Forgiven to Fear God: The Goodness of Christian Reverence – Christopher Ash

ABSTRACT: The fear of God is an often neglected or misunderstood concept, but it is vital to Christian faith. Conversion to Christ does not remove the fear of God but transforms it from simple terror into glad, humble reverence. This proper fear marks the life of saints as they learn to walk in the joyful path of obedience set before them. In this life of godly fear, by which believers imitate Christ, all other fear is banished.

For our ongoing series of feature articles for pastors and Christian leaders, we asked Christopher Ash, Writer-in-Residence at Tyndale House, Cambridge, to explain the fear of the Lord.

“So,” says a friendly inquirer, “if I follow Jesus, what will this mean?” “Ah, well, it means you will begin to fear God.” It doesn’t seem like a great evangelistic line, does it? With books like Frank Furedi’s Culture of Fear and How Fear Works,1 and Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation,2 we are used to thinking about all-pervasive fear as a fearful (!) mark of our societies. A lot of fear is swirling around in the air. “So,” says our inquirer, “if following Jesus involves fear, I am not sure I want that.”

“Besides,” says the Christian who knows his Bible a bit, “doesn’t the Bible say that ‘perfect love casts out fear’ (1 John 4:18)? Doesn’t God often tell people in the Old Testament not to fear? And doesn’t Jesus frequently tell his disciples not to fear?” For example, when the disciples see Jesus walking on the water, “they were terrified . . . and they cried out in fear.” And what does Jesus say? “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid” (Matthew 14:26–27).

But when we read a bit further, we find that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10; Psalm 111:10). Paul persuades people of the gospel because he knows “the fear of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:11). And Mary sings that God’s “mercy is for those who fear him” (Luke 1:50).

So, if the Bible tells us not to be afraid, why does it also tell us to fear God? We are going to answer this question by examining three great headline truths and eight blessings of fearing the Lord.

Three Headline Truths

Fear comes in different shapes and sizes. “I am worried I didn’t lock the front door” is one kind of fear, “I fear I may have offended you” is another, and “I was really frightened when I saw you trip” is yet another. So, we’re going to begin by facing the fact that we cannot avoid fear, but also by looking at two very different kinds of fear.

1. You cannot escape fear.

To walk through this world with no fear is simply not an option. The Old Testament puts this truth in religious language to explain why the northern kingdom of Israel was wiped off the map by the Assyrians: They “feared other gods” and did not fear the true God (2 Kings 17:7, 25, 35–39). The problem wasn’t that they decided not to fear at all. They had to fear someone — either the true covenant God of Israel or the “other gods” who were no gods at all.

And that is still the case. This world is full of powers that are stronger than us. As Calvin wrote, “There is within the human mind, and indeed by natural instinct, an awareness of divinity.”3 This sense is “inscribed in the hearts of all” and is inseparable from “anxiety of conscience.”4 We know we have done wrong, and we cannot escape the fear that this matters. We are haunted by our consciences.

By nature, we try to ease this feeling by worshiping gods or goddesses of our own making, in the hopes that they will be less demanding. But this is a dead end. We end up very afraid and with no way to assuage our fears. Many can testify to this, both adherents of other religions and those who claim no religion at all. Religions like Hinduism and Islam are full of fearful anxieties, lest we have failed to appease the god or gods. Or, if my god is my career success, I cannot avoid being fearful lest this god should desert me and I fail.

We are going to find ourselves frightened and afraid. We are bound to fear some higher power. We cannot escape that.

2. We ought to fear the true God.

God is our Creator; we are his creatures. Our every breath is his gift. On any day, God can say to you or to me, “Return to dust” (see Psalm 90:3), and we cannot argue back and say, “No, I don’t think I will, thank you.” On the day he says so, you will most surely return to dust. You have no choice. We need to face this inescapable fact and bow before our Creator in humble fear.

When the people stood around Mount Sinai and God revealed something of his majesty, they were utterly terrified, and rightly so (Exodus 19:16–25; 20:18–21). Even Moses said, “I tremble with fear” (Hebrews 12:21). God is “awesome” (Psalm 68:35), meaning “feared” or even “fearsome” (cf. Psalm 47:2; 76:7). As the New Testament reiterates, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31).

