He Isn't Safe, but He Is Good, He' the King!

The other morning in my devotions I read the following from Psalm 130;

But with You there is forgiveness, that You may be feared. - Psalm 130:4

 

The wording of this verse jumped out at me because of the psalmist stating that God should be feared because He offers forgiveness. I thought, "What a strange idea! Why would I fear someone who has forgiven me?" This caused me to do a little research. What is the psalmist trying to say here?

 

Most of us don't live with a sense of sin because we don't live with a sense of God in our lives. Where there is no realization of God's presence, there will be no realization of sin's presence. However, when we truly come face-to-face with God and His presence in our life overwhelms us, we cannot help but notice our sin, and it strikes terror in our hearts, just as it did to Isaiah when he saw God in the temple (Isaiah 6).  Why? When we see God's holiness we will be gripped by a holy fear because we realize that the only just response of God to our sin is to destroy us, "Woe is me! For I am lost" (Isaiah 6:5).

 

However, in His mercy God has chosen not to destroy sinful man but to forgive. Through Jesus we have forgiveness of sin. That unimaginable act of mercy, when fully understood by the sinner, creates a sense of holy fear in their life. The inclination is to think that if one has been forgiven, the natural response would be gratitude or relief, but Scripture consistently teaches that the biblical response is fear! Why? When one has truly been forgiven, they have been accepted by God and He fully invades one's life. The closer we get to God, the closer we get to ultimate holiness, the greater our awareness of our sin grows. As our awareness of our sin grows in the presence of holiness we will be gripped by fear. Not a fear that paralyzes and disheartens, but a fear that motivates us to never fall back into the sin we have just been released from. One way to discern if salvation has come is to determine if you live with a growing awareness of your sinfulness and a fear, dread, and disgust of it.

 

Healthy fear is not a bad thing, because it causes us to avoid things that are dangerous. It is wise to have a healthy fear of fire, electricity, predators, poisonous snakes, radiation, etc. Our fear of them doesn't paralyze us, keep us from living life, but we are careful around them because they can destroy us. We should have the same fear of sin.

 

In the book The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Lucy and Susan ask Mr. Beaver about Aslan. When the girls hear that Aslan isn't a man but a lion, they become scared and ask Mr. Beaver, "Then he isn't safe?" Mr. Beaver replies, "Safe? ... Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King". We must realize that our God isn't safe, but He is good. He's the King and we must approach Him with a holy, respectful fear.

 

 

 

He has forgiven us that we might fear Him, because fear of sin leads to life!

 

(Every year I use a different plan for reading through the Bible. This year I'm using a chronological plan for the Bible. This plan arranges the Bible so that you read passages in the order they were written historically, just a small variation from reading the Bible straight through. If you need a reading plan, LifeChurch has created a free app called YouVersion with literally dozens of plans to help you out. Check it out at www.youversion.com)