My change from the wrong fear of God to the right fear of God.

My change from the wrong fear to the right fear.

For me the wrong kind of fear was a fear of Him as a slave owner and me as a slave where he was watching for me to break some kind of religious ritual rule and he would punish me by consequences and then judge me based on my works.  I would not measure up and be sent to hell forever because I wasn’t as good as some other people. 

Then I had understood the good news of Jesus.  God knew that I would not measure up.  He sent Jesus to take the whipping I deserved and the death I deserved when He died on the cross.  I was offered mercy from God instead of judgment.  

There was a guy who had been a horrible human and didn’t believe there was a way that God could save Him because he was too bad a person.  He wrote these words.

1. Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
   That saved a wretch like me!
   I once was lost, but now am found;
   Was blind, but now I see.
2. ’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
   And grace my fears relieved;
   How precious did that grace appear
   The hour I first believed.
3. Through many dangers, toils and snares,
   I have already come;
   ’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
   And grace will lead me home.
4. The Lord has promised good to me,
   His Word my hope secures;
   He will my Shield and Portion be,
   As long as life endures.
5. Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
   And mortal life shall cease,
   I shall possess, within the veil,
   A life of joy and peace.
6. The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
   The sun forbear to shine;
   But God, who called me here below,
   Will be forever mine.
7. When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
   Bright shining as the sun,
   We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
   Than when we’d first begun.

John Newton

 

 I could be a son of God instead of a slave of God.  Then I had a fear of God that was a fear of drifting from His love and disappointing Him.  When I reflected on our relationship I thought of myself as a son instead of a slave.  Being saved by mercy and grace instead of my own performance has given me constant joy since it happened 17,949 days ago.

John 15.

^11-15 “I’ve told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I’m no longer calling you servants because servants don’t understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I’ve named you friends because I’ve let you in on everything I’ve heard from the Father.
¹⁶ “You didn’t choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won’t spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you.

Gatations 3.

^9-10 So those now who live by faith are blessed along with Abraham, who lived by faith—this is no new doctrine! And that means that anyone who tries to live by his own effort, independent of God, is doomed to failure. Scripture backs this up: “Utterly cursed is every person who fails to carry out every detail written in the Book of the law.”
^11-12 The obvious impossibility of carrying out such a moral program should make it plain that no one can sustain a relationship with God that way. The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him. Doing things for God is the opposite of entering into what God does for you. Habakkuk had it right: “The person who believes God, is set right by God—and that’s the real life.” Rule-keeping does not naturally evolve into living by faith, but only perpetuates itself in more and more rule-keeping, a fact observed in Scripture: “The one who does these things [rule-keeping] continues to live by them.”

Larry Wishard

8.27.16