There are not many books on the subject of the fear of the Lord. One of the classics is John Bunyan’s The Fear of God. A more recent treatment is by Jerry Bridges: The Joy of Fearing God.
This subject came up while watching the first Paul Tripp session in his Faithful Men seminar. He noted that our fears can only be driven out by the fear of God, the greatest fear.
Michael Reeves, who is becoming one of my favorite writers, has entered the fray about the fear of the Lord with Rejoice & Tremble: The Surprising Good News of the Fear of the Lord. This is the first installment in his Union series, and it is joined by What Does It Mean to Fear the Lord? which is intended for lay people. One should not take this to mean that Rejoice & Tremble is academic, lengthy or exceedingly difficult. It really isn’t. It seems to be written at a popular level. The latter book is more condensed, perhaps intended for people who have less time to read. I hope to use it with some of our men in light of the Paul Tripp seminar.
As I said, this is not a lengthy book, clocking in at 8 chapters and 168 pages. He brings us to Bunyan, Flavel, Sibbes and Spurgeon among others to examine what is meant by the fear of the Lord. It is not overly technical as original languages are really only mentioned at two points. I still prefer Jerry Bridges’ book, but that seems to be out of print though Amazon had one copy of the audio book. This is a good book, on an important subject.
Reeves begins with the most common command in the Scriptures: “Do Not Be Afraid!” He notes that “we are both fascinated and repelled by our fears.” Many of us like to be scared, within reason. The Scripture encourages, in fact commands, that we fear God. He quotes John Murray in saying “The fear of God is the soul of godliness.” Apart from the fear of the Lord there is no godliness, nor worship. The fear of the Lord is not to be thought of like other fears, perhaps a fear of spiders, ghosts, drowning or the like. “(The fear of the Lord) frees us from our crippling fears, giving us instead a most delightful, happy, and wonderful fear.”
The Messiah, for instance, delights in the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:3). The Spirit which rests upon the Messiah is “the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.” Jesus grew in stature and wisdom, which begins with the fear of the Lord. As Messiah, Jesus delighted in the fear of the Lord, a fear we need by lack apart from the grace of God in Christ.
One of the important contributions of this book is the connection with the present spirit of the age. Our is a very anxious age, and is growing more fearful all the time. This, Reeves argues, is because we’ve generally removed God from our society. Where there is no fear of the Lord, the fear of all else is bound to grow. Fear is used by politicians, media and more to control us. Ours is a society that seeks safety above all else (including liberty) becoming more risk and loss averse. Because we can’t deal with fear, citing Frank Furedi, we build more protective fences. This growing anxiety is accompanied by the moral confusion that happens when we no longer fear God. Sexual immorality of all kinds is approved but we go on crusades against plastic, or militant about masks and vaccines.
Reeves then begins to differentiate sinful and godly fear. Chapter 2 focuses on Sinful Fear. Citing Wilhelmus a Brakel, he notes that our fears are connected to what we love. Fear is about losing them or bad things happening to them. The greater fear that drives us lesser fears is not just any old fear of God. Scripture notes two kinds of fear with respect to God. We see this in Exodus 20. They were not to fear God, but they were to fear God so they would not sin. There is a wrong (sinful) way to fear God, and a godly way to fear God. Here is where he gets into the original languages.
The same word(s) are used for both kinds of fear in the both testaments. The difference isn’t simply in a different word. The difference is seen in the context and results: “Moses here sets out a contrast between being afraid of God and fearing God: those who have a fear of him will not be afraid of him.” The similarity is the physical component of the root word: trembling. The difference is between trembling in your boots and trembling with delight.
Theologians have contrasted these in a variety of ways: servile vs. filial fear; sinful vs. religious fear; ungodly vs. godly fear. Reeves uses sinful vs. right fear though he explains them.
Sinful fear flows from our corrupt (sinful) nature. It is a function of original sin. It is a fear that drives you away from God, rather than towards God. In addition to this being a function of our sin, it is also a function of Satan’s lies about God. Here we see Reeves covering similar ground as Sinclair Ferguson in The Whole Christ and Dane Ortlund in Gentle & Lowly (the cover of which is very similar to Rejoice & Tremble). It is this fear the drives the new atheism led by men like Christopher Hitchens. They are afraid of the God who exists, rather than denying He exists. Hitchens noted that it would be awful to live in the presence of such a God: “It would be like living in North Korea.”