We ought to fear God simply because we are his creatures and he is our majestic Creator. We ought to fear him all the more because we are sinners, for our sin makes us liable to God’s righteous and terrible wrath. When I really grasp that God is right to be very angry with me, I will fear him. When the penitent thief says to the other at the crucifixion, “Do you not fear God?” (Luke 23:40), he implies, “You, who are a sinner, ought to fear God; we all ought to fear God.”

So, God ought to be feared. But this is some way from being good news. So, what changes the fear of God from simple terror to something we embrace?

3. In Christ, sin-fueled terror becomes glad reverence.

Let’s start by going back to Mary’s song. “His mercy is for those who fear him” (Luke 1:50). We see that truth clearly in Cornelius’s conversion. Cornelius is described as “a devout man who feared God with all his household” (Acts 10:2). When the messengers come to Peter, they describe him as “an upright and God-fearing man” (Acts 10:22). Later, Peter says, “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (Acts 10:34–35). When God puts the fear of him into a human heart, he prepares that heart for Christ.

By contrast, until God puts the fear of him into a human heart, there is no restraint on ungodliness. Writing of universal human sinfulness, Paul says, “There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Romans 3:18; cf. Psalm 36:1). Describing Amalek’s bitter hostility for God’s people, Moses says, “He did not fear God” (Deuteronomy 25:18); this is why he was so evil. Referring to moral fools and scoffers, Solomon writes that “they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord” (Proverbs 1:29). Fearing God is the necessary entrance into the life of godliness and faith.

But what happens when a man or woman comes to Christ? When sins are forgiven and we are born again as children of God, do we continue to fear him? The striking words of the psalmist hold forgiveness and fear together:

With you there is forgiveness,
     that you may be feared. (Psalm 130:4)

If “fear” here meant “terror,” then forgiveness would remove it and the verse would read, “With you there is forgiveness, so that we need no longer fear you.” Instead, we are forgiven, and, as forgiven sinners, we enter into a walk with God marked by godly fear. Only forgiven sinners are set free to worship God with loving, reverent fear.

Perhaps the transition from terror to glad reverence is most clearly marked in a dramatic passage in Hebrews 12. As forgiven sinners, we have come, says the writer, not to Mount Sinai, where there is sheer terror before God and his holy law. No, we have come to Mount Zion, the place where the blood of Jesus, our mediator in the new covenant, “speaks a better word than the blood of Abel” (Hebrews 12:24).

But — and this is what I want to emphasize — just as we relax and think we need not fear God, the writer closes by writing, “Therefore . . . let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:28–29). The fear has changed from the terrors of Sinai to the reverence of Zion.

So, our three headlines have set before us three foundations. We cannot escape fear. Our choice is not between fear and no fear but between crippling fear and the wholesome, reverent fear of God. Someone has compared godly fear to the way we view the ocean when swimming at the seaside on holiday. We love the ocean. But we know the ocean is far stronger than us. And so, we do not take liberties with the deep, strong sea. The fear of God is just a little like that.

Eight Blessings of Godly Fear

What does the Christian’s reverent fear look like, and why might it be not just right but desired? Consider eight blessings that come from the fear of the Lord.

1. To know God is to fear God.

Perhaps the best-known verse about the fear of the Lord is Proverbs 1:7: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” This refrain comes again in various places (e.g., Proverbs 9:10; Psalm 111:10). “Beginning” here does not mean a starting point from which we move on. It means something like a foundation on which we build. It is there at the start, and it is always there. Take it away, and the building collapses. The fear of the Lord is always present as the bedrock of the life of faith. Why? One central answer is that it is not possible to truly know God without fearing God. If you seek wisdom, writes Solomon,

then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. (Proverbs 2:5)

If you think you know God — perhaps claiming some religious insight, mystical knowledge, or philosophical grasp of deity — but do not fear God, then you do not truly know him. God is the Creator. He is infinite in power and majesty, dazzlingly pure in holiness, frighteningly just in judgment. Yes, Jesus said he made his disciples his friends (John 15:14–15). But if you think that means you can be his pal, you are sorely mistaken.

Truly to know God is to bow in reverent fear and worship before him.

2. The fear of the Lord brings holiness.

Because to know God is to fear God, the fear of God brings with it a great reverence for the Scriptures and the law of God. While rejoicing in that law, David writes, “The fear of the Lord is clean,” that is, morally pure (Psalm 19:9). Far from allowing us to go on sinning because we are forgiven, the fear of the Lord gives us a wholesome hatred of evil (Proverbs 8:13). It is “by the fear of the Lord” that “one turns away from evil” (Proverbs 16:6).

