To begin with we deal with words. There is a good fear, the natural fear of danger and risk from all sorts of sources: crossing the road, cooking with a naked flame, changing a fuse (it's smart to turn the electricity off first), and so on. We call this good fear 'caution' and it is right to be cautious about lots of things.
But there is an unreasonable fear, and we tend to call that a phobia; there is claustrophobia (fear of being in an enclosed space) and agoraphobia (fear of being in an open space) and a dozen other sorts of irrational fears. However much the mind gives one the message that there is no real danger, the paralysing fear kicks in, and the sufferer can go into a catatonic state with absolutely no control over the matter.
There will be those who believe a phobic can be cured by counselling, and certainly this should be tried. But all this is not the area I really want to address here.
I want to talk about God and the release from fear, because deep down fear has to do with my psyche (my soul) and I believe that only God can deal with 'soul' problems fully. At best counselling is a palliative, at worst a blind alley, for all that deeply troubles us.
John the apostle, in his first letter, talks about fear, and writes memorably that 'perfect love casts out fear' (1 John ch 4, v 18). This is so important that I am going to include a long section of what John wrote that leads up to this verse:
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
As a Christian I know that what I am is because God loved me first; gave His Son to save me; gave His Spirit to strengthen me; and lives every moment of every day in my heart. And none of this is because I have done anything to earn this as a reward, to deserve such wondrous love; it is simply that He loves me, however hard it is for me to understand why (and believe me it is hard to understand).
Paul said more or less the same thing (Romans ch 8 v35-39)
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The enemy of our souls seeks constantly either to prevent us getting to this place of certainty, or to take away this confidence if we should ever reach it.
The most subtle way that the enemy of souls works is to create a whole structure of religion, whereby the adherent is constantly challenged to earn his or her way into God's favour. This is the religion of rules. Rules about actions, rules about work, rules about rest, rules about giving, rules about clothing, rules about diet, rules about ceremonies, all offered as a certain method - if obeyed faithfully - of making the adherent worthy of God's blessing. This creates a daily questioning: am I working hard enough to please God, and so earn His blessing?
Dear friends, please observe the contrast between the two passages quoted and this subtle trap of legalism. There is nothing we can do to make us more the object of God's love than we already are; and there is nothing we can do to make God cease to love us.
God did give His people rules to start with, and the ten memorable special rules are descriptions of the kind of people we will become when we respond to God's love. But the people who received these rules found that rules - by themselves - are not enough. Rules do not, cannot, change people. And it is transformation that we need most. So God promised them a new covenant (formal relationship). This is the new covenant God offers all people (Jeremiah ch 31 v 31-34):
"The time is coming," declares the Lord , "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them," declares the Lord . "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the Lord . "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord ,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the Lord . "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."
The new basis has in a sense to do with rules, however no longer written in stone, but in hearts and minds. And there is an end of priestly intermediaries, with special buildings, because we all now have direct access to God Himself, wherever we are. And an end of repeated sacrifices, because a single perfect sacrifice makes it possible for God's forgiveness to be applied to every sinner who asks for it.
This is the very heart of the gospel (the good news). As a Christian I rejoice in the freedom from fear it gives me to know that God's love for me is unconditional, that nothing will ever separate me from the Love of God. If you do not know this freedom from fear yourself then do not make the mistake of thinking you are outside the scope of God's love. Even through these words, He is reaching out to you.
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