11  Zacharias’s Song  of Salvation—Part 3  The New Covenant  (Luke 1:76–80)

“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.” And the child continued to grow and to become strong in spirit, and he lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel. (1:76–80)

Of the several covenants God has given for the outworking of redemptive history, the New covenant is unique. As noted in previous chapters of this volume, three of those covenants, the Noahic, Priestly, and Mosaic, are non-salvific; that is, they are not promises associated with salvation. The Noahic covenant is God’s pledge not to destroy the world again by water, while the Priestly covenant is a “a covenant of a perpetual priesthood” (Num. 25:13) promising that all legitimate high priests would come from the family line of Phinehas. Nor is salvation in view in the Mosaic covenant, “because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:20; cf. v. 28; Gal. 2:16; 3:11; 5:4). And though the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants require salvation for their blessings to be realized, nothing in them provides it.

There is a barrier, insurmountable by any human effort, which prevents everyone, including Israelites, from experiencing the benefits of the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants—sin. For those covenant blessings to be realized requires a new, different, and superior covenant—one that provides total forgiveness of sin (Heb. 7:22; 8:6). That is precisely the point the writer of Hebrews makes in Hebrews 8:7–13:

Commenting on the significance of God’s making a new covenant the Puritan theologian John Owen wrote, “Had it not been of the greatest importance to the glory of God and the good of the souls of men, God would not, for the sake of it, have laid aside one covenant and made another…. All this was done that we might be pardoned (The Forgiveness of Sin [Reprint; Grand Rapids: Baker, 1977], 179).

The most basic problem people face is not psychological or social. It is not how they act, think, or speak. Those things merely reflect (cf. Luke 6:45) the true problem; that is, that all are sinners (Rom. 3:23), with evil, sin-defiled hearts (Jer. 17:9). The apostle Paul gave a comprehensive description (drawn from Old Testament passages) of mankind’s endemic, systemic sinfulness when he wrote to the Romans,

Paul referred to sin’s pervasive presence as the “law of sin” (Rom. 7:23, 25), graphically expressing the power, authority, constraint, and influence that sin exerts. The apostle’s use of the term “law” was metaphorical; he was not speaking of a standard to be lived up to, but of a force to be reckoned with. Sin is an operative reality in man’s nature that has the power to drive and compel behavior, much like hunger, thirst, sexual desire, fear, anger, and sorrow do. Indwelling sin manipulates and controls behavior from the inside, unlike external standards or rules.

Since neither the promised blessings of the Davidic and Abra-hamic covenants, nor the threatened curses for violating the Mosaic law can change the heart, they cannot overpower the law of sin. No amount of willpower or determination to obey can enable a sinner to keep the Ten Commandments (or even Jesus’ summary of the law [Mark 12:28–31]). The law both demonstrates to sinners their inability to obey and their need for mercy, grace, and forgiveness, and even exacerbates sin and leads to death (Rom. 7:8–11). It displays our sin and helplessness in order, as Paul wrote, to become “our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith” (Gal. 3:24).

Israel’s experience illustrates that truth. The people had the best intentions, vowing obedience to God’s law and sealing their commitment with blood as recorded in Exodus 24:4–8:

But it proved impossible for them to overcome their sinful natures and soon they were breaking the commandments with a level of idolatry and immorality that led to divine judgment (Ex. 32).

In his farewell address to the nation nearly forty years later as the wilderness wandering ended, Moses described the blessings that would come from obedience (Deut. 28:1–14), and warned of the consequences of disobedience (vv. 15–68). As an object lesson, Moses commanded that after Israel entered the Promised Land, half the tribes were to recite the promised blessings of obedience from Mount Gerizim and the other six pronounce the threatened curses for disobedience from Mount Ebal (Deut. 27:11–26). After the conquest of the land of Canaan, Joshua, like Moses, also challenged Israel to obey:

In response “the people answered and said, ‘Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods’” (v. 16). When Joshua further cautioned them, “If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you after He has done good to you” (v. 20) they protested, “No, but we will serve the Lord…. We will serve the Lord our God and we will obey His voice” (vv. 21, 24).

