Today we see that from the first book of the Bible to the last, healthy fear of God is a foundational aspect of faith. What’s more, this kind of fear will continue through an eternity of joyful worship. But first, we also recognize that the fear of God does indeed include something terrible, that is, the terror that we can choose to be left out of his new creation. Persisting in “my will be done” has dire consequences. For one day God will grant that demand. This breaks his divine heart. Paul tells us that God “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time” (1 Timothy 2:4-6).

 

Even in the horrific last days, God pursues humanity. In our passage from Revelation 14, we see an angel flying across the earth, proclaiming one last time the eternal gospel to the world. What is this good news? The angel summons every tribe and nation “Fear God and give him glory” (Revelation 14:7). That’s what we are made for! We do not generate our own lives. We are not the result of blind forces or accidents of nature. God created us. We find our purpose and joy in acknowledging him. We become the glorious creatures we were created to be only when we do not exalt ourselves but give glory to God. 

 

The angel’s glorious evangel, the great news, is that God has left this time and space open for us to respond to him. The lamb who was slain has triumphed over death and evil. Salvation belongs to him (Revelation 5:9; 7:10). He longs to share that reconciliation with us. He desires us to align our lives with the worship of all the hosts of heaven. 

 

However, in this scene with the angel winging over the earth, the message is that there is still time, but not much! The hour is swiftly coming when the door will close. God will call the world’s business to a halt. His judgment will be rendered upon human refusal to acknowledge him as our Creator. He will say, “No more!” to all the suffering we have caused as a result of our willfulness. No one is getting away with anything. All shall be revealed. We will give an account for every second. Even though many will say, “‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1) and “‘The LORD does not see’” (Psalm 94:7), there will be no hiding from the truth. God sees all. The frightening chaos in the world’s last days calls you to seek salvation from beyond yourself. The God who sees all has atoned for all in Jesus. Fear God, glorify him and escape condemnation!

This week’s study has made me realize that it is a serious business to be a human being. Created in the image of God, we have a sacred vocation. We give voice to all creation in its praise for being made. We tend the planet and work its resources to provide for all. But what a botched job we have made of it! In a cosmos filled with billions of shining lights, we are what C.S. Lewis called “the dark planet.” (C.S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet. London: The Bodley Head, 1938) We do not hear the myriads of angelic beings singing praise around the throne of God. We can scarcely look beyond ourselves to see how much more God has for us. We steam along fearing scarcity, failures, rejections, disasters and setbacks. But not fearing what will hurt us most, being misaligned with the God who made us. 

 

Scripture summons us to fear God once again. At the most basic level, the realization that we do not belong to ourselves and that we will give an account to our Maker motivates us to seek his mercy. However, once we have moved from clinging to self to clinging to Christ and have accepted his mercy, we can and must engage the healthy fear of God that we have 

been examining.

 

The five “r’s” of fearing God can light up our lives. We see the world charged with God’s glory as we refer everything to his reality. We find freedom from self-tyranny as we respect and revere the Creator who claims us for himself. When we remember God’s mighty acts of salvation through studying Scripture, we see our little lives in the context of a much greater story. Such a proper perspective reduces our egos but elevates our sense of eternal worth. 

 

Thus, we can be immersed in the intimacy of relating to the God who has accommodated himself to our frailty and undertaken so great a redemption on our behalf. That frees us to relax and rejoice in the sovereignty of God who works all things together for good, bringing order out of chaos, love out of suffering and life out of death. Pressing deeply into the right fear of God prepares us to savor our final week’s theme: Fear Not! 

Like a poor woman finding a precious lost coin,

Like a good shepherd daring the tangled slopes

For a heedless wandering sheep,

Like the shameless father who watched daily

Down the foreign road for his errant son,

So much more do you rejoice at the return 

Of the worst and least human being

To the home of your merciful presence.

 

I thrill in the tumult of today’s world

To envision the herald angel flying

Across the battlefields and tent cities,

The houses of rage and streets of ruin

With news of your eternal gospel.

 

You call us to go from death to life

By rising from the dullness

Of passionless distractions

To the invigorating fear that you

Are gloriously more than the tedium

Of daily life. You are! You are glorious.

 

Oh quicken me to look up,

Loose my tongue and strengthen my voice

To worship and share, to rejoice and tremble

At Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

The God who is and ever shall be.