As I am revising my book, I was reminding of what has recently become a favorite passage of mine.Luke 1:67-75 is breathtakingly powerful in putting Christ’s salvation in the context of 2nd temple Judaism. We have a prophet being “filled with the Holy Spirit” and proclaiming (of Christ):
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, because he has come to help and has redeemed his people. For he has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from long ago, that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us. He has done this to show mercy to our ancestors, and to remember his holy covenant — the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham. This oath grants that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, may serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him as long as we live.
This passage is breathtakingly powerful in clearly describing salvation as a fulfillment of the promises to Abraham while delineating in specific terms what that promise was. In particular the as long as we live part places the blessing squarely in the present. We see the end goal not our immortality but rather God’s glory. Not deliverance from God’s wrath but protection from anything that would hinder our serving God.