The “blessed confusion” of fearing God
John Bunyan's book The Fear of God (1679) paints a powerful picture of God's "dreadful" presence. He references verses like Revelation 1:17, when in a vision, John the Apostle comes face to face with Christ: "When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead."
Leading up to this verse, John builds a frightening picture of Jesus with a voice like "the sound of rushing waters," a face like "like the sun shining in all its brilliance," and eyes "like blazing fire." No wonder John was terrified.
Then Jesus' own words in the second half of verse 17 soothe him (and us): "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever!"
Bunyan explains that God's fearsome presence reminds us of the way "the presence of a king is dreadful to the subject." We tremble at the sovereign's majesty, his power over life and death.
At times, Bunyan can seem to exaggerate what fearing the Lord should look like for believers, but I love what he says on page eight: "O, the blessed confusion that will then cover thy face whilst thou, even thou, so vile a wretch, shalt stand before God to receive at his hand thy pardon…."
Bunyan describes how the forgiveness of our sins increases the sense of our filth, and how we should rejoice and tremble that "God hath forgiven a filthy sinner."
I feel this. I know the things I have done, and I tremble at how cavalierly I sinned. I had no regard for God before I was a believer—I was my own god.
On that day I face him, I will indeed be blessed by God's confusing, mysterious mercy, shown me because of Christ.
In the meantime, as a leader and member of the body, this infuses in me a desire to love others better and be more forgiving. How could I not, with how deeply I have been forgiven myself? (See Luke 7:47.)
Grateful,
Tom Harper
Founder, BiblicalLeadership.com
LinkedIn profile | My books
If you'd like to learn more about fearing the Lord, see John Piper's wonderful article: What Does It Mean for the Christian to Fear God?
 | Tom Harper is publisher of BiblicalLeadership.com and executive chairman of Networld Media Group, a business-to-business publisher and event producer. He has written five books, including Servant Leader Strong: Uniting Biblical Wisdom and High-Performance Leadership (DeepWater Books, 2019) as well as the Christian business fable Through Colored Glasses and its sequel Inner Threat (DeepWater, 2022). Learn More » |
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