My heart became hot within me. As I mused, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue: "O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!"

09 December 2005

Fearing God

As I'm preparing for preaching Sunday night on the wrath of Jesus, I came across this passage from John Murray's Principles of Conduct, and thought it might be helpful.

Is it proper to be afraid of God? The only proper answer is that it is the essence of impiety not to be afraid of God when there is reason to be afraid. Adam's sin and his sin alone was the reason for the emotion of terror with which his soul had become stricken. But once he sinned the absence of this dread would have shown complete insensitivity to the revolution in which his sin consisted and which it also caused. For Adam to have behaved as if the rupture had not taken place would have been an unspeakable aggravation of his offense.

...It would be a violation of the infirmity inherent in our finitude not to be filled with horror and anguish at the thought of being subject to the fury of God's displeasure...Why do we resist the thought of God's wrath? Why do we try to suppress the conviction of its reality? Is it not because we do not wish to entertain the terror which the conviction involves and we do not wish to be placed under the necessity of fashioning thought and life in terms of this reality?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jared:

I'm sure you must be teasing. A whole sermon on the wrath of Jesus? To the extent that God ever gets wrathful, it is just the Father. :)

Seriouly...I'm looking forward to what God is teaching you on this subject. As you know, we've taken a look at the subject a time or two in the Rev. 2nd hour class...Rev.6:16 for example.

Jeff Kessler

Tamara said...

Merry Christmas everyone! Jesus is going to send you to hell if you think His birthday is really on the 25th of December. :) From your loving, "Christmas hating" sister n Law. :)

Anonymous said...

Just curious...do you hate it because it is not celebrated the correct day or would you hate it anyway?

SaraY said...

I think I would hate it anyway :-)

Jared said...

Boo to the scrooges. Boo! I'm hoping that the above comments were tongue in cheek.

How did we get here anyway?

Two cents: God made us as creatures who celebrate (birthdays, anniversaries, Old Testament feasts, etc.). To celebrate the incarnation of God into our world is not wrong. (To call it a holy day, however, is over the top). So, if you don't want to celebrate Christmas, fine and dandy, but don't pretend that you have Scriptural support for stopping others.

Merry Christmas!

Tamara said...

Goodness... yes, it was tongue in cheek. I just wanted to comment because Jared knows that I don't like Christmas sermons. Christmas is not bad. I just don't think Christians should push it as a Christian holiday. It was not commanded by Christ. Don't worry it was a joke. :) I do think it is neat that this year Hanukah and Christmas fall on the same day. I don't think this is always the case.

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