Some Christians will assume that to think of the Judgement of Christ often would be to live in fear, and God certainly does not want us living in fear. Some believe that Christians have nothing to fear from the Judgement. Christ called Peter ‘Satan’, just shortly after blessing him and calling him ‘a rock’.
Not all ‘fear of God’ references in the Bible refer to ‘awe’, though some would have you believe that. God’s Presence often resulted in sheer terror though He came in peace.
Consider a toddler who, for the first time, climbs up onto the kitchen counter and opens the cookie jar and sticks his hand in the jar just as a parent enters the room. The child will be startled at being caught and will often start to cry. That’s fear! But the child doesn’t live in fear except when it is in the act of doing something it knows it shouldn’t. That’s a healthy fear of God, which should drive us to immediately repent and beg forgiveness.
No comments:
Post a Comment