Fear and Hope

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The fear of God is an awful thing. Stop and think about it for a moment. God has the power to end your existence, simply by willing it. He can crush you like you swat a fly. His judgment is so terrible and so beyond comprehension that it makes the earth itself quake and the seas foam. He makes the foundations of His temple shake, and the angels, His holy servants, hide their faces from Him.

Fear can paralyze and destroy. Luther was deathly frightened of any contact with God before he discovered the Gospel. He thought that God was only a God of wrath and judgment, waiting in heaven to strike down man to hell for failing to keep even the most minute part of the Law. Luther perceived only the sword of the Spirit cutting him apart.

But, as terrible as the fear of the Lord can be, having no fear of God is even worse. Having no fear of judgment leads to lawlessness. What do you do when you think nobody is looking? At the very least, having no fear of punishment leads to laziness, because there is no consequence to not getting anything done.

When you have no fear of punishment, the whole practice of ethics fractures. Why do you act a certain way, choose a certain thing? Because it is the right thing to do? And what defines right? For most people, right is the thing that keeps them from being punished, even if only by the negative opinions of others. If you have no fear of God, then you certainly have no fear of your neighbor or anyone else. If not fear, then you have no concern for another's wellbeing.

If you have no fear, and therefore no concern for others, then society begins to disintegrate. Sure, you may not break the laws of the land, but you will do what is legal and not what is necessarily moral or ethical. Legal right to do something does not make it profitable to you. Moreover, you may do things which benefit yourself, but which are certainly harmful to others or to the realm of creation around you. The last four of the Ten Commandments teach you about what it means to care for your neighbor. You ought not steal from him his property, reputation, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. Neither should you entice away his members or take what is his by a show of legal right.

The Old Testament is full of condemnation for those who mistreated the widows and orphans. This is seen by the prophets as a sort of litmus test for the spiritual health of the people. If you live in the fear, love, and trust of God, then you will, as a matter of course, care for the poor and needy among you. It is simply what the children of God do. However, if you neglect or mistreat the widows and orphans, it is a symptom of the disorder of lawlessness that plagues the natural man.

In today's Psalm, you heard David crying out for mercy: “Out of the depths I cry to You, O Lord!” David experiences great fear of the Lord. In the hand of the Lord are judgment and mercy, and it is His to apportion them to the peoples. David is experiencing the fear of judgment rightly grounded upon his sin and guilt. In the depths of the pit that is the groundless abyss of the fallen human nature, David calls to the Lord. The knowledge of sin causes fear. Fear causes you to cry out for help. The cry of the faithful in the pit is nothing other than a plea for grace.

What David is crying out to God is simply, Forgive me, O Lord! He knows his sin, since he is surrounded by them and trapped in the pit of them. He calls out to God to be forgiven of them, that God would carry him up and out of the pit, and into His grace and mercy.

In like fashion, then, you pray daily: “Deliver us from evil.” You are asking God to haul you up out of the mire, out of the mess of your sin and guilt and death. You are praying that He would forgive your sins and save you from all unrighteousness. You are praying that He would keep you from the Evil One, who would have you remain trapped in that bottomless pit, and then paint it with such lovely pictures that you never think to cry out for help.

David cries out further: “O Lord, hear my voice!” Sometimes it seems like God does not hear you. He remains silent, as far as your ears can hear. He withholds a word of blessing. He does not give you what you want. The trials and tribulations do not go away. You are still stuck in the same old mess. The terrible prospect of being left alone in your sin starts to settle upon you.

After all, if God will not listen to your pleas, who will? No one else can help you. Every other person on earth is stuck in his own pit, just like you are. The devil will not help you, because he has you right where he wants you. You might here sentimental platitudes and half-hearted attempts to assist you, but they will all fail. Things are not alright. You cannot have your best life now. Bad things happen to people who appear good.

You may hear deceptive claims to be able to brush sin off. These are as good as a picture of a ladder painted on the wall of the well down which you have fallen. Self-improvement is a lie. There is no strategy, no program, no set of principles that will make you able to haul yourself out of the pit. Keep crying out, keep call on God to hear you.

Fear of God is good. It keeps you aware of His presence, of His Law which condemns sin and threatens judgment. Lack of fear leads to sin. Consider Adam and Eve. When the serpent created doubt in their minds about the judgment for disobedience, they lost their fear of punishment, and did what was evil in the sight of God.

A lack of fear also leads to what Jesus, in today's Gospel lesson, calls the one unforgivable sin – blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. This sin is not simply unbelief. Rather, it is to have known the grace and love of God, to have received the work of the Holy Spirit in one's heart, and then to have willingly and obstinately thrown away the gift and rejected the grace of God in Christ Jesus. This starts with a lack of fear, because a healthy fear of God would never allow one to make such an affront to His Word and His Spirit.

“If You, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” Here David is expressing His fears. The Lord is the one who marks iniquities. Therefore, there is no one who will stand on his own in the judgment. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. All have broken His holy Law. All this David confesses.

“But with You there is forgiveness, that You may be feared.” Sin leads to fear of judgment. Fear leads to confession of sin and a plea for grace. Finally, confession leads to the wondrous absolution. There is, therefore, a tension between fear and hope. Sin breeds fear, but fear, in faith, breeds hope. Fear drives you to God, but, by the Holy Spirit, that causes you to hope in God's mercy upon the basis of His promise.

But take heart! The end of your hope has already been accomplished. The plenteous redemption of Israel has taken place. For the very Holy One of Israel, the Lamb of God, has been slain and His blood has made you clean, pure, and holy. By the shedding of Jesus' blood upon the cross, it has been finished. Your forgiveness is won, your redemption is sealed. The sun of righteousness has risen with healing in His wings. God has heard your pleas for grace and mercy, and He has already sent His only-begotten Son to accomplish just that for you. It is finished. Your sins are forgiven. You have been lifted up out of the pit.

Therefore, “O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with Him is plenteous redemption.” Indeed, the Lord does deliver you from all evil of body and soul. He hears your pleas for help and answers speedily. He hears your confession of sins and forgives you without reservation or condition. He will indeed come to take you from this vale of sorrow to Himself in heaven. And He will, in all things, keep you from the Evil One. Hope in the Lord! He is the fount of grace, the redeemer of your soul!

While in this world, it will often seem as though you are stuck in the miry pit of your sin, guilt, and shame. But know that God hears your confession and forgives your sins, and He rescues you from the pit. You need not fear the terror of the unforgivable sin. For, “Whoever fears God desires His grace and does not care about anything that is not God; for he knows that no one can harm him if God is gracious to him” (Luther, AE 14:191).

Though great our sins, yet greater still

Is God's abundant favor;

His hand of mercy never will

Abandon us, nor waver.

Our shepherd good and true is He,

Who will at last His Israel free

From all their sin and sorrow (LSB 607:5).

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.