Should Christians fear God, or was the fear of the Lord restricted to the Old Testament? Today, R.C. Sproul prompts us to approach the Holy One with reverence and awe.
In our day in the life of the church, we are no longer encouraged to have a healthy fear of God. We seem to assume that the fear of the Lord is something that belongs specifically and exclusively to the Old Testament and is not to be a part of the life of the Christian. And yet, fear in the Old Testament involves not simply a trembling before God’s wrath and vengeance, but a sense of reverence, a sense of awe before His holiness. And even though the wall of partition has been removed and though we are living on this side of the cross, the fear of the Lord is still the beginning of wisdom. And the mark of the unbeliever is that that person has no fear of God before his eyes. God hasn’t changed. He is still an all-consuming fire. And when we come into His presence, we are to come as children. We are to come as those who have been reconciled. But there is to be a godly fear that still respects who it is we are dealing with.
