But as the name Prophet is general, Zacharias, following the revelation brought to him by the angel, affirms that he would be the usher 2 or herald of Christ. To give knowledge of salvation . Zacharias now touches the principal subject of the gospel, when he says that the knowledge of salvation consists in the forgiveness of sins . That this is the only righteousness which remains to us before God, may be easily gathered from the words of Zacharias. But if the children of God have no other way of obtaining the knowledge of salvation except through the forgiveness of sins , it follows, that righteousness must not be sought in any other quarter.
Proud men attempt to forge and manufacture a righteousness out of the merits of good works.
True righteousness is nothing else than the imputation of righteousness, when God, out of free grace, acquits us from guilt. Through the bowels 5 of mercy . In so great a benefit Zacharias justly extols the mercy of God, and not satisfied with merely calling it the salvation which was brought by Christ, he employs more emphatic language, and says that it proceeded from the very bowels of the mercy of God. He then tells us metaphorically, that the great mercy of God has made the day to give light to those who were sitting in darkness . Zacharias extols the mercy of God, as manifested in dispelling the darkness of death, and restoring to the people of God the light of life.