil on his cuts and bruises, pick him up and put him on his donkey, and took him to the nearest inn and promised to pay whatever was needed to care for him. His philosophy of life is what ours should be: “What is mine is thine and I am going to give it!”   The Lord Jesus Christ came to redeem, deliver, and save us. He came to set us free from the slavery of sin, self, and the devil. But now we are free, not to serve and satisfy ourselves, but to be sanctified, made holy, love Jesus, love others, and serve the Lord and those closest to us in need!   Paul describes this clearly in Romans 6:13-23. In verses 17-19, he writes: “But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.”   What is your philosophy of life?   God Bless!