The Fear of the Lord

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

There is an old verse to the hymn “Amazing Grace” that has not made it into our hymnals. The second verse in many renditions outside Lutheranism goes “Twas grace that taught my heart to fear / And grace my fears relieved. / How precious did that grace appear / The hour I first believed.” When we sing this hymn, we do very well without this verse. Why? Because it simply is not true.

Grace is not what teaches the heart to fear. Think about it. There is nothing at all fearsome about grace. What is there to fear in the unmitigated, unbridled, unfiltered love of God poured out upon you because of the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross? Are you afraid because your sins have been forgiven, your life is secure in Christ, and your heavenly home is prepared for you? Grace does not teach you to fear. Grace only makes you unafraid.

But does that mean that you should not fear anything? Good heavens – no! You do well to be fearful of the wrath that is to be revealed at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is coming in judgment, to judge both the living and the dead, and His judgment is forever. “He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall kill the wicked.” This is something worth being afraid of. This is what Luther is talking about when he teaches us that “God threatens to punish all who break these commandments. Therefore, we should fear His wrath and not to anything against them.”

St. John the Baptist warns also of the impending judgment upon the world. “Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Thus saith the Lord. The axe of judgment swings fast and it swings heavy. The Lord does not miss His target. And the fire of hell burns long and hot.

This is why our Lord Jesus Christ is coming. Last week, you heard about His coming into Jerusalem seated on a donkey, to enter into His Passion. This week, you hear of His coming not in peace and quiet, to be acclaimed as the King of David. This week, St. John the Forerunner heralds the King of the Universe who is coming in judgment over His kingdom. This is the King from whom people run and hide. This is the King who strikes fear into the hearts of the wicked and the unfaithful. He is the Great High Priest who will baptize with fire.

Notice how Isaiah describes His judgment. “He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth.” That is, the King of the Universe will judge not with His eyes or ears, not with His heart or His feelings – no, He will judge the earth with His Word.

He will judge the earth with the eternal standard which has been proclaimed from the foundation of the world. He will judge the world, which is fading away, with the Word of the Lord, which remains forever. He will judge you, O Man, according to His standard, and not according to your own. This ought to – no, this must teach your heart to fear.

For you, O Man, have not met this everlasting standard of righteousness. You have acted against the poor. You have failed to help and support your neighbor in every physical need. You have taken advantage of the poor, and failed to help those whom you might. Your taxes are not your tithe. Your charitable contributions do not excuse you from caring for your actual real-life neighbors. You have not provided for the widows and elderly as you ought. The standard of the Law is that you give sacrificially for the sake of your neighbor. Have you done this?

Have you ever given til it hurts, for any cause? Could you sell all that you have and give it to the poor? Or would you curse God and die if your whole fortune were taken from you in an instant? Obedience to the Lord, and to His Law, involves hating the things of this world, and instead loving the people in this world such that you would give of your own to serve the needs of your neighbor.

You have not brought up your children in the fear and delight of the Lord. Look around you – how many of your children are with you here today? How many of you could come to this altar with your children and grandchildren? You have not modeled the example of perfect sacrificial love for your wives, or humble respect and submission to your husbands. You have not kept the Word of the Lord on your lips as you spoke to your children. You have not taught them to pray, to hear and learn the Word of God, to give thanks in all things. You have not disciplined them with love, nor forgiven them with grace and mercy.

Repent. Fear the Lord because of the wrath coming against all who disobey His Law and miss the mark of His perfect standards.The Lord delights in the fear of the Lord in the hearts of His people. Not because He likes you to be quaking-in-your-boots afraid, but because He delights to see you keep His Law, and because He delights in your confession that you are a poor, miserable sinner who desperately needs the Son of God to come and cleanse you of all unrighteousness by His own holy and precious blood.

The Lord delights in His people's fear, because He delights to be the Holy One of Israel, enthroned as King of Kings in the hearts of His children. Fear God, and give Him glory! Fear Him, because in His hand are the keys of life and death, in His hand are the scales of good and evil. Fear Him because He holds your life in His hand. Fear Him because He is perfect and holy and good, and you are not.

But fear not for your salvation. For it is indeed grace that has relieved your fears. It is the pure, holy, innocent sufferings and death of Jesus Christ upon the cross for you that has canceled the record of debts against you. Our Lord Jesus Christ has died upon the cross that should have been yours. And He is no longer there, but risen from the dead, ascended to the highest heavens, and lives and reigns over His kingdom in grace and mercy.

He has fulfilled the Law of God for you when you could not. He has done all things that His Father required, so that in His death He might obtain your life. He has finished what you could not even begin. And He has begun in you a new work – the work of His new creation. All this He does by His grace, out of His mercy, purely as a gift to you.

Grace has indeed relieved your fears, because grace has silenced the voice of the Law with all its condemnation. Grace is the living water poured over you that drowns your old sinful nature, once long ago and every day since. It is the Word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of the minister of God, both publicly in the Divine Service and privately in Holy Absolution, which proclaims your sins forgiven and your conscience cleansed. It is the Blood of Christ shed on the cross and now poured down your throat to forgive your sins and strengthen you for the journey through the valley of the shadow of death.

And do not fear the judgment to come upon the world. For grace relieves that fear also. Your judgment is already secure. You have already met the judgment in your death in that watery grave which stands before you today. The Lord has already judged you, not with His ears or with His eyes, but with righteousness. That is, He has judged you with Christ Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness. He has judged you righteous for the sake of Christ our Lord. How precious does this grace appear, from the hour you first believed!

Fear God and give Him glory!

A little fear is good, because it keeps you walking the narrow way. Fear is good, when it motivates you to confess your sins and receive the blessed Absolution. But soon the time is coming when there will be no fear.

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.

A little child shall lead them. A little child – the one still in the womb of the Blessed Virgin. The little child not born of the flesh of man or of the will of man, but of the will of God – He shall lead them. And He shall lead you – lead you forth in joy and bring you out in peace, with shouts of thanksgiving and loud songs of gladness.

He will lead you forth to fill the world with His praises. He will lead you wherever He has need of you, that you might be His hands and feet and voice in this world. He will lead you to your neighbor, so that you might help him in his hour of need. He will lead you to your wife, that you might be the husband He has created you to be. He will lead you to your children, that you may be the father they need you to be. He will lead you in the fear and delight of the Lord.

He who has the seven-fold Spirit of the Lord has sent Him upon you, that you might be filled with the Spirit of God. Filled with this seven-fold Spirit, you live in grace and mercy, in the love and providence of God the Father Almighty. And this Spirit will lead you in joy and peace, all the while pointing to the cross of Christ as the signal for the peoples – “of Him shall the nations inquire, and His resting place shall be glorious!”

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.