When Zacharias, filled with the Holy Ghost, prophesied at the birth of John the Baptist, he said, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He has visited and redeemed His people." (Luke 1:68)
John's message was to prepare the way of the Lord. It is specifically prophesied of in Isaiah: "The voice of him that cries in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it." (Isaiah 40:3-5)
Further on it says, "Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him: behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him." (Isaiah 40:10)
The work which John began, therefore, was not only to prepare people for the first advent of Christ, but was to continue until the Lord should come with strong arm to redeem, bringing His reward with Him. "And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." (Revelation 22:12)
So the same work is still going on. "The glory of the Lord shall be revealed." (Isaiah 40:5)
And we have it revealed to us now in the things which God has made. The everlasting Gospel is but a call to worship Him that made heaven and earth and all things. The light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon all men.
Then we may say the same thing which Zacharias spoke by the Spirit, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He has visited and redeemed His people." (Luke 1:68)
Anyone can say, "He has visited me, and redeemed me." "We have redemption through His blood [in] the forgiveness of sins;" (Ephesians 1:7) because the blood of Christ stands for the life of Christ. We have redemption through His life, for He gave His life a ransom for many. "Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:28)
When did He visit us? Long He has been saying to everyone, "Behold I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." (Revelation 3:20)
He is a welcome visitor, too, because He brings His provision with Him, when we have nothing. When we say continually, "Lord, abide with us," "But they constrained Him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And He went in to tarry with them." (Luke 24:29) He does abide. He will stay as long as we are willing to have Him, and His presence is life and redemption. This is as really true today as when Zacharias spoke; and whoever believes it must be as happy over it as he was.
Redeemed! A slave set free! It requires no great stretch of imagination to see how a slave, a captive, driven, scourged, and bound, would feel with his fetters removed, and his freedom given to him. He would be a happy man. He would not receive the news of freedom stoically, and with a long face--not if he believed the message. His heart would be so full he would leap for joy.
The Lord wants us to rejoice; not because we think we ought to rejoice, but because we have so vivid a sense of His redemption that we know it to be a fact. We have been captives of a cruel master, and now we are redeemed. We know it because the Lord says so. He has bought us, and given us His own life.
Now when the enemy comes in the form of doubt, in the form of indifference, envy, pride, slavish fear,--in a thousand different forms,--trying to force us back into bondage, we are to maintain the fact that we are free. Eternal life is our right, through Christ. "Let us stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free." (Galatians 5:1)--Present Truth, March 8, 1894--Timeline: Nativity-4 (Birth of John the Baptist)--Luke 1:68.