Lesson 94: Fear of God
The Book of Proverbs tells us that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom and turning from sin is understanding. Most of us think of fear of God as something negative, and it can be if we consider that He created and sustains all things, knows our thoughts and motives, and decides our eternal fate. But the Scriptures tell us there is no fear in love, perfect love casts out fear, and that if a Christian still fears, the love of God has not been perfected in him. In its larger meaning, fear encompasses such attitudes as reverence, reliance, devotion, awe, humility, obedience, trust and love. By nature, people are concerned first with self- preservation, and their fear has to do with being consigned to hell if they haven’t done enough good works or made sufficient progress in overcoming sinful habits. None of us will ever succeed in attaining perfection in these ways. And so, the negative connotations of fear need to be replaced by the larger meaning of fear along with its proper attitudes. We can do this only through trusting completely in God’s promises, as revealed to us in his word, the Bible, and trusting completely in the sufficiency of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross to acquit us from the punishment due us for our sins. The Scriptures promise that through faith in Jesus as our savior, our sin debt is transferred completely to him and his righteousness is transferred fully to us together with the Holy Spirit, our guide. And so, through Jesus, we can come in to God’s presence with confidence, both now in prayer, and after death when we meet him face to face. We can relate to him as our ultimate father, in a close, loving relationship. And so, for the mature Christian, fear has to do with falling away from this intimate, soul- fulfilling relationship with God and Jesus, ultimately allowing ourselves to turn our back on God. We needn’t fear God rejecting us for He who did not spare his only son to bring us salvation will not fail to give us all that we need for our continued spiritual growth. We need primarily to fear us rejecting God to pursue the allure and sinful pleasure offered in the ways of the world.