We also see the early Luther, prior to his discovery of the Gospel, expressing such fear. This is why he hated God, knowing he could not live up to God’s requirements. Luther, like so many, ran from God but not from religion. They used religion as an attempt to keep God at bay, unlike Hitchens. When we are afraid of God, we don’t entrust ourselves to Him and look for security elsewhere (religion, politics, money etc.). Afraid of God, they don’t trust Christ for salvation but seek other mediators (Mary, Joseph and the saints, etc.). Read 1 Samuel 12:20-24 to see the 2 fears in this context.
He brings us to C.S. Lewis and The Great Divorce to see that this kind of fear clings to our sin. It is the dread of holiness, and I experienced this for about a year before converting. I didn’t want to give up my sin for Jesus. I had to learn the high price of sin before Jesus became sweet and excellent to me.
Right Fear is produced by the Spirit and draws us to God instead of driving us away from God. This fear is promised to us in the New Covenant (Jer. 32:38-40; 33:8-9). It is sung about by John Newton in his most famous hymn. I think Reeves misses it here though. He seems to argue grace taught my heart to fear and that same fear is relieved by grace. But is was grace that relieved my fears by teaching me to fear God.
This right fear is tied to forgiveness. Because God forgives us we tremble with delight. We delight in His goodness which is seen, in part, in His pardon for sin. We see this in Psalm 130, and the life of Isaac. We see that fear does not soften love, or balance it. They go hand in hand rather than being in tension. “We also love him in his holiness and tremble at the marvelousness of his mercy. True fear of God is true love for God defined: it is the right response to God’s full-orbed revelation of himself in all his grace and glory.”
Fear conveys the idea of being overwhelmed by God, weak-kneed trembling. This is not the romantic love of a man and woman.
Reeves argues that this “right fear is the heart of holiness, making the difference between hypocritical performance and genuine knowledge of God.” The new heart God gives us in the gospel produces a new fear and a very different kind of religion and obedience. “(S)aving faith cannot be separated from the right fear of God, for we will trust in God only to the extent that we have this fear that leans toward him.” The God-fearing heart is a God-entrusting heart.
Overwhelmed by the Creation & Redeemer
Reeves covers God as Creator and Redeemer in successive chapters. While all fear God as Creator, not all fear God as Redeemer. Apart from Redeemer we are afraid of the Creator, exhibiting the sinful fear of God. He roots much of this in Calvin and The Institutes. As Christians we have a right fear of Him as Creator, we are drawn to Him in awe and love. To those who don’t know God as Redeemer, the Creator seems dangerous. We run from Him instead of to Him. Edwards, for instance, “found the knowledge of a Creator to be terrible.” This is tied to our flight from accountability.
The right fear of the Creator draws us out of ourselves. We are not longer the center of the universe. Reeves notes a study published in 2018 under the title Emotion which revealed that the symptoms of PTSD diminish after experiences of awe. In light of this he begins to discuss The Idea of the Holy by Rudolph Otto (cited by Sproul as well). God is awe-inspiring, humbling and mysterious. We need to keep the Creator-creature distinction in mind. Otto stops there, unfortunately. Apart from Christ, Luther wrote, “we see nothing in God but an angry and terrible judge.”
While he moves to Redeemer in the next chapter, the title focuses on the Father. Redemption brings us sonship. The Son reveals the Father to us. Here Reeves brings out some material from Delighting in the Trinity and the relationship between Father and Son in trinitarian development. Redemption, of course, is not the Son sneaking out of the house to appease an angry Father on our behalf but the Father and Son agreeing that the Son would come to satisfy the wrath of God to bring us home.
Here Reeves addresses filial fear, a deeper, richer, and sweeter fear. Filial fear is rooted in God’s mercy. If we begin to rely on our good works our filial fear erodes into dread and terror (quoting George Offor). We lose assurance of salvation until we remember the reality of justification. This is different than Aquinas who saw filial fear as including the fear of offending the Father and losing our salvation. True filial fear is evangelical, resting on Christ’s work for our redemption.
The Son delights in the Father. United to Christ, we share in His delight. We are overwhelmed by the greatness, kindness and goodness of God. We do fear loss of communion, grieving the Father, not loss of union and salvation.
Growing in Godly Fear
Reeves admits that this chapter could be written as a self-help book. There is no 5-step (or 3 or 7) program to grow in godly fear. Reeves brings in Lewis again in terms of “mere morality” as a false goal. We seek an obedience that is driven by a renewed heart filled with godly fear. This will produce genuine or sincere obedience. Obedience itself really isn’t an accurate measure since obedience can be the result of sinful fear as well.
