Luke 1

Notes.Division. 1. (Luke 1:1-80; Luke 2:1-52; Luke 3:1-38; Luke 4:1-13.)The Unique Obedient Man. The Person of the Lord is that which is set before us in the first division: the truth, but also the uniqueness of His manhood, born of a virgin mother by the power of the Spirit of God; unique also in the perfection of that obedience, “tempted in all things as we are, apart from sin.” It is evident that this is put before us -the reality of what He is -as neither of the previous Gospels develops it. Matthew dwells rather upon His dignity as the Ruler of the people of God. Mark declares Him to be the Son of God, but passes on then immediately to His service, speaking neither of His birth nor human parentage save incidentally at an after-time. John dwells upon His deity, the Word made flesh, the Only-begotten of the Father, where He has no brethren. All in it speaks of contrast rather than human kinship, though Man He truly is. But Luke presents the First-born; which of necessity implies brethren, -the One born of the Spirit, as we are new-born of the Spirit: an immense difference, surely, but which yet gives the connection declared by the apostle (Hebrews 2:11), that “both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause,” he adds, “He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” The link is not between the Lord as Man and men in general. It was not true as some say, that in becoming Man He became flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone. It is we, His people, who are flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone (Ephesians 5:30). For this also death had to come in: for “except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone” (John 12:24); and it was in the deep sleep fallen upon Adam, the image of such death-sleep, that Eve was taken out of his side (Genesis 2:21-23). Thus it is the Sanctifier and the sanctified that are all of one; and yet here also, as already said, there is a difference that is of immense importance. Truly Man as Christ was, and even the Son of man; the power of the Spirit preserved that pure humanity which He took in the virgin’s womb from the slightest taint or consequence of evil. Naturally, He was only “that Holy Thing,” a “Second Man,” unfallen; and more, by virtue of His divine nature, never separable from His humanity, “of heaven” (1 Corinthians 15:47) -a heavenly Man. We must remember, however, that for the doctrine of all this we must go beyond Luke, and indeed, gather from Scripture generally. As we do so, the gospel of the Manhood will more and more reveal to us the Person about whom these texts and truths gather in a constantly increasing radiance of glory. For Scripture has its central theme in Him, even as “all things were created by Him and for Him.” His word is as His work, in all parts testifying to Himself. Luke shows us the perfect Man; welcoming the searching eyes of a hostile world to prove Him; challenging those who gladly would, to find Him aught but the unblemished One; while God commits Himself to Him absolutely as the One in whom He has found His perfect satisfaction and delight. Yet He is not only in the flesh, but “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Romans 8:3). He is in wilderness circumstances, “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;” never sheltering Himself, by the power of the divinity that was in Him, from the common lot of men; never pleading the exemption due to His perfection; from any trial known to man: nay, upon a path which led ever downwards to the lowest humiliation, to death and the place of the Cross. All this was made the means of the fullest possible display of an obedience to God which had no limit, -of a love which Godward was the spring of such obedience, to men an unreserved devotedness; “the good Shepherd,” laying down His life for the sheep. These sheep are wanderers, and He must seek them, if they are to be His own. They must be won out of the ways of sin, made to know His voice, the work of His love done in them. Thus He is the Sanctifier; thus they are sanctified. And this work is shown in Luke as in neither of the former Gospels, though it could not, of course, be omitted in any. But with “Luke, the beloved physician,” the remedy for the sin-sick souls must needs have a great place; and so will any acquaintance with the blessed book before us realize it to have in it abundantly the revelation of God’s method with all spiritual diseases: the voice of recall and recovery to God sounds everywhere through it.

Luke 1:1-80

Subdivision 1. (Luke 1:1-80.)Divine promise fulfilling in sovereign grace. In the first subdivision we find the events immediately preceding and in relation with the birth of Christ. In them, in the midst of the ruin in which Israel is found (and Israel is but what man is: there is no exceptional betterness that can be claimed for any), God is seen working in pursuance of long-declared purposes, and in sovereign grace. The names of two of those who come before us in the first place in this account are highly significant in this respect. The first is Zacharias, “Jab has remembered”; his wife’s name is Elisabeth, the same as Elisheba, “God has sworn.” And in his song of praise Zacharias puts these things together. “Blessed be the Lord” -or Jehovah (of which Jah is a contracted form) -“for He has wrought redemption . . . to remember His holy covenant: the oath that He sware to our father Abraham.” Thus is He declared, then; to be acting here. Thus the spring of all blessing is in God Himself, who from the beginning has pledged Himself in His grace to men, that they might know and so have confidence in it. Thus the New Testament begins for us, with its roots in the Old, new indeed in the fulness of its blessing. He comes who is to bring in the blessing, into whose hands all that concerns human interests and the glory of God can be entrusted without fear. Yet it is Man that is to undertake for man: the Seed of the woman is to bruise the serpent’s head; Man is to glorify God where man has dishonored Him; and goodness is to triumph, not by other might but by its own.

