Fear and Trembling?

Nothing is more frightening to a follower of Christ than when he questions his salvation. This is a conversation my hubby and I will have from time to time, and we often ask, ‘how do we really know?’

We usually end this conversation feeling encouraged when we realize that if we didn’t care so much about our position before a Holy God, then we probably are in a good place of grace, God’s saving grace.

But there are those sanctifying times that do require of us a fear and trembling. Those times God is addressing sin in our hearts that can raise doubt, frustration, and at times we can feel like the enemy. This is good! But not easy to admit.

We should not stay in this fear and trembling place in a passive way but to put in the work that God is calling us to put in. Though Christ paid for all past, present, and future sin, we do not get to excuse our fleshly behavior.

The Apostle Paul grappled with this, and I believe he did as a Christian. He says, “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! – Romans 7:21-25

I have been feeling this defeat of sin as of late. It is not fun, there is questioning and some doubt. But I am reminded that I cannot roll over in discouragement, laziness, feelings of unworthiness, or whatever thought I am grabbing on to that might slow God’s process down in what he is trying to address in my heart.

As usual, I find timely encouragement as I read Spurgeon’s devotional today:

The world does not object to your being a Christian for a time, if she can but tempt you to cease your pilgrimage, and settle down to buy and sell with her in Vanity Fair. The flesh will seek to ensnare you, and to prevent your pressing on to glory. “It is weary work being a pilgrim; come, give it up. Am I always to be mortified? Am I never to be indulged? Give me at least a furlough from this constant warfare.” Satan will make many a fierce attack on your perseverance; it will be the mark for all his arrows. He will strive to hinder you in service: he will insinuate that you are doing no good; and that you want rest. He will endeavour to make you weary of suffering, he will whisper, “Curse God, and die.” Or he will attack your steadfastness: “What is the good of being so zealous? Be quiet like the rest; sleep as do others, and let your lamp go out as the other virgins do.” Or he will assail your doctrinal sentiments: “Why do you hold to these denominational creeds? Sensible men are getting more liberal; they are removing the old landmarks: fall in with the times.” Wear your shield, Christian, therefore, close upon your armour, and cry mightily unto God, that by his Spirit you may endure to the end.^[1]

Note! Spurgeon speaks of the world, the flesh and Satan. This is a triple threat that works to trip us up all the times. Yet, that is all it is, a threat. Those in Christ have protection, certainty, safety, a Triple Power, that will defeat any threat we face: God our Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Our Heavenly Father who created us, Christ who saved us, and the Holy Spirit who indwells in us once we have surrendered to him. The Trinity is at work in us in the most synergistic and sanctifying way. Clark and Johnson in their book, The Incarnation of God, says this:

“By becoming the incarnate, the Son of God extended his relationship with his Father and the Spirit into our human existence so that we come to know and experience God as he really is. Our union with Christ is a fully Trinitarian reality, a gospel truth he pressed upon his disciples on the way to the cross:

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for  he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. (John 14:16-20)[2]

We have a good God who has provided a way for us through Christ and a Helper in the Holy Spirit. It’s not an easy road for the Christian. And it is a continual surrendering to him and his will through his Word.

Let us pull up our bootstraps and continue on our march in our faith. We are not alone! May God encourage your heart and soul as he has mine.

Therefore, my beloved, as you always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. 

-Philippians 2:12-13

^[1] Spurgeon, C. H. (1896). Morning and evening: Daily readings. London: Passmore & Alabaster.

[2] John C. Clark and Marcus Peter Johnson. The Incarnation of God The Mystery of The Gospel as the Foundation of Evangelical Theology. Pg. 164.