This week we conclude the season of Advent by focusing on Christ. Our 2009 Advent theme has been “The Songs of Christmas,” and each week we’ve been looking at a song from the gospel of Luke surrounding the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. Our final song this week comes from Luke 3:4-6. Luke takes this prophetic psalm which was delivered originally through the prophet Isaiah and applies is to the life of John the Baptist. This is John’s song:
4 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.
5 Every ravine will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be brought low; the crooked will become straight, and the rough roads smooth;
6 And all flesh will see the salvation of God.’
This week we reflect on Christ himself. For thousands of years, man had been waiting for the Messiah, the Christ. In fact, man had been waiting since the day Adam and all of humanity with him fell into sin. It was on that day God gave the first glimmer of hope, the first gospel. As God was cursing Satan who was in the form of a serpent, God said to him in Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.” Now the time was at hand. Jesus, the seed of Eve, was soon to crush Satan’s head!
But Jesus was to have forerunner. Someone to proclaim that the Messiah—the Christ—was at hand. That person was John the Baptist. He was the voice of the one crying in the wilderness, begging all man to repent of their sin and turn to God. He was preparing the way for Jesus. You see, it was customary for an ancient near eastern king to send a herald before him in a journey to clear away obstacles, make causeways over valleys, and level hills. Spiritually, that’s what John was doing. His duty was to bring back the people to obedience to the law and to remove all self-confidence, pride in national privileges, hypocrisy, and irreligion, so that they should be ready for King Jesus’ coming.
The purpose was so that “all flesh will see the salvation of God.” And John did just that! He pointed us brilliantly to Jesus the Messiah Christ. Friends, God has revealed in Jesus to all mankind that there is hope for forgiveness and reconciliation with God. Jesus is our salvation. But He’s not only our salvation. He’s the only savior of the entire world. If anybody is to be forgiven of their sin and saved, it will be by grace through faith in Jesus.
God has wonderfully shown us the hope of salvation in Jesus. Now may we experience the gift of salvation in Jesus. Joy to the world, the Lord has come; let earth receive her King!