In a discussion among women about the authority (or sovereignty) of God, one testified that the only reason she is alive today is because she had a deep fear of breaking God’s law. She had a very difficult family situation and in her teens, she wanted to die. She considered suicide.
Her fear of the Lord kept her from making any attempt on her own life. Today, she continues to be faithful to the Lord and is a wife and mother and appears to live in contentment. Praise God that her “fear of the Lord” was great enough to stop her.
In our culture, the “fear of the Lord” is a concept that has been lost as we have fallen into the teaching that God loves you just as you are and wants you to be happy. No mention of our sins being worthy of death, no teaching that there is justice in God’s favor on the victims of crime rather than the criminal, and no suggestion that living for Christ will have its challenges and even persecution.
Instead, we tell others to “invite Jesus into your heart.” We tell them that their anxiety will be overcome and God will take care of all of their problems. But, does He? He is certainly able to! But He expects us to repent of what we have done (and said) that are sinful according to the Scriptures. He wants us to allow Him to take vengeance when a person needs to be punished. When we tell someone that God loves them unconditionally, it can be misinterpreted as “I get to do what I want, after all, I’m not under the law.”
In Galatians 3:24 the Apostle Paul tells us that God’s law is a tutor to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. In other words, God’s law teaches us what God expects of us. We have to know what it says so we can see our need to have our sin atoned for by Christ. He made the point a few verses earlier that no one is justified by keeping the law. He reminds us that “the just shall live by faith” (Galatians 3:11). So when folks say “I’m not under the law” they are correct regarding salvation. The law cannot save us. It is our faith that justifies or saves us. But the law itself remains.
So, what happened to the days when a teenaged girl who had been taught the Bible understood our need to fear the Lord, to understand that He is God and His Word stands forever? Have parents failed to teach their children the word of God (Deuteronomy 6:6-7) or is it a problem in the Church? Did we adopt that “easy believism” of our day and emphasize the love of God while ignoring the wrath of God?
Before we point our own fingers at others; Sunday School teachers, youth leaders, or Pastors, do we need to get the log out of our own eye? (Matthew 7:3-5) Do we fear the Lord? In our confidence that we will not lose our salvation because of sin, have we continued to let it go to such an extent that we need to apply the words of James 4 to our own lives?
Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. James 4:7-10
By the Holy Spirit James tells us that fearing the Lord (shown by turning from sin) carries benefits: the devil will flee from you, God will draw near to you, and He will lift you up. This is not just evidence of God’s grace to His children – it’s also great motivation for us to fear and obey Him.
For the unbeliever, the ultimate fear is the fear of death. It’s the great unknown, and outside of biblical knowledge it’s the great unknowable. Christians fear God because He tells us not to fear those who can kill the body but are unable to kill the soul, unlike God who is able to destroy both body and soul in Hell (Matthew 10:28) and because we fear disappointing our heavenly Father.
