Salvation: The Fear of God
by Tom Asbury

The Fear of God

I believe the fear of God acts as a watch dog on the conscience of society. A culture that loses its fear and reverence for God soon becomes a scary place to live. Let me ask you a simple question, Do you fear God? Has there ever been a time in your life when you were awestruck with a fear of God that was very powerful and convicting. Maybe you can't ever remember such a time. Or maybe it was in the distant past. Maybe you cannot even think of a reason why you should fear God. The Bible does say however in Matt:10:28, "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell". There isn't much talk these days about hell but I think it is one of the missing links in the degeneration of our society. When people don't believe in accountability after death, the world becomes a very wicked and corrupt place. But there is accountability and judgment after death. Death itself is a judgment on man's sin. (Genesis 2:16-17) Indeed if God had not made hell, He would be very unjust because there is so much wrong in this world. If you have ever wondered how a righteous God could let so many bad people get by with so much, you are only looking at part of the picture. Hell is the great equalizer! The very concept of a righteous and just God demands accountability beyond this world and that accountability is proportional to the light rejected in this life and the degree of wickedness indulged in. "It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city." (Matt. 10:15) God is a God of love and justice. One is not more important to Him than the other. His love is deeper than the sea and His justice is as inflexible as the law of gravity.

We must all see ourselves as God sees us. It makes no difference what people think of you or even what you think of yourself. We all have at best a very distorted picture of ourselves. God is the only one who really knows us; therefore His opinion is the only one that counts. God says, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God...There is none righteous, no, not one. (Rom. 3:23,10) We are all together undone. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. We are all much worse than we could possibly imagine ourselves to be. The ugly truth is: we are rebels against God. We are all practical atheists because we do not revere, worship, acknowledge and love God with all our heart. The greatest commandment is "to love the Lord thy God with all your heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. And the second is like unto to it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself". (Matt. 22:37-39) All of us break the greatest commandment every day of our lives. And yet many think that they are good and righteous people because they have not committed murder or adultery. They feel deceptively and fatally safe. But if we break the greatest commandment every day, how can we possibly feel that we can escape the judgment of Hell apart from the grace of God. The Bible says that "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." (Heb. 10:31)

There is a lot of misery, anxiety, hatred, emulation, strife, separation, and divorce in this world. Sin is behind every bad thing that happens to us in this world. And there are many people who suffer much in this life. I have heard some even say that hell could not be worse than what they were experiencing in this world! But the suffering of this life, though great, is not to be compared with the suffering of a place "where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched". Hell is a place of fire that torments but does not consume. Jesus said, "They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth". (Matt. 13:42) Hell is God's eternal penitentiary without possibility of parole! Perhaps you would imagine to make the most of it if that be your lot. You will wait it out. Somehow you will get through. You will have plenty of company. There will be an end. But after only a second in hell, the occupants will realize that there is an infinite chasm between the judgment of man and God! Can the largest worm defy the oncoming foot of an elephant? Can the nastiest insect overtaken by a raging forest fire fly out once engulfed by the flames? At which time it hits the flames, it is consumed instantly without struggle. The flames are so disproportionately stronger than its strength to resist that there really doesn't appear to be resistance. It is quiet capitulation to the flames. And if you think the flames of hell to be but a figure of speech, then the reality of the pain and suffering of hell must be infinitely greater than words can describe! Jesus preached more about hell than anyone else in the Bible. He was truly the fieriest 'hell-fire and brimstone" preacher to ever preach. No one else comes close!

That's the bad news. If God by His grace has somehow made you aware of the terrible reality of your sins and hell, then may He also make you aware of the wonderful reality of His mercy. Every sin that we have ever committed must be paid for. It will either be paid for by the sinner or by the Substitute. Jesus is the Substitute. He is the only one qualified to pay for the sin debt of the world because He is the only one who lived a sinless life. He was in "all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." (Heb. 4:15b) The Bible says "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way: and he Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." (Isa. 53:6) God laid on Christ our iniquities. Christ died for all the sins of the world.

In order to get that payment credited to your sin debt, you must repent. Repentance is more than a sad feeling. It is a keen realization of how despicable your sins are in the sight of a holy God. It is seeing that your whole life has been lived apart from and in defiance of the God of the universe. It is a dreadful awareness that the only thing that keeps you from falling into hell is the fact that you are still breathing God's air. It is a brokeness of heart over your sins. It is making amends for past wrongs when possible. Repentance is a turning away from sin and a turning to Christ

After turning away from your sins you must now focus on Christ as your sin bearer. He that believeth on Him (Christ) hath everlasting life; he that believeth not shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him." (John 3:36) Believing in the substitutional death of Christ is the key that unlocks the door to God's mercy. Once you have turned from your sins to Christ and by faith have trusted Him as your Savior, the Bible declares that you have everlasting life! You possess it the minute you repent and believe. And it is forever! The Bible also says, "for by grace are you saved through faith, and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." (Eph. 2:8-9) There is nothing man can give God that would atone for his sins. But Christ's death on behalf of man's sins was accepted. The resurrection of Christ is the most easily proved event in history and it is God's strongest validation statement of the efficacy of His Son's death on the cross. God "now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." (Acts 17:30-31)

Yes there is a heaven and there is a hell. There is no middle ground, no intermediate place, no second chance after death. You will not find any of these loopholes in the Bible. God says, "Today if you hear His voice, harden not your hearts". Every time we hear the voice of God we either move towards Him and allow our hearts to be softened or move away from Him. If you choose to move away from Him, you are that much closer to paying the ultimate price-your sin debt in hell. The Bible says, "Look unto me and be saved all ye ends of the earth." If you have heard God's voice speaking to you, and have done what God has asked you to do, I rejoice with you and encourage you to do at least four things. Read God's Word-the Bible. This allows God to talk to you. Pray. This allows you to talk to God. and ask Him for the things you have need of. Confess what you have done to others. Tell others, who may not understand, what you now have experienced. Fellowship with believers in a good fundamental Bible believing church that clearly teaches the Bible and strives to be accountable to it. And lastly, remember that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." (Prov. 9:10)