Thomas Boston discussed fear is a matter of our longings: what we love and hate. Filial fear transforms our affections, our longings. Godly fear results in engaged worship, which is why Christianity is a song-filled faith. We can’t help singing. We sing to express what is in our hearts, even if we aren’t in a worship service.
During the Reformation, Luther opposed the Aristotelian view of ethics taught by Thomas Aquinas. In this view we become righteous by doing righteous things. Aquinas cultivated virtuous habits. Luther argued that we have been made righteous and begin to do righteous deeds. Imputed righteousness precedes imparted righteousness.
But how do we grow in the fear of the Lord? The Spirit continues to work in us, as Owen says, “implanting, writing and realizing of the gospel in our souls”. As we behold Christ crucified in the Scriptures, sermons and in meditation our hearts are transformed and grow in the fear of the Lord. The means of grace are utilized but they don’t change us ex opere operato. They are points of contact with the gospel which transforms those who are trusting in the gospel they encounter there.
“The fear of God… that whole worship of God, wherein that and all other gracious affections toward God are to be exercised. … the only motive and encouragement for sinners to engage in it and give themselves unto it, is this, that there is forgiveness with God. Without this no sinner could fear, serve, or worship him.” John Owen
This means that people need a Scripture-filled diet. They need sermons that keep returning to the well to drink of Christ to grow in godly fear. Such preaching seeks to produce godly affections in response to truth.
The Awesome Church
Back to love: what you fear shows what you love. Our fears are sign points, signals about the state of our hearts. What are the signposts that you are manifesting godly fear? He begins with deeper communion with God, rooted in Proverbs 14:27 since the “fear of the Lord is the fountain of life.”
Since the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, you will also grow in wisdom and knowledge. When we have the fear of the Lord growth in knowledge does not puff us up but enables us to love others well (wisdom). This knowledge is also not sterile but we become more like God. We begin to loathe our sin and long to be like God. We begin to marvel about God more and more. Consider how often people marveled at Christ in Mark’s gospel.
Additionally we find strength. The fear of man robs us of strength as we overcommit because we can’t say ‘no’ (Luther said that learning to say ‘no’ would be of more use to you than Greek or Latin). We are overly sensitive to criticism and comments. Prior to answering the authorities at the Diet of Worms, Luther was advised by friends to fear the One who can destroy body and soul in hell, not those who can destroy the body. He ended his famous speech with the words, “Therefore we must fear God.”
Peter struggled with the fear of man, particular in the courtyard of the chief priest. He discovered the hard way that he loved himself more than he loved Jesus. Like Winston in Room 101 he disavowed the one he said he loved.
When we fear God, the other things we fear shrink. They have less influence on us. God reorganized our perspective. The nearness of God is what kills the anxiety we feel, therefore pray.
“Those who fear God are simultaneously humbled and strengthened before his beauty and magnificence.”
Both Calvin and Spurgeon pointed to the example of Hugh Latimer who defied the King Henry the VIII by speaking of his sin in a sermon. When told to recant in his next sermon he spoke of how he spoke not only before the king but also the Lord God Almighty and must tell the king the truth regardless of the outcome. Henry didn’t take off his head as threatened.
“Satan’s lies would rob believers of their filial fear and leave them with a groveling dread of God and a competitiveness instead of any real fellowship between us.”
Reeves returns to our culture of anxiety. The fear of the Lord among His people will adorn the gospel and attest to its power among the nations. The church is to be a community of those who fear the Lord.
Eternal Ecstasy
The final chapter focuses on the eternal state for those with sinful fear and those with right or godly fear. Everyone trembles before God, it is the character of that trembling that matters.
Hell is a world of fears. Those there experience the reality of the terrifying Judge they feared for so long. The fears in hell are unrelieved, constant and relentless.
Heaven is a paradise of filial fear. That delightful fear is unending, unquenchable and soul-satisfying. We will know God without the distortions of our sinful corruption. There will be no doubts, no misunderstandings.
“In fact, all fears are a foretaste. The sinful fears and dreads of unbelievers are the firstfruits of hell; the filial fears of Christians are the firstfruits of heaven.”
This is a very good book. I would not call it an excellent book. It does what it does well. I wish it had done a little more. It is on a much neglected subject. He hits the main points and is clear. He is edifying. It is balanced in addressing both sinful and right fear, and their results. He doesn’t shy away from speaking of judgment (one of the criticisms of Ortlund’s book). If Ortlund focused on the character of God, Reeves focuses us on our response to that character: rejoice & tremble.
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