Living in the presence of God, truly knowing him, leads us to put away every form of sin, to reject fellowship with darkness. As Paul writes, “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).

So, for example, I find myself tempted to lie to get myself out of a tight spot. I persuade myself it is a small lie, a “white lie,” and that it is justified in the circumstances. How am I to resist this temptation? I may be frightened of being found out. That will dissuade me. But if I remember that God, who is the just judge of all the earth, is watching, listening, hearing everything, seeing the secrets of my heart even as I consider this, I will find myself bowing in reverent fear of him.

I belong to him in Jesus. Nothing can separate me from Christ. But still I bow in adoring, worshipful fear of my Creator. Jesus has brought me near to the great God, who is a consuming fire, so that this blindingly holy God is my Father. To walk in the daily remembrance of this will promote holiness in my heart and on my lips.

Terror before God paralyzes. But reverent, loving fear transforms. This grateful heart of glad worship is a heart that runs from sin.

3. The fear of the Lord is joyful and leads to life.

The reverent fear of the forgiven believer brings great joy. Perhaps this is nowhere expressed so beautifully as in Psalm 34:8–11. “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good” calls David (and, in the end, calls Jesus to us). And therefore, because he is good, “fear the Lord.” If you fear him, you will lack nothing, no good thing. And so, David (and ultimately Jesus) invites us, “Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” This is a happy invitation!

To fear the Lord in this way is joyful because it brings us into a walk of true and eternal life. This connection between the fear of the Lord and real life is a consistent theme in Proverbs.

The fear of the Lord prolongs life,
     but the years of the wicked will be short. (Proverbs 10:27)

In the fear of the Lord one has strong confidence,
     and his children will have a refuge.
The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life,
     that one may turn away from the snares of death. (Proverbs 14:26–27)

Better is a little with the fear of the Lord
     than great treasure and trouble with it. (Proverbs 15:16)

The fear of the Lord leads to life,
     and whoever has it rests satisfied;
     he will not be visited by harm. (Proverbs 19:23)

The reward for humility and fear of the Lord
     is riches and honor and life. (Proverbs 22:4)

Let not your heart envy sinners,
     but continue in the fear of the Lord all the day.
Surely there is a future,
     and your hope will not be cut off. (Proverbs 23:17–18)

The logic running through these proverbs is this: The fear of the Lord keeps us walking with him, and therefore it keeps us walking in life and to life. But not to fear the Lord is not to walk with him and therefore to walk a path of death.

The fear of the Lord is a matter of great joy.

4. The fear of the Lord brings humility.

One of the dangers in the life of faith is that an assurance of God’s forgiveness and a grasp of his gospel promises may metamorphose into pride. We may become self-reliant, complacent about godliness. The fear of the Lord is the antidote.

The fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom,
     and humility comes before honor. (Proverbs 15:33)

Writing to Gentile Christians in danger of being proud of their new faith, tempted to look down on the Jewish “branches” that were broken off from the faith because of unbelief, Paul writes, “Do not become proud, but fear” (Romans 11:20). That is, walk in reverent fear of the Lord, lest you too fall into unbelief and get cut off from “the nourishing root of the olive tree” (11:17).

To fear the Lord with loving reverence keeps us in our place as creatures and forgiven sinners.

5. The fear of the Lord prepares us for sacrifice and suffering.

The fear of the Lord makes us willing to take up our cross, deny ourselves, and follow Christ whatever the cost. Abraham and Job, two bright old-covenant believers, exemplify this for us.

When God tests Abraham and commands him to sacrifice Isaac, his only son, Abraham is willing to obey. As God’s angel stops him from following through, he says this: “Now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me” (Genesis 22:12). Had Abraham not truly feared God, he would never have obeyed in this most heartbreaking of tests. But he did fear God. And that godly fear made him willing.

Three times, Job is described as a man who fears God. The narrator tells us this up front in the very first verse (Job 1:1). God then says it twice (Job 1:8; 2:3). From the start, we know we are reading the story of a man who fears God. We see Job taken into the most terrible suffering. He makes mistakes. He says things he ought not to say and of which he repents at the end. But it is clear that he trusts the God he fears. His godly reverence takes him through the fire and the flood.

