Fear Compels

A friend once told me why he couldn’t believe the Bible. He said that he couldn’t put his faith or belief in a religion where there is no penalty for wrong-doings. It made no sense to my friend. He said that he had to pay some type of penalty for his disobedience. “If there is no penalty, I know me, and I will not give it a second thought, I will not change.”

My friend implied that if there was no price to be paid for disobedience, there would be indifference to obedience. There would be no reason to obey. There would be no fear of doing wrong.

I get it. My friend was so right. What we were talking about in the Bible was counterintuitive, opposite the way the world works.

In the Old Testament, when the visible God was leading the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt, His power, His Sovereignty, His control of nature and events, brought fear among the people. God sent 10 plagues in plain sight of the people, from swarms of locusts to hail to rivers turning to blood. Then, as they traveled in the desert, there was the parting of the Red Sea, and there was the constant pillar of fire leading the people. God sent plagues among the people, at one time killing 24,000 people for their disobedience. In another instance, the ground swallowed entire families.

He had hardly finished speaking the words when the ground suddenly split open beneath them. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed the men, along with their households and all their followers who were standing with them, and everything they owned. So they went down alive into the grave, along with all their belongings. The earth closed over them, and they all vanished from among the people of Israel. All the people around them fled when they heard their screams. “The earth will swallow us, too!” they cried. Then fire blazed forth from the Lord and burned up the 250 men who were offering incense. Numbers 16:31-35

If this was happening before our eyes, there would be great fear. And, this fear would drive obedience. Prior to the Israelites entering the Promised Land, God repeatedly made the connection between fear and obedience.

Oh, that they would always have hearts like this, that they might fear me and obey all my commands! If they did, they and their descendants would prosper forever. Deut. 5:29

“These are the commands, decrees, and regulations that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you. You must obey them in the land you are about to enter and occupy, and you and your children and grandchildren must fear the Lord your God as long as you live. If you obey all his decrees and commands, you will enjoy a long life. Deut. 6:1-2

Where there was no fear, there would be no obedience. God was visible, he was a Judge, and a price would be paid for disobedience.

Fast forward 3,000 years, and the promised Messiah arrives in the New Testament. Jeremiah had prophesied about it in the Old Testament about 600 years before.

“The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the Lord. Jeremiah 31:31-32

Jesus brought a new covenant. Under this covenant, Christ once and for all paid the penalty for our sins when He died on the cross. His blood was a ransom, the currency of Heaven, for His followers. Under this covenant, I put my faith in Him, turn away from my wrong-doings, and my sins are forgiven. He paid the price on the cross.

Startling difference between the payment of wrong doings between the Israelites in the desert and the believers in the New Testament. Disobedience 3,000 years ago was met with the fury of a visible God. Today, God is seemingly not visible and disobedience is a wide, grey area. There is no immediate repercussion for disobedience, and there is no fear of God.

There is a type of fear that causes one to run away. The Mike’s Hard Lemonade commercial illustrates this perfectly. A young couple is standing by a cooler of Mike’s Lemonade at a party. The guy grabs a cold one, turns to the girl, and asks who is providing the drinks. She tells him they are from Mike. The guy looks across the pool to see Mike Tyson staring at him with an intimidating look. The once relaxed guy is overtaken by fear and immediately looks away from Mike’s penetrating stare. Immediate fear looking into Tyson’s eyes. Such a great commercial. Such a great illustration of the exact fear that would cause me to run away.

There is another type of fear that causes one to run toward, not away. A fear driven by respect, love, and adoration. The easiest, but lacking, comparison for me was to my dad. Did I fear? Oh, yes. I met the belt many times. Did I love? More than you can imagine. Tim Keller said, “In the original language, “Fear the Lord” doesn’t mean to be afraid. It means sustaining a joyful, astonished awe, and wonder before Him.” Fearing God compels one to follow.

So, back to the conversation with my friend. I completely understand where he is coming from. It seems too good to be true. The fact that we are not required to pay a penalty for our disobedience doesn’t make sense. There has to be some type of payment for our wrong-doings, as this is the way the world works. But, this is grace. When you understand it, this grace compels you to be obedient. Perfect, never. Disobedient, always. But, repentance follows the disobedience.

“There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13

Grace compels one to fear and follow.

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