1. The introduction to the Gospel is remarkable as showing the unity of thought that runs through the book, even in parts where naturally we should not expect it. Luke’s is the Gospel of the Manhood; and “the face of a man” greets us in the opening lines. The human purpose is accomplished in a thoroughly human way, and without the claim of anything more than human. Others have taken in hand to put forth narratives of the events which have been fulfilled among men of late, and which have been handed down to them by eye-witnesses who were also specially accredited as ministers of the Word. The attempts themselves show the desirability of giving permanent form to what as tradition was liable so soon to change and to perversion.

The writer had given special attention to this subject, and had traced out all things accurately from the first. He writes therefore to his brother-Christian Theophilus, that he might have certainty about the things in which as a Christian he had been instructed. He claims no commission from the Lord to write his Gospel. He sees a want existing which he is competent to supply, and he supplies it. He does not even speak or think apparently of writing for the Church as a whole, or what would meet the general need. It is for Theophilus. He says nothing of inspiration. Divine love in him sets him to do what he can to establish in the faith one in whom he is interested; and in result he has written what the whole Church has owned to be of God for all. It is a beautiful example of how naturally the Spirit of God works, or may work, in what we term inspiration. The instrument He uses is not like a mere pen in the hand of another. He is a man acting freely -for “where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty” -as if from his own heart and mind alone. He uses all the means he has got, and uses them diligently. You are quite prepared to find in his work the character of the writer: why should not He who has prepared the instrument, use it according to the quality of that which He has prepared? Why should He set aside the mind which He has furnished, any more than the affections of the heart which He has endowed?

Why, too, should He who fed the multitudes from the loaves and fishes already provided, set aside what the zeal and diligence of the disciple had “accurately traced out”? It was that before-made provision which the Lord blessed and which common men after their own fashion distributed; and who shall tell us just what it was, wondrous as was the change, that the blessing of the Lord had added to it? The Author of nature is not jealous of nature: He is Lord of it. Amid laws that He has imposed on it, He moves freely, working His own will, so that we are apt to ask, Where is He? when we should ask, Where is He not? And, even when the greatness of the work accomplished demonstrates that here is the Almighty Worker, we look at the ease and simplicity of the accomplishment, and wonder how can it be He? This is the lesson of Luke’s introduction; so suited as an introduction to the One who comes to us with the face of a Man, and speaks to us with a human tongue. As is He, so is His word: in which also the human element misread has been made to banish or diminish the divine; to put God into the distance, instead of bringing Him completely nigh. Luke says nothing explicitly of inspiration; but he knows the power of what he has to communicate to give certainty as to the Christian verities: a certainty which clearly neither tradition for more than a first generation or so could give, nor an inaccurate, however well-intentioned, account of them. This is the ground of his own writing: he has traced out “accurately” all things from the first. How short a time it was that this tradition had existed! Luke was himself the companion of Paul the apostle; yet already it was needful to take measures for giving a settled form to it, and trace out things accurately. We can see that he has not claimed as much as he has really done: for he has given us one part of a fourfold history of Christ, furnishing together what we need to know of Him in all His various value for the soul. He has pictured for us among these the Man, Christ Jesus, distinct from all other views, yet absolutely accordant; pursuing the line of truth entrusted to him with a simplicity of purpose which moulds every part of his Gospel; while the fulness of divine grace in it speaks and will ever speak as from the full heart of God to men. One thing we must add to this, which naturally connects with it, that we have in Luke the first and only Gentile writer, that we are aware of, in the Bible; and that he writes to Theophilus, evidently another