The One Who Opened the Door of Salvation Is God

Introduction Luke 3 opens by spreading out a map of worldly power. Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate, Herod, Philip, Lysanias, Annas and Caiaphas — seven names pour out in the first two verses. The world assumed these were the men who made history. And then Luke immediately writes: "The word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness." Not the emperor's palace. Not the governor's hall. The wilderness. God began to move in the place the world was not watching. This is the first question this passage puts to us. Where does salvation come from? Who opens the door of salvation? I. God Initiated It (vv. 1–2) "The word of God came unto John." John did not step forward first. The word came first. That is the order. Luke defines John by borrowing from Isaiah — "the voice of one crying in the wilderness" (v. 4). John is a voice. He is not the Word. John himself confirms this in the first chapter of John's Gospel: "I am not the Christ." "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness." A voice cannot exist on its own. There must first be a word for a voice to carry. The very appearance of John is a declaration — God has now begun to move. Four hundred years of silence had ended. From the last prophet Malachi, there had been no word from God through all those long centuries. Now God Himself has initiated. Salvation is not something human beings manufactured. God started it. II. God Prepared It (vv. 4–5) Luke interprets the coming of John as the fulfilment of Isaiah 40:3–5. "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low." (Luke 3:4–5) "Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low" — these are passive verbs. John is not doing this. God is doing it. The One who fills the valleys and lowers the mountains is God. Isaiah spoke these words seven hundred years before John appeared. God had been planning this from seven centuries before it came to pass. Salvation was no impulse. It was prepared before the foundation of the world. "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world." (Ephesians 1:4) The coming of John was no accident. What God had prepared seven hundred years earlier is now being fulfilled. III. God Completes It (vv. 3, 6) What John proclaimed was "the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins" (v. 3). Yet John himself makes it unmistakably clear — I am a signpost. I am not the salvation itself. Verse 6 is the full stop of this passage. "And all flesh shall see the salvation of God." (Luke 3:6) Luke quotes Isaiah 40 and stops here — deliberately. Two words are the key. "Of God" — the subject of salvation is God. "All flesh" — the scope of salvation is every person. Not the Jews only. The Gentiles are included. This is the direction the Gospel of Luke declares from its very opening. John is a signpost. You must not stop at the signpost. The One the signpost points to is Jesus Christ. The completion of the forgiveness of sins is found in Him alone. Conclusion Salvation belongs to God. It began not in the emperor's palace but in the wilderness. It was prepared seven hundred years in advance. And it has been opened toward all flesh. Are you standing before the signpost, or before the Christ to whom the signpost points? Salvation does not rest on the quality of our repentance. It rests on the work that God initiated, prepared, and completed. That salvation stands open for us today.