Overcoming Fear with an Even Greater Fear: A Confession

“The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread” Isaiah 8:13.

I had several encounters over the past week that left me quite disappointed in myself. One in particular, was a remarkable opportunity to explain the gospel to someone.  But instead, I acquiesced to the politically correct voice to simply encourage this person with some “safe words.” How cowardly! 

As I went about grieving over my seeming faithlessness, I was met by Isaiah 8:11-13. And what a fascinating truth it brought. In that passage, the LORD warns Isaiah against the common fears of his age. Verses 11 and 12 state:

“This is what the Lord says to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people: ‘Do not call conspiracy everything this people calls a conspiracy; do not fear what they fear and do not dread it.”

A prudent caution from the LORD. Its goal however is not to exhort Isaiah to live without fear but rather to relinquish all his “slavish creature-fears in the reverential fear of God.”[1] Verse 13 states: “The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread.”  So in short, Isaiah, don’t fear what others fear, but let your dread and regard be for The Lord Almighty who is holy.

The picture then is not overcoming the first fear with some wonderful jolt of courage but rather making that first fear a trivial thing in light of an even greater fear: the fear of a transcendent and holy God – One who is far removed from you and me in righteousness. He is perfect beyond our understanding. He is awesome in His majesty, absolute in His justice and fearsome in His glory (Isaiah 6:5, Luke 5:8). He is a God to be feared! What an insult to regard someone else’s perception of me over His honor! What a sin!

I’m grieving over my sin today and mourning over the offense it is to God’s glory (James 4:8-10). I understand that my hope for overcoming rests alone in God’s sanctifying power. So I’m drawing close to Him in fervent prayer, not for fearlessness, but for a consuming and reverential fear of Him that makes all other fears inconsequential. 

---

[1] Divine Conduct and Saint Indeed, John Flavel

Why I Called my Baby a Sinner

I wrote a post on January 1 in which I called my toddler a sinner. The comment was made in passing and left unaddressed with the promise to discuss on another day. Today is that day and this is that post so let’s discuss. Why did I call my baby a sinner?

To begin, the statement doesn’t come as a result of some particularly unscrupulous behavior of my daughter. On the contrary, my little one is among of the most agreeable toddlers I’ve known. Like most her age, she has moments of unbridled insistence and will fuss and complain when she doesn’t get her way. These however succumb easily to our rebuke (and/or soothing) and she usually turns from her misbehavior with little hesitancy. On the whole, she is a delight to parent; we love her deeply and have enjoyed life with her these 18-months.

So why do I call her a sinner? The short answer is that she is. She is a sinner. Like all human beings before her and like those who will come after her, she was conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity (Psalm 51:5). Charles Spurgeon once said that: “As the salt flavors every drop in the Atlantic, so does sin affect every atom of our nature. It is so sadly there, so abundantly there, that if you cannot detect it, you are deceived.” There are few of us so deceived as to deny the reality of our sin. After all, “Who can say, ‘I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin”’ (Proverbs 20:9)? The Bible is crystal clear on this point. It states plainly that “all have sinned and have come short of God’s glory” (Romans 3:23). In fact, left to ourselves, there is no one who seeks God, no not even one (Romans 3:11-18)!

We are the descendants of Adam after all. And as physical traits are passed on from one generation to to the next, so is Adam’s sin inherited by all generations after him. We are therefore born in sin and according to his flesh. The Apostle Paul teaches that “The mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:7-8, emphasis mine). What an amazing thought! Allow yourself for a moment to consider the fact that outside of Jesus’s righteousness, you are unable to please God.

This inability makes sense, of course, when we consider Paul’s other words in Ephesians 2:1-2. He states that “you were dead in your trespasses and sin, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world.” A dead person cannot be anything but dead for s/he is void of life. We are born sinners, spiritually dead at birth with no righteousness of our own to justify us before God. For this reason, “no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again” (John 3:3). The spiritually dead person is brought to life – given new birth – by that same power that raised Christ from the dead and is made alive together with Christ Jesus (Colossians 2:13). This is our Christian hope and joy – the Good News of the Gospel.

And it is for this reason that I call my daughter a sinner. She must know that her “ability” to please God will not come from her own effort, strength or “goodness” (see The Benefit of Being Clueless). Her hope for salvation rests alone in God’s work through His Son who paid the debt of her sins and opens the door for her into new life with Him. My daughter’s “work” in all this is to believe by grace in the One God has sent (John 6:29). And so - with care - I will help her to understand that she is a sinner. As her mother, my aim will not be to condemn, embarrass or belittle her. But with great faithfulness, humility, affection for her and commitment to the gospel, my prayer is that she would not be among those so deceived as to deny the reality of their sin.