It is hardly possible to overstate this blessing of the fear of the Lord. We will most certainly be taken through sorrow and suffering. A heart that truly fears God will keep putting one foot in front of the other through those days.

Godly fear prepares us to suffer without losing faith.

6. The fear of the Lord shapes our attitude toward and use of authority.

One of the deepest social implications of belief in God is the conviction that all human authority derives from God’s authority. Human society needs to be rightly ordered. Some of us are called to exercise this derived authority — for example, as magistrates or judges, as managers, as pastors, as fathers, as husbands. The kind of authority exercised differs depending on the context. But the exercise of authority is hardwired into ordered human societies at every level. A disordered society is anarchy, and that is a terrible place where the weakest get destroyed.

The fear of God is critical to the proper exercise of authority. When Moses begins to delegate his governing authority in Exodus 18:13–27, Jethro advises him to “look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people” (Exodus 18:21). They must be trustworthy and not open to bribes. But at heart, they must be men who fear God. Their reverent fear of God means they will exercise their authority with godly integrity.

The fear of God is also critical for those who submit to authority. Peter exhorts believers to be good citizens, commanding them to “fear God” and “honor the emperor,” where the emperor is shorthand for all civil authority (1 Peter 2:17; cf. Romans 13:1–7). Who pays proper respect to human authorities? Those who fear God. Likewise, Paul exhorts those in junior positions to work well because they fear God. “Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord” (Colossians 3:22; cf. Ephesians 6:5–8). Their godly fear of the Lord causes them to serve and work well in these human relationships.

The fear of the Lord shapes both the way we exercise authority (with justice) and the way we submit to authority (with respect and willing service).

7. The fear of the Lord gives us a concern for the lost.

In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul makes a fascinating connection between the fear of the Lord and evangelism. Writing about why he seeks to persuade men and women to be reconciled to God through Christ and to be reconciled to one another in Christ, he says, “Knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others” (2 Corinthians 5:11). His godly, loving, reverent fear of the Lord is the engine of his concern for the lost. It will be so with us as well.

There are two ways in which knowing this “fear of the Lord” drives us to persuade people. The first — and probably the main way — is that proper fear of God leads us to understand something of the horrors of God’s righteous judgment on those who will not repent. We gaze, as it were, into the abyss of hell, and the thought that men and women whom we love might go there so horrifies us that we will do what we can to persuade them to repent.

The second is exemplified by the passage in Ezekiel 33 in which the Lord tells Ezekiel he is a “watchman.” Just as a city watchman must call out his warning when the city is under attack, so Ezekiel is responsible before God for warning people of impending judgment. His godly fear of the God who has commissioned him makes him zealous to warn others.

8. The fear of the Lord means we need have no other fear.

Speaking to disciples who would often be attacked, persecuted, and wronged, the Lord Jesus said,

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)

The key to not fearing all the people and powers that can be so very frightening in this world is to fear God. The fear of God is the fear that casts out other fears! Our problem at root is not that we fear too much; it is that we fear too little. We fear the frightening dark powers of this world too much because we fear God too little.

Jesus makes it clear that godly fear is different from the fears with which we cringe from people. Immediately after the statement above, he says, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:29–31). We bow before our heavenly Father with glad, reverent fear — knowing his justice and power, yes, and also knowing his personal care. We know our value in his sight. We know how much he loves us. That kind of glad fear casts out all other fears.

Peter encourages suffering Christians with a similar word:

Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy. (1 Peter 3:14–15)

To honor Christ as holy is to fear God. This fear casts out all other fears. Hallelujah!

Godly Fear Imitates Christ

We close with perhaps the most wonderful truth of all: The Lord Jesus Christ feared God in the days of his flesh. When we walk in the fear of the Lord, we plant our steps in his footprints. Prophesying of the Messiah, Isaiah famously said,

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
     and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
     the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
     the Spirit of counsel and might,
     the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. (Isaiah 11:1–3)

The Messiah, the Christ, the Man of the Spirit, was the Man who walked by the Spirit in the fear of the Lord. In the days of his flesh, he bowed in reverent fear before his Father. And he delighted in that fear. That fear was the springboard, the engine, the beautiful driver of his life of faith.

May it be the same for us.

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