To those whom he called “friends,” Jesus warned, “do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!” (Luke 12:4-5). Of course, they were, like we are too, friends prone to fear, fear that is often unfounded, fearing wrong things and wrong ones, rather than the One. And while Jesus pointed them to God’s providential care of creation and our image-bearing place in it, the temptation to fear is a powerful one, especially the fear of others, what they will think of us, what they will say about us, what they will do to us.
Tag Archives: Fear of God
The Blessings of Fearing the Lord
As a family, we look not to the transient whims of culture but the eternal Word of God to direct us. And like the psalmist, we lift our prayers to the Lord. To say that we are a blessed people is not to imply perfection but a perfect Savior, which is why, as his redeemed people, we can truly say,
Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD,
who walks in his ways!
Fearing God
In the fullness of time, God came to his people not upon a mountain but in the person of Jesus Christ. Fully God yet fully man, he became the sinless sacrifice upon the altar of the cross. He is not offered up repeatedly like sheep or oxen but was sacrificed once for all for the sins of his people. Therefore, it is through the sacrifice of Christ, and only through him, that we rightly worship God as his people.