Should Christians Really Fear God? Online Bible Lessons

Does The Bible Warn Christians to Fear God?  

Today I hope to answer the question of should Christians fear God. In Proverbs 9:10 we read the “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” and many people are running around using this verse to teach believers that they need to be afraid of God. Then we end up with Christians thinking that God is hurling wrath at them, causing them to get diseases, lose jobs, or suffer whenever they stumble in sin.

Let me ask you a question. As it relates to God how do you see yourself? Do you see yourself more as a CHILD of God or a SERVANT of God? It’s sad how some Christians are afraid of God –  they’re looking at Him as their master who is just waiting for them to mess up so he can whip ‘em. As a believer Gods perfect love should have removed all of your fear because there is NO PUNISHMENT that the believer should be anxiously worrying about.

This question separates the religious from the righteous: Do you see God as your heavenly Father or as your master? A religious person will hesitate to respond, freaked out by the thought that he would dare speak of the Almighty God of the universe in such comfortable terms. Then an Old Testament bible verse will come to mind and he will say something all spiritual sounding like, “I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God…” A religious person is content to be nothing more than a servant, and thus they miss the most exciting part of a relationship with God, our daddy.

There are only two kinds of children in the world: sons and orphans. Which are you? Satans desire is to have us so jacked up about our identity that we will relate to God mostly as our master and almost forget that He calls us His children. A religious person relates to God as a Master, but Jesus came to reveal the Father. That’s right, the almighty calls us his Children. We have a very intimate relationship with God. The religious person always has a prepared speech that begins like, “make me like one of your hired hands” (Lk 15:19). God is not interested that speech! He is not recruiting slaves or servants; He wants children! Like the prodigal son, you may see yourself as no more than a servant, but God sees you as His little child whom He really deeply loves and He wants all of your fears removed. Fear is an Old covenant problem. You have something much better. Which covenant are you obsessed with, the old, or the new? Under the new you have total forgiveness of sins. Under the new Christ lives in you. Under the new there is not punishment.

Here’s a couple of NEW COVENANT verse that we should be clinging on to.

[Romans 8:15] For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to FEAR again, but you have received a spirit of ADOPTION AS SONS by which we cry out, “Abba! FATHER!”

[1 JOHN 4:18] “There is NO FEAR in love; but perfect love CASTS OUT FEAR, because fear involves PUNISHMENT, and the one who fears is NOT PERFECTED in love.

Yes, we should be in awe at the God of the universe and His power. We should respect Him. But do you know what God really wants? He wants us to love Him. He wants us to trust Him. He wants us to believe Him.

The God we serve came in the flesh, willfully allowed humans to spit in His face, beat Him, and ultimately put Him to death on a cross. He did that while we were sinners to show His love and save us from His judgment. How do we get a God that wants us to fear Him out this incredible act of kindness?

John 3:18 tells us that “he who believes is not judged. Hebrews 10:17 say He remembers our sins no more. Our sins have been washed away, we have been made alive with Christ, we are justified, are sanctified. In other words we have been made right with God. What we need to understand is this rightness with God never was and never will be about our performance. Good or bad. It’s only about what Jesus did on that cross and our faith in Him that makes us clean and close to God. It’s not on ongoing process that we contribute to by our works or ability to avoid struggles with sin. It is finished. Once for all. All glory to God. Amen.