Gentile; by the title of “most noble” applied to him, as to Festus by the apostle (Acts 26:25), still or recently in some similar position of honor. Thus the gospel was going out among the heathen while Israel had turned the back upon it. Here was grace indeed in its fullest expression; and it is characteristic of what is presented to us here. 2. (1) The history opens with what is highly significant. Zacharias is a priest, of the course of Abiah, in the days of Herod the king, and his wife is of the daughters of Aaron, and her name is Elisabeth. All is outwardly in order, though the days are evil days in Israel, as the name of Herod stamps them sufficiently. Yet the priests serve in their courses in the temple, according to what David had established, Zacharias being of the course of Abiah, “my Father is Jah,” significantly, the eighth course. Not only this, they are both righteous before God, blamelessly walking in the commandments and ordinances of the Lord. They are advanced in years, however, and without children: Elisabeth (“God’s oath”) is barren. The whole is a picture of Israel, the priestly nation, not at its worst but at its best, as seen in a remnant, such as God’s grace always maintained there, but which, under law dispensationally, could not inherit the promises. Nevertheless Jah could remember His oath, but only through the Kinsman Redeemer now to arise, and of whom the Gospel of Luke speaks. (2) Zacharias comes, then; in the order of his course into the temple, his lot being to burn incense when he went in. The lot is the expression of the sovereign will of God, which in man’s extremity has ever been his resource. Incense is the fragrance of Christ to God: not perhaps of atonement, but rather of Christ personally. And this is what is in view here. By and by it will be seen that atonement must be by His blood, and types and prophecies had long since declared this; yet in fact, historically when He did come the necessity of His death was kept much in the back-ground. Even the Baptist’s pointing to the Lamb of God would seem from his after questions not to have been to himself so clear as we should naturally imagine it must have been. In general, at least, the reserve at first seems to be unquestionable: the incense came before the blood; as on the day of atonement it did also. Zacharias, then; at the incense-altar sees the angel of the Lord. He stands at the right side of the altar -the right hand of power: for the power of that of which the altar speaks is with him: his visit is, as we see immediately, the expression of the sweet savor of Christ to God. (3) Yet fear falls upon Zacharias: alas, this cannot surprise us; we are but too well accustomed to such misinterpretations of divine goodness on the part of His own. God means us good, and we charge Him with evil. Through lack of being perfected in the lesson of His love, the fear which has torment takes possession of us. How often has He to say to us, “Fear not,” when He is about to give us perhaps the very blessing we have long sought. So is it at least with Zacharias: the angel has to tell him that his prayer is heard, and a son is to be born to him; a rejoicing not to himself only but to many: for he comes, filled with the Spirit, to turn many to God in Israel, going before Him in the spirit and power of Elias, to make ready for the Lord a people. 4 But Zacharias, though fearing God, is but too much after the pattern of his generation; and seeking a sign to satisfy him of what an angel has been sent from God to declare, gets the sign in his own person; being made dumb until the fulfilment of the angel’s words. Thus also the priestly office has failed in Israel, her oracle is silent, her witness is that of judgment upon herself. The multitudes gaze upon her, only to behold her dumb: till by and by her season is fulfilled, and “God’s oath” is no longer barren. 5 In the consciousness that God is taking away her reproach Elisabeth hides herself. It is in this way that grace works. If God is with one, and this is known aright, it will not exalt but humble. Nothing, indeed, will duly humble but His presence: in the light of this who can exalt oneself? 3. (1) The angel Gabriel* is sent from God in the sixth month (of Elisabeth’s pregnancy) with a more important message. Heaven, after the long silence of centuries, is once again communicative, and in Luke in a more familiar way than Matthew, where it is Joseph who receives the messages, but in a dream. Here we have open face to face speech, and the most important not in the temple, but in a private dwelling. God is coming near in His grace; and always the nearer He comes the more fully He reveals Himself.