Again, those good intentions were not enough to keep the people from slipping into apostasy. “The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the Lord which He had done for Israel” (Judg. 2:7). But after

Israel’s situation thus seemed hopeless. Were they never to receive the promised blessings of the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants? Could they somehow be forgiven for violating the Mosaic covenant and granted the means to obey? What they desperately needed was for God to provide another covenant that would provide both forgiveness and the power to obey. That reality underscores the need for the New covenant—the personal work of God to forgive sin, cleanse the heart, and provide spiritual power. (For a detailed exposition of the theological aspects of the New covenant, see 2 Corinthians, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary [Chicago: Moody, 2003], 93–117.)

Zacharias, a true believer in the Lord God, and a student of the Old Testament Scripture, understood the covenants and their fulfillment through the Messiah to come. His response to the announcement of a son to be Messiah’s forerunner was to break out in praise for the inevitable fulfillment of the messianic covenants. He had already referred to the Davidic and Abrahamic covenants (see the discussion of vv. 67–75 in chapters 9 and 10 of this volume). Now as he concluded his magnificent hymn of praise, he turned to the crucial New covenant, relating its promise, source, and blessings. But before discussing the New covenant Zacharias addressed his newborn son, John. He was to be the forerunner of the Messiah, whose sacrificial death would ratify that New covenant (Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25; cf. Heb. 8:6; 9:15; 12:24; 13:20).

John would be called the prophet of the Most High. Through John’s prophetic ministry the Most High (a term that stresses God’s absolute sovereignty; cf. the discussion of El Elyon [“Most High”] in chapter 4 of this volume) God would end four centuries of revelatory silence. John’s ministry would be to go on before the Lord to prepare his ways, in fulfillment of God’s promise through Malachi, “Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me” (Mal. 3:1; cf. 4:5). He was “the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said, ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness, “make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight!”’” (Matt. 3:3). John’s mission was to prepare the people for Messiah’s arrival. To that end he “preach[ed] a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 3:3), and his uncompromising message was that the people should “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3:2). John also challenged the legitimacy of some of his hearers’ repentance:

John’s message ran counter to the popular conception of the Messiah. The people were looking for a conquering hero, who would defeat their enemies, establish his throne, and usher in the promised blessings of the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants. That is why the crowd wanted to make Jesus king after He miraculously fed the five thousand (John 6:14–15). But before realizing the blessings of those covenants they needed to face the reality of their sin, repent, and seek the forgiveness provided only in the New covenant, already in operation, though ratified by our Lord on the cross. In God’s timeless, eternal view He applied the death of the Savior through all redemptive history to those who repented and sought His salvation by grace.

THE PROMISE OF THE NEW COVENANT

to give to His people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins (1:77)

As noted above, to experience the promised blessings of the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants (as well as to escape the threatened curses for violating the Mosaic covenant) requires that God sovereignly give to His people the knowledge of salvation. The knowledge in view here is not theological or theoretical, but the personal knowledge that comes by the forgiveness of … sins.

Moses, the giver of the law, recognized the need for this covenant. As he reiterated the principles of the Mosaic covenant to the new generation about to enter the Promised Land, Moses spoke of another covenant “besides the covenant which [God] had made with them at Horeb [the Mosaic covenant]” (Deut. 29:1). That the people of Israel would be unable to keep the Mosaic covenant is evident from Deuteronomy 30:1–3:

The reference to their banishment and captivity makes it clear that the people of Israel were not going to obey the law of Moses. God promised to regather them from the nations to which He had scattered them—but only when they returned to Him and obeyed Him with all their hearts and souls. (It should be noted that Israel’s reconstitution as a nation in 1948 is not the regathering in view in this passage; modern Israel is a thoroughly secular state, whose people as a whole have not returned to the Lord with all their hearts and souls. The regathering predicted here refers to Israel’s national salvation [Rom. 11:25–26]).

Before anyone can turn to the Lord and be saved, God must first circumcise their hearts (Deut. 30:6). Here is the essence of the New covenant—a spiritual surgery performed on the sinful heart of man. Only such a radical transformation (cf. 2 Cor. 5:17), can break the power of the law of sin and enable people to keep the law of God. Since the Mosaic, Davidic, and Abrahamic covenants did not have the power to change the heart, God provided the New covenant.

