Holy Boldness

His discerning of the will of God was through prayer by the Spirit and by the fear of the Lord. Jesus did not “work the program” or follow “four easy steps.” He walked in freedom and originality and spontaneity all in submission to the Father’s will. When the people started chasing Him for the wrong reason or tried to make Him king, He hid from them or rebuked them. He taught and He challenged. He rebuked and exhorted and wept and… He died on the cross at the hands of sinful men jealous and threatened by His influence. He laid in a tomb for three days and then God confirmed the life and testimony of Jesus by raising Him from the dead. He was appointed as the Son of God through His resurrection from the dead “… by the Spirit of holiness.” (Romans 1:4) The resurrection of Jesus from the dead was a clear sign of divine approval of all that Jesus said and did. The resurrection was also God’s deliberate act of vindicating and confirming Jesus as His son. (See Psalm 2:7 and Acts 13:33). Through the resurrection, God declared once more, “This is my beloved son; listen to Him!” (Mark 9::7) The life of Jesus modeled what God intended for man’s life. Even though He was unique among men, He nevertheless was sent to restore the true meaning of manhood. As such, if the fear of the Lord is critical to our walking in righteousness then we should find Jesus living by it and teaching it. He came to show us the way back into our divine purpose. And though He was the Son of God, there were no shortcuts to the salvation of mankind. We must allow the fact that Jesus walked in our shoes which means that he was genuinely subject to limitations of knowl edge and experience. He endured weakness and hunger and even dread or fear. 4 He grew into maturity. He learned obedience through suffering. By His admission, He had to “overcome the world” (John 16:33) and this was essential to His mission. He felt the weight of His calling. It was not a shoo-in that He would overcome. It was taxing upon Him. It was challenging. He was tempted The mission of Christ challenged Him to the core of His being. It cost Him. The life of Christ was not a superfi cial victory. It took courage in the extreme. Consider these words from the book of Luke, “I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish Jesus’ Model of living in the fear of the Lord

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See Luke 22:44

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