“. . .And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; For you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, To give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins . . .” Luke 1:76, 77 NKJV

The priest, Zacharias whose wife, Elizabeth, was barren, but God heard their prayer and sent the angel Gabriel to announce the birth of John the Baptist. But Zacharias doubted and was struck dumb and mute, in his unbelief, because he and Elizabeth were too advanced in age to give birth to a child. But in the proper season of time, John was born and at John’s circumcision, Zacharias obeys the angel Gabriel and names the child “John.”  Unbelief had closed the lips of Zacharias, now his faithful obedience opened them; then, he begun to prophesy about John’s ministry as a forerunner of Jesus: “to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins” (text, verse 77).

What is the knowledge of salvation? To adequately answer this question, you must go back to the Garden of Eden where man first sinned. The fall of man was about the knowledge of good and evil; the salvation of man is about the knowledge of God (Gen. 2:16, 17). God’s people widely understand how to get saved (Rom. 10:9, 10), but many lack the knowledge of salvation; as a result, the enemy destroys you for a lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6).  The fear of God is the beginning of knowledge and “[t]he fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Prov. 9:10). The knowledge of salvation, spiritually speaking, is like understanding the “ABCs” of the alphabet. For example, the knowledge of salvation is:

A—The remission of sins which is total forgiveness and God totally forgetting your sins ( Matt. 26:27, 28). The remission of sins is not being on spiritual probation, if you will, where if you ever commit another sin, God places in the “jail of hell.”

B—Salvation is always now—here and now! (2 Cor. 6:2; Heb. 4:7; Rev. 12:10).

C—The Gospel is God’s ordained method of bringing all who believe into His salvation. There is no other path; no other way. The Gospel is the strait-gate that you must enter (Matt.7:13).

D—Salvation has three tenses: Past, Present, and Future: Past—believers have been saved from guilt and the penalty of sin (Luke 7:36-50); Present—believers are saved daily from the power of sin in their lives (Rom. 6:14); Future—believers will be saved from the presence of sin in their nature (1 John 3:2).

E—Salvation is eternal—yes, everlasting life is everlasting. Once saved always saved as long as you decided to be saved (Heb. 5:9; 10:14). This is the knowledge of salvation, the ABCs of salvation!