Holy Boldness

Chapter 2 T he H umanity of J esus and the fear of the L ord

“ Unto us, a child is born; unto us, a son is given.” (Isaiah 9:6) “ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son …” (John 3: 16a) “ God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in a son…” . (Hebrews 1: 1, 2a) The plan of God to change the world was through the giving of a son . Not an angel, not a supernatural being, not a prophet, not merely a servant, not a miracle worker, not a politician, or a charismatic leader, but a son would be given. The primary assignment of Jesus was to live as a son among men and in so doing restore the intimacy of man with God through revealing the true nature of sonship. But Jesus did not come out of the womb of Mary as a full grown man. “Unto us a child was born…”. He was born as a real child and He had to grow up into His calling like every other child. There was a time when Jesus was not ready to be the savior of the world. Jesus’ upbringing was in the context of the fear of the Lord. It included teaching and submission to His parents and learning how to interface with people and family. As we will see, Mary and Joseph were steeped in the honest and humble culture of the Jewish nation that was committed to the purpose of God being fulfilled in the earth. Jesus was raised in the culture of the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord was a primary expression of Jesus and as we will show, it was critical to His accessing the fullness of His calling. He was brought up in it. He lived it. He taught it. It was literally in the

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