The Connection Between the Fear of God and Justification

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experience, forgiveness, God's love, grace, Jesus Christ, joy, justification, peace, repentance, righteousness by faith, sin, sinner, suffering, the fear of God, The Fear of the Lord, the new self, the old self, true faith

Garden in Weihenstephan (Upper Bavaria)

The following is an excerpt of a (not published) book I wrote about seven years ago. I just translated a text of my journal which should clarify that the experience of the fear of God and being justified by Him usually go hand in hand.

To separate awe from God from an everyday, natural fear is not easy. For it is real fear as other languages ​​also make clear:

Gottesfurcht (German)

crainte de Dieu (French)

timore di Dio (Italian)

temor de Dios (Spanish)

The fear of God is, above all, the fear of displeasing God by transgressing His commandments. I believe a further difference compared with other fears is that our natural anxieties cause narrowness inside our mind and make us think of running away from a frightening situation. “Cut and run!” the thief might think when suddenly confronted with the policeman. He, too, is, or at least should be frightened when he must face governmental authority. Nevertheless, it might happen that the thief, instead, goes over to attacking the authority figure when he realizes that his getaway route has been cut off.

What grieves me…

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compassion, deception, discerning the spirits, divorce, exhortation, experience, eyes of the heart, God's guidance, grace, Jesus Christ, leadership, Remarriage, repentance, Satan, sin

Photo by Susanne Schuberth

God alone knows our hearts and why we do what we do. From hence, we have no right to judge others wrongly and condemn them. However, we need to know with which people we can be open and which people we should beware of. Just yesterday I had two seemingly similar, yet also different experiences.

Growing up into Him with Heart and Mind

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charity, following Jesus, God's love, head knowledge, heart, heart knowledge, love, mind, repentance, spiritual power, truth

Source Pinterest

“Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” (Eph 4:15-16 ESV)

Here are two excerpted commentaries on Ephesians chapter 4 which describe more detailed how Christian growth should look like.

What is the Baptism in the Holy Spirit?

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anointing, assurance, Baptism in the Holy Spirit, Charles G. Finney, experience, Jesus Christ, justification, light, love, repentance, spiritual power, The Holy Spirit

God’s Eternal Light from Above
(Picture taken from http://www.simplyheavenlyfood.com/2013/12/word-of-day-december-292013.html)

John the Baptist said,

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Mt 3:11 ESV)

Although I had heard about the Baptism in the Holy Spirit in the Pentecostal camp before and I had indeed found some hints in John of the Cross’s autobiographic entries as well, yet as IT would happen to me, I had no clue what THIS could be. Therefore I asked God to help me grasp that overwhelming experience that finished my justification process, during which I had been feeling my own sinfulness to an increased degree as a very painful fire burning in my heart for many weeks in 2008.
Our God was so gracious to point me to Charles G. Finney’s autobiography where I found my own experiences confirmed. Finney who was an American Presbyterian minister and leader in the in the United States in the 19th century offered a very helpful narrative that answered many of the questions I had at that time.

Justification vs. Sanctification

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A.B. Simpson, being born again, darkness, doctrine, experience, heart, justification, light, love, Martin Luther, prayer, repentance, sanctification, self-righteousness, the new self, theology, true faith, William Gurnall

Light after the Darkness (Wallpaper taken from http://www.scenicreflections.com)

“Justifying faith is not a naked assent to the truths of the gospel.”
(William Gurnall)

“The sanctified body is one whose hands are clean. The stain of dishonesty is not on them, the withering blight of ill-gotten gain has not blistered them, the mark of violence is not found upon them. They have been separated from every occupation that could displease God or injure a fellow-man.”
(A.B. Simpson)

To start off with, I’d say that we as humans are neither able to justify nor to sanctify ourselves in order to make our way to God. Instead, both transforming periods of spiritual life are gifts from our Father through Jesus Christ. While the first one, justification, changes our whole thinking regarding God, ourselves, and others, and gives us the bedrock our spiritual house can be built upon, the second process that sanctifies our whole being enables us to change our behavior, too.

Seeking the approval of Christ – only

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God's wrath, heart, intellect, knowledge, Laodicea, light, love, lukewarmness, Martin Luther, mind, punishment, repentance, revelation, sin, spiritual power, trust, truth, warning

Cross and Fire
(Photo from http://cupandcross.com/)

As a foundation for my following deliberations, I’d like to adduce the following verses.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.” (Prv 3:5-8 ESV)

We may not believe that God always caresses His children. His permanent, perfect, and satisfying love is only for those who have repented of all their sins, that is, those who have “been perfected in love.” (1 Jn 4:18) In all other cases of not-yet-mature Christians, Jesus Christ is a chastener who also punishes sin if we remain in an unrepentant condition although He warned us to return to Him. For it is written,

Prayer, preaching, and love – do they belong together?

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Baptism in the Holy Spirit, experience, following Jesus, Jesus Christ, love, poems, prayer, preaching, repentance, spiritual power

The Visual Bible (Here: The Gospel of John)

The most important thing to do for every minister and servant of God is as Jesus reaffirmed,

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mt 22:37-39 ESV)

If we move the commandment which is to be found in the second place to the first place, we will surely fail. Although both commandments count as equal, we may never forget that obeying the great commandment alone empowers us to love our neighbors with that love we received from God before (Rom 5:5). Also, if we drop the first commandment and try to love others (or ourselves) on our own, we will be frustrated because of not being able to love anyone including ourselves.