4/06/03 - L-5 INI I Peter 1:17-19

Dear Fellow Redeemed by the blood of God,

After years of complaining and rebellion, the children of Israel were still wandering through the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land. As they journeyed along a difficult route south of Edom or northern Saudi Arabia, they began to complain against God and Moses: "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?" God answered the thankless spirit of Israel by sending poisonous snakes that killed many of the Israelites. (Num. 21)

What were the people thinking? -- That since they called God their "Father," they could say and do as they pleased without fear? Of course! To this day many people call God, "Father," in the Lord's Prayer and then conduct their lives as if they were the children of this world. Without any fear of God they sometimes refer to Him flippantly as "The Man upstairs." They do not fear God who speak His name and then reject His commandments and the teachings of His Word.

Still, the Apostle Peter warns those who dare to call God their "Father," that they had better live their pilgrim lives "in fear." Why? Because the God of heaven will judge "each one's work" "without partiality." This is a warning against the temptation to think that I may be a true child of God without doing the works and living the life of a child of God. For God did not make us His believing children in order that we might feel safe in our sins. An earthly Father with five sons may look at the face of his only daughter and choose to favor her. But our heavenly Father does not favor our faces! No! He judges "according to each one's work." He says: "Be holy, for I am holy." (v. 16, Lev. 19:2) The Father applied the same principle to His own beloved Son. Why do you think He raised Jesus from the dead? Was it because He was the Son of God? No, it was not! Think about it. If Christ had sinned in His life on earth, but the Father raised His Son anyway, just because of WHO He is, there could be no guarantee of our own resurrection from the dead! But the Bible declares that Christ was raised from the dead, because of His work. He lived a holy life in the place of us sinners, and then gave Himself for our redemption (Acts 2:27, Rom. 1:4). In other words: Jesus "finished the work" His Father had sent Him to do for us (Jn. 17:4,5; 19:30)

God the Father required the work of perfect obedience from His own Son, even asking Him to die the horrible death of the cross! The Father did not favor His own Son! No wonder Peter admonishes us to

But when the birth of the Christ-Child was announced to the Bethlehem shepherds, didn't the angel say to them, "Fear not!"? Absolutely! For the message of God's love in Christ is meant to cast out the fear that torments our consciences(1 Jn 4:18) For this reason the Son of God became flesh and blood, "so that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" -- Heb. 2:14-15.

Without faith in Christ as our Savior, every sinner must remain a slave to sin and the devil. The unbeliever lives in bondage to the fear of death and the judgment of God because of his sins. Sooner or later he is driven by the work-righteous religion of his natural heart to have fearful doubts about how much good he has done and what God will finally do with him!

But when we were brought to faith in Christ by the working of the Holy Spirit in the Gospel, God made Himself our Father, and we became His dear children. This He did to save us from our sins, not to make us more afraid than ever! As Paul writes in Romans 8:15: "You did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry, 'Abba, Father.'"

The fear of the father is not the fright of the slave. Why should God frighten us as long as we hear Him inviting us to repent of our sins and we come to Him, just as children hear and come to their Father when He wants to embrace them? If we are always to be afraid of Him and run away from Him, who shall be our Savior? . . . No, dear children of God, Peter does not ask us to fear the Father as if we were slaves! But we are to

fear Him as those who are saved! Is this possible? Can those who know that God loves them because of Jesus, live their lives in the fear of God? Oh yes! There are many examples of this holy fear (Ger: Gottesfurcht) recorded for us in the Bible. It's the fear of those who are saved.

We know that Abraham was a man of great faith in the promised Savior. We know how God tested his faith by commanding Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. But just as Abraham was ready to slay his son, the Lord said: "Now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son from Me." (Gen. 22:12)

The prophet Jonah was aboard ship on a stormy sea, when the heathen sailors demanded that he identify himself. Jonah answered: "I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, Who made the sea and the dry land."

The Apostle Paul knew that he possessed eternal salvation from sin, death, and hell. His God-breathed letters to us are full of faith's joy and confidence in Christ alone. In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul laughs at death! Yet he says in 2 Corinthians 5 that his persuasion of men by the faithful preaching of the Gospel was done because he knew "the fear of the Lord." (2 Cor. 5:11)

You've all heard the verse from Psalm 111 which says: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." But that's the last verse of a Psalm that praises the Lord for grace and salvation! Peter is also talking about the fear of those who are saved! The fear of the slave is based on a superstitious idea of God. The fear of the saved is based on a knowledge of the truth about our gracious God. Peter says, "Conduct yourselves . . . in fear, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the holy precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."

This is the knowledgeable fear of the saved children of God. In this fear we stand in daily awe of our Father's infinite mercy; that He saved us by means of His own Son's horrible suffering and death; that He Himself provided the atoning sacrifice, even the precious blood of Christ, the Lamb without blemish and spot of sin; all to save us from the sin and fleshly religion inherited from one generation of fallen men to another. So perfect was this sacrifice, so great was the cost paid by Him Who stooped so low to save us, that man dare not desecrate such grace by failing to regard it with thanksgiving!

Man dare not fail to take very opportunity to obtain salvation and preserve it for himself by humble repentance of sin, and acceptance of the Father's forgiveness. That's why we have those strange-sounding words in Psalm 130:4: "There is forgiveness with You (O Lord), that You may be feared." So Peter says in our text: "Since you have a Father Who favors no face, pass the time of your pilgrimage on earth in fear -- Stand in fear of your Father, not because He threatens you with pain and punishment as the devil and the unbeliever do; but fear the Father lest He withdraw His good and gracious hand from you, just as a Christian child does not want to make his father angry or do anything that would displease him."

Fear the neglect of God's Word! Fear to approach Christ in His Holy Supper or in prayer while harboring some unrepented sin! Be afraid to knowingly reject or despise any part of your heavenly Father's saving Word to you. The unbeliever cares not; the believer dares not!

Our heavenly Father favors no face. May He therefore grant us not the fear that runs from Him, but the fear that runs to Him: Not the fear that cringes before Him, but the fear that clings to Him; Not the fear of the slave, but the fear of the saved. . . Amen.