In this message we will begin to consider the aspects of the experience and enjoyment of Christ revealed in Luke. Among the books of the New Testament, Luke occupies a particular place concerning Christ’s being our Savior. The subject of the Gospel of Luke is the Man-Savior and His salvation in the highest standard of morality. The intention of this Gospel is to present Jesus Christ as a real man with a proper humanity full of human virtues. As such a One, He is our human Savior.
Because Luke’s Gospel is one of the synoptic Gospels concerning the Savior’s humanity, its purpose is to present the Savior as a genuine, normal, and perfect man, revealing God among men in His saving grace to fallen mankind. This Gospel narrates a complete genealogy of the man Jesus, from His parents back to Adam, the first generation of mankind. This shows that He is a genuine descendant of man-a son of man. Its record of this man’s life impresses us with the completeness and perfection of His humanity. Hence, its emphasis is the Man-Savior.
“Because of the merciful compassions of our God, in which the rising sun will visit us from on high, to shine upon those sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace” (1:78-79). These verses reveal that our human Savior came not from the earth but from “on high,” indicating that His source is the heavens. He came from the heavens as the rising sun.
As the rising sun Christ appeared to those sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death. Jesus the Savior was the dawning sun to the dark age. His coming ended the night of the Old Testament and began the day of the New Testament. As the One who is light to us (John 9:5; Matt. 4:16), He is the accomplisher and the center of God’s redemption that His people may obtain salvation.
Before Christ came, the earth was in a dark night. With His coming as the sun, there was the dawning of day, and the earth began to be enlightened by Him. If He had not been the rising sun dispelling the darkness that covered the earth, He could not have been our Savior. In order to be the Savior, He had to be the One full of light shining not from the earth but from heaven.
Christ has shined upon us in order to guide our feet into the way of peace. When we were in darkness and in the shadow of death, we were walking on a way in which there was no peace. However, now that we have been saved, having received Christ as our Savior, we can testify that we are in the way of peace. Our feet are being guided to take the peaceful way. The Christian life is a life of peace. This is altogether due to Christ’s shining.
The birth of the Man-Savior was announced to shepherds by an angel as good news of great joy to all people (Luke 2:8-10). In verse 11 the angel declared, “Today a Savior has been born to you in David’s city, who is Christ the Lord.” In John 4:42 the Lord Jesus is referred to as the Savior of the world. Christ is the Savior in order to save us. He is the Savior of fallen mankind based upon His person and His redemptive work. He is the ever-existing Triune God who became a man to be our Savior, and He has accomplished full redemption for us, the sinners, through which He may now save us from God’s condemnation and from our fallen condition.
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