Not only is the angel’s mission now not to the temple nor to Jerusalem, it is to Galilee of the Gentiles, and to Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man named Joseph, of the fallen house of David: the virgin’s name is Mary, or Miriam (“exalted”). All is in ruin here, when God comes in to revive and raise to higher glory. By the favor of God she is to have a Son; who will be called the Son of the Most High, and, through her the Son of David, shall receive His father’s throne, but with unending empire. Then; in answer to Mary’s question, it is declared that the Holy Spirit should come upon her, and power of the Highest overshadow her, so that the Holy Thing born should be called the Son of God. This is not, then; the truth of incarnation declared, though, of course, in perfect accordance with it; it is that of a Man born by divine intervention, without human father, -Son of God, but as Man. And this is Luke’s theme: it is the Gospel of the Manhood. Son of man, He is yet a Second Man; a Man without taint of the fall: a new Adam we cannot speak of as yet; for to this two things are needed, which are not as yet brought out: His full, proper Deity, and His atonement. We have had both, of course, in the previous Gospels: we shall find them all, I think, for the first time connected in the Gospel of John. Mary yields herself to the Lord’s will.; and the angel departs from her. (2) Before departing, however, he has referred her to Elisabeth, as a sign of the power of God at work, to which nothing is impossible, and Mary, who has asked for no sign to be given her, yet “drinks of the brook in the way,” and goes “with haste,” as one feeling the weight of what had been communicated to her, to seek refreshment in the company of her kinswoman, linked with her as she is in faith, and now by this new work of God which is beginning to accomplish the long looked for blessing. She enters the house of Zacharias and salutes Elisabeth. Here the tender mercy of God meets her with a surprise. When Elisabeth hears the salutation of Mary, the very babe within her leaps for joy, and the Spirit fills her at once with divine intelligence. She cries out to her, “Blessed art thou among women,” repeating the words of the angel* which had been matter of wonderment to her before. She adds, “And blessed is the fruit of thy womb,” and then expressly addresses her as the mother of her Lord, at whose voice the babe had leaped in her womb for joy. Blessed, she declares her to be also, in the faith which had received the divine message; and there would be an accomplishment of that which had been spoken to her from the Lord, -from Jehovah.**
(3) Thus, if the unbelief of Zacharias meets with rebuke, though tender rebuke, from God, the faith of Mary receives abundant encouragement. Her heart overflows as she realizes the grace that has made her answer to her name, and she pours out her soul in a song of praise which reflects much that of Hannah (1 Samuel 2:1-10). It is in fact largely an Old Testament strain, a psalm such as might well become a daughter of David; only with the new gladness of the promises to the fathers being just fulfilled, a covenant going back of Moses to Abraham and his Seed: a ground of blessing to all the families of the earth. There are three parts; the first of which speaks of the power of God which has intervened in grace to deliver and bless with a blessing that shall resound through following generations. Soul and spirit unite in joy and praise; and the great things done proclaim the holiness of His Name; His mercy is to many generations of those that fear Him. The second part shows, in view of what the world is, the complete reversal of things when God comes in. The pride of man is smitten down before Him; rulers are put down from their thrones, and the lowly exalted, the hungry are filled and the rich sent empty away. The third part gives the blessed fact in which all this is realized. God has remembered His promises to the fathers, seemingly so long forgotten, -mercies only, for Israel’s utter failure could allow no possible claim. All the more did they witness to what was in Him, and so could not fail. The help come to Israel was indeed but what enclosed a purpose of wider blessing which the promise to Abraham unconditionally declared. For in fact the Christ of Israel is the Son of man; the Seed of the woman bruises the serpent’s head; life, righteousness and sanctification are in Him who (crucified through weakness) is the wisdom of God and the power of God by grace through faith alike for all. 4. And now, Elisabeth’s full time having come, she brings forth the promised son. Her neighbors and kindred come round her, hearing of the Lord’s mercy, and rejoice with her. Upon the circumcising of the child on the eighth day the name was given, as then he came into covenant place and privilege; and the friends propose for the son of Zacharias his father’s name. But the mother says, “Nay, but he shall be called John,” and the father, when appealed to, confirms this. Immediately his mouth is opened and his tongue loosed; and he speaks out, blessing God. Thus too will Israel when she has learnt to call the offspring of her old age “the grace of Jehovah,” find her tongue loosed, and bless God. And the hand of Jehovah will again be with the remnant that He has raised up. 5. The prophecy of Zacharias, filled with the Spirit, celebrates, as has been already said, Jehovah’s remembrance of the covenant oath. The first part declares His faithfulness in this: He has become once more the God of Israel, as redemption witnesses. A horn of salvation; a Saviour, has been raised up in the house of David, a deliverance from all their enemies, that thus delivered they may serve Him without fear, in piety and righteousness. The second part is more evangelic; and John appears in it as more than the austere messenger of repentance. He is the fore-runner of Jehovah Himself, to prepare His ways; to give the knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins. This is quite according to the character of the peace-offering Gospel; and it is striking to find it at the very beginning. God is manifested thus in the tenderness of His compassion, in which the day-spring from on high chases away the shades of night where men sit hopeless, and guides the feet into the way of peace. Thus the unbelief which had clouded Zacharias, vision in the temple disappears, and the blessing of the people, which had been hindered by the chastening hand upon him, is restored and multiplied. Indeed it seems as if now Israel’s full blessing were at hand: as it was really, if only they had heart for it. Who could imagine that their own refusal was to put away from them for now nearly two millennia what was then close at hand? Yet come it shall, for God has promised it; and its coming cannot surely be much longer delayed.