The most explicit Old Testament description of the New covenant is in Jeremiah 31:31–34:

By Jeremiah’s time, Israel’s situation was desperate. The northern kingdom (Israel) had already fallen to the Assyrians, and the days of the southern kingdom (Judah) were numbered. The people were apostate, and Jeremiah’s dire warnings of impending judgment and calls for repentance went unheeded. In the short term, then, the people’s forsaking of the Mosaic covenant had rendered their situation hopeless. But God through Jeremiah promised a new covenant—the one Moses had spoken of centuries earlier (see the discussion of Deut. 30 above)—His unconditional, unilateral, eternal, irrevocable promise to redeem lost sinners from judgment and hell.

The promised New covenant would “not [be] like the [Mosaic] covenant which [God] made with their fathers” (v. 32). In sharp contrast to the external law code of the Mosaic covenant, God promised that in the New covenant He would “put [His] law within them and [write it] on their heart” (v. 33), thus granting sinners a new heart (Ezek. 36:26). The powerful spiritual dynamic provided in the New covenant provides deliverance from the power, penalty, and, ultimately, the presence of sin. God irresistibly draws sinners to Himself (John 6:44), and to those who come (John 6:37) He promises, “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more” (Jer. 31:34; Ezek. 36:25). The New covenant thus provides the essential things that all the other covenants lacked—a new heart, power to obey God, fellowship with God, the Holy Spirit (Ezek. 36:27), and the forgiveness of sin. Those are the keys that unlock all the promised blessings of the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants and cancel the condemnation of the Mosaic law (cf. Rom. 8:1–2).

The New covenant is personal, promising the salvation of individual sinners through faith in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Everyone who ever has or ever will be saved has come to salvation under the terms of the New covenant (John 14:6; Acts 4:12; cf. Acts 10:42–43; Matt. 1:21; 1 Tim. 2:5–6).

But the New covenant also has national implications for Israel. The irrevocable promises of God that Israel would be saved and blessed, that Messiah’s kingdom will come, and that their land be restored all hinge on the nation’s believing in Jesus Christ. In the future, the believing remnant of the Jewish people will “look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn” (Zech. 12:10), and as a result “all Israel will be saved” (Rom. 11:26). Until that time of national repentance and acceptance of the New covenant and the One whose death made it possible, Israel cannot receive the blessings of the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants.

THE SOURCE OF THE NEW COVENANT

because of the tender mercy of our God, (1:78a)

It is God’s tender mercy that moves Him to show compassion to lost sinners. Tender translates splagchna, which literally refers to the inner parts of the body, such as the intestines, heart, liver, and lungs (cf. Acts 1:18). Figuratively, it describes the affections and the heart as the seat of those affections (2 Cor. 6:12; 7:15; Phil. 1:8; 2:1; Col. 3:12; Philem. 7, 12, 20; 1 John 3:17). In combination with eleos (mercy) it vividly depicts the intensity of God’s compassionate concern for sinners.

Mercy is a glorious attribute of God, celebrated throughout Scripture. He is “merciful and gracious” (Ps. 86:15; cf. 145:8), and “full of compassion and … merciful” (James 5:11; cf. Luke 6:36). The outworking of that mercy results in God showing kindness to sinners. Speaking of His tender mercy toward Israel, Isaiah wrote, “In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them; in His love and in His mercy He redeemed them” (Isa. 63:9). In Jeremiah 33:26, God said of downtrodden Israel, “I will restore their fortunes and will have mercy on them” (cf. Ezek. 39:25). Mary rejoiced that God’s “mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who fear Him” (Luke 1:50) and that “He has given help to Israel His servant, in remembrance of His mercy” (v. 54). Earlier in his hymn of praise, Zacharias also spoke of God’s past mercy to Israel (v. 72). Ephesians 2:4 declares that it is because God is “rich in mercy” that He redeems lost sinners, while in 1 Timothy 1:13 and 16, Paul praised God for His mercy in saving him. Titus 3:5 declares that God “saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy” (cf. 1 Peter 1:3; 2:10).

In his classic exposition of the attributes of God, The Knowledge of the Holy, A. W. Tozer expressed the wonder that all the redeemed should feel when they contemplate God’s mercy toward them:

There was nothing inherently wrong with the Mosaic covenant; “the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good” (Rom. 7:12). It was an absolutely perfect reflection of God’s righteous character. Had God merely enforced the terms of the Mosaic covenant and condemned all sinners to eternal punishment for violating His law, He would have glorified Himself by displaying His justice. But God chose to have mercy on hopeless, helpless sinners in the misery of their fallen state and institute the New covenant, with its promise of forgiveness, righteousness, and full eternal acceptance with God.

THE BLESSINGS OF THE NEW COVENANT

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.” (1:78b–79)

Zacharias anticipated the coming of the One whose death would procure the blessings of the New covenant—the Messiah. He identified Him using a metaphor rich in Old Testament messianic theology and symbolism. Anatolē (Sunrise) literally means “rising,” and refers here to the first light of dawn. On high (lit., “out of” or “from the height”) refers symbolically to heaven. Zacharias thus depicts the Messiah as a great light from heaven, who will shine the light of salvation upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death (cf. Isa. 9:2; Ps. 107:10, 14; John 12:46). He is the “the sun of righteousness [who] will rise with healing in its wings” (Mal. 4:2), shining into the deep darkness of sin and ending the soul’s long night. Second Peter 1:19 speaks of the time when “the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts,” while in Revelation 22:16, the Lord Jesus Christ called Himself “the bright morning star.”

Darkness in Scripture can be used metaphorically in two ways. Intellectually, it refers to ignorance and error (e.g., Ps. 82:5; Eccl. 2:14; Eph. 4:18). Morally, darkness symbolizes sin (e.g., Prov. 2:13; 4:19; John 3:19; Rom. 13:12; 2 Cor. 6:14; Eph. 5:8, 11), and the realm of Satan (e.g., Luke 22:53; Eph. 6:12; Col. 1:13). God is light (1 John 1:5), and consequently Jesus, God incarnate, came into the world as the Light of the world (John 1:9; 3:19; 8:12; 9:5; 12:46). He is “a light to the nations, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon and those who dwell in darkness from the prison” (Isa. 42:6–7).

To a lost world groping in the darkness and desperately hoping for light (Isa. 59:9–10), God, knowing there was no human solution to sin’s dilemma (v. 16), sent “a Redeemer … to those who turn from [their] transgression” (v. 20; cf. 53:4–6, 8, 10–12). Speaking of the New covenant that would bring that about, God declared, “‘As for Me, this is My covenant with them,’ says the Lord: ‘My Spirit which is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring’s offspring,’ says the Lord, ‘from now and forever’” (v. 21).

The light of salvation will continue to shine in the millennial kingdom, as Isaiah 60:1–5 reveals:

Indeed, throughout eternity the light of God’s glory will illuminate the New Jerusalem:

Not only would the Messiah bring the light of salvation to His people, He would also guide their feet into the way of peace. Lost sinners, stumbling around in the darkness, know nothing of true peace (Rom. 3:17). But peace is one of the elements of the New covenant. In Isaiah 54:10, God said, “‘For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, but My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, and My covenant of peace will not be shaken,’ says the Lord who has compassion on you.” “Peace I leave with you;” Jesus promised, “my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful” (John 14:27). Peace, Paul wrote, begins with salvation: “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). The kingdom of God is characterized by “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17). Peace is one of the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22), and the “peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard [believers’] hearts and [their] minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:7).

With the end of Zacharias’s song of praise, the curtain falls on the life of John the Baptist, not to be raised again until the beginning of his public ministry in chapter 3. The Bible passes over his childhood in silence, revealing even less details about it than it does of Jesus’ childhood. All that is known of John during the long years between his circumcision and the beginning of his public ministry is that he continued to grow and to become strong in spirit, and he lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel. He then assumed the role predicted for him as Messiah’s forerunner, proclaiming the New covenant of which his father so eloquently and passionately spoke.