Welcome to another Thursday UNFILTERED blog post, the only blog that recently rented a car. It didn’t really need one, it just wanted to make one less available so one businessman would have to take an uber.
“The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, turning a person from the snares of death.”
~ Proverbs 14:27
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
~ Romans 3:18
In the New Testament, grace is power as well as pardon.
It is through God’s unfailing grace that we receive His forgiveness as well as access His power to overcome sin’s dominion.
There is, however, a version of grace that desensitizes a person to the fear of the Lord.
It’s what I’ve called “the gospel of libertinism” elsewhere, particularly in my books Insurgence and Jesus Now. It’s the opposite of another poison, “the gospel of legalism,” also treated in those books.
In this article, I want to talk about the fear of the Lord.
Yes, yes, I know, some of you don’t like topics like this. They conjure up all sorts of negative emotions and associations because some modern-day Moses breathed fire and brimstone your way once, leaving you under three tons of guilt.
But stay with me.
The fear of the Lord is a precious thing. And it’s not relegated to the Old Testament.
It’s actually one of the blessings of the New Covenant.
I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.
~ Jeremiah 32:39-40
Notice the last line. “I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.”
God is so holy, so awesome, and so powerful that if we truly know Him, we will be in fear and trembling to turn away from Him.
Think of Him as the source of all light and life. To walk away from Him, then, is to head toward darkness and death.
Blessed is the one who always trembles before God,
but whoever hardens their heart falls into trouble.
~ Proverbs 28:14
To use an analogy, imagine that you’re the passenger of a motorcycle that’s moving at high speed. The driver is perfect. So long as you have your arms around the driver, you’re safe. But if you let go of him, you’ll fall backward, hit the pavement, and your injuries might be severe.
You aren’t afraid of the driver, per say. But if you’re smart, you’ll fear letting go of him. The wise thing is to trust him and never let go.
Consider these mentions of the fear of God in the New Testament:
So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.
~ Acts 9:31
Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.
~ 2 Corinthians 5:11
Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.
~ 2 Corinthians 7:1
Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
~ 1 Peter 2:17
And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”
~ Revelation 14:7
Even Jesus exhorted His audience to fear God.
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
~ Matthew 10:28
Here’s a prophetic word referring to Jesus, who Himself walked in the fear of the Lord when He lived as a man on earth.
The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of might,
the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.
~ Isaiah 11:2-3
What, exactly, is the fear of the Lord?
I don’t think it’s terror in the sense that a young son is scared out of his wits when his abusive father walks though the door. So much so that the child hides in his room shaking uncontrollably.
At the same time, I think it’s more than reverence, honor, or “reverential awe” (as it’s commonly defined).
To my mind, the fear of the Lord — when it comes to the believer — involves the idea that our loving Father disciplines His children whenever we stray from Him. And even though that discipline is good for us and done out of love, it’s still painful (Hebrews 12:11).
The Lord’s discipline is mentioned in the New Testament more than once. (See Hebrews 12:5-11 and Revelation 3:19, where Jesus is the one who disciplines.)
Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
~ Hebrews 4:13
The fear of the Lord, then, is pure and holy. It’s the realization that God is alive and sees all. And while He is infinitely compassionate, He’s also dangerous when a person defies Him and His ways.
Just like handling dynamite, fearing God is healthy and safe opposed to the reckless soul who has no fear of the Lord and ends up blowing himself up because he didn’t respect the dynamite (see Proverbs 14:27, NIV).
We, as believers, are not appointed to God’s wrath (1 Thessalonians 5:9). Thankfully, Jesus rescues us from it.
Nevertheless, Paul’s words in Galatians 6 align with the idea of fearing God.
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
~ Galatians 6:7-9
Built into sin are profound consequences, harmful ones that we experience in this life under God’s sovereign hand.
In short, the gospel of grace and the fear of God are not incompatible.
Some of you who are reading this have bought into a misguided idea of God’s grace, and it has deadened your conscience and silenced the voice of the Holy Spirit. Thus, you are tolerating some sin in your life because you know that God is love and He is gracious, yet you lack the fear of the Lord.
Consider these other texts from the New Testament:
See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? … Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.
~ Hebrews 10:25, 28-29
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
~ Philippians 2:12-13
We work out what God works in us, in fear and trembling.
While God’s grace is available and able to pardon, it’s also available to empower you and I so we don’t have to live in permanent regret or suffer the consequences of straying from the Lord and His ways.
Consequences are consequences. And they are built into the good creation God has made.
All told, this short message has the potential of saving some of you from blowing off a hand or a foot because you failed to “fear” the dynamite.
If it spares you in this way, let me know.
So, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion,
during the time of testing in the wilderness,
where your ancestors tested and tried me,
though for forty years they saw what I did.
That is why I was angry with that generation;
I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray,
and they have not known my ways.’
So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”
See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
~ Hebrews 3:7-13
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