Luke 1:74 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Luke 1:74

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Here is the content of God’s covenant oath to the fathers, and it fills Zacharias with wonder. It is God’s gift that we should have peace of mind, that our enemies should be removed and all threat that they pose to us, and that we should be free from fear. Fear of what? Fear of losing our blessings. Fear that our enemies can do us real harm. What would they do to us? Satan would happily plunge us all into deepest darkness forever. He would gladly ruin the plan of God if he could, and destroy mankind, the pinnacle of God creation, entirely. Satan and his host are ready to use any and every weapon against us. They have no scruples about how they destroy us; they will use deception, trickery, lies, and fraud if they can. They have lost all commitment to fair play.But God’s people are free also from fear that God will condemn them. We have a sense of security that contradicts all fear of that sort. These fears are gone. There is a fear that remains, for the Scripture speaks of the fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom. When we consider the attributes of God we are in fear of his infinite being, his power, his holiness, his justice and truth. We fear because these attributes are so immense, so overwhelming, potentially so destructive to our fragility. But God is for us and who can therefore be against us? All these things about our God amaze us if we understand them even a little, but they should not terrify us, because they will not be turned against us since God is for us. We keep hold of that confidence that he loves us, and therefore, although he has terrifying power, he will not use it to harm us. In itself his holiness would be a cause of terror, but because he is the God of love, then all will be somehow turned to our advantage.We will continue in holiness and righteousness before him. Holiness is separate from evil, and righteousness embraces all good. The saints are at ease with themselves, for they have everything that they need. They rejoice in what God has made them and they would not be anything other than what they now are. This is his gift to them all the says of their life. That covers life on earth, but it also covers eternity for the saints possess eternal life.

Application

Perfect love drives out fear, all fear of the wrong sort. The wrong sort of fear is fear that expects judgment from God. Whether we have attained it yet or not, the gospel is designed to bring us into a state which is free of that kind of fear. That sort of fear contains some doubt that God will go on being gracious to us. But he wants us to have the utmost confidence that he will continue to love us. How can we abide in his love when we think that it might at any moment be taken away from us? We have peace because we know that God does not change his mind, that he is constant.

Prior to our redemption, our enemies counted us as securely in their hands, at their disposal, unable to free ourselves from their oppression, from the harm that they would do us. But God has discomforted them, and snatched their good out of their hands. They counted their chickens before they hatched, and they failed to see how skilful is the Lord they were at war with. Satan surely believed that what he had done to secure man’s soul in hell was completely impossible to undo. God has taken him completely by surprise by means of grace. Grace has gone to lengths which Satan would never have imagined.

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Luke 1:74 Commentary and Bible Study