Today
it occurred to me that there are two big fears that need to be dealt with. One
is the fear of anger, and the other is the fear of rejection. Often these two
fears stick together like two bullies at the playground. However, each one also
works alone, so our consideration of these things allows for any way that these
fears restrict our experience of perfect love.
When
God’s word says that there is no fear in love, it includes the elaboration that
there is no fear of anger in the love of God, and no fear of rejection. On the
other hand, when God says that his perfect love drives out fear, it also includes
the wonderful truth that his perfect love drives out our fear of his anger and our
fear of his rejection.
It
is interesting that there is this clarification that, “fear has to do with punishment”. Both anger and rejection are
