<p>1:74 <i>To grant to us, that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, should serve Him without fear</i>- The promises were &quot;to us&quot;. &ldquo;Salvation is of the Jews&rdquo; (Jn. 4:22) in the sense that the promises concerning salvation were made only to Abraham and his seed. We can only have those promises made to us if we become <i>in </i>the seed, by being baptised <i>into</i> Christ (Gal. 3:22-29). Then, all that is true of the Lord Jesus becomes true of us. Thus Zacharias quoted prophecies about the seed of Abraham and David as applying to all believers (Lk. 1:69,73,74). As noted on :72 and :73, the essential salvation promised in Christ was of mercy towards our sins. These are our enemies, from which we are to be delivered in Christ; we can serve Him now &quot;without fear&quot;- the fear of ultimate failure, of condemnation. The same word is used in 1 Jn. 4:18 of how we can now live without fear, secure in his love and salvation by grace. This is the good news of the Gospel. The idea of serving <i>without</i> fear is in conscious contrast to the repeated Old Testament commands for those under the law to serve God <i>with </i>fear (Dt. 6:13; 10:20; Josh. 24:14; Ps. 2:11 and often). It would have been a strange, novel and challenging idea; and yet it was in fact implicit in the promises to Abraham. This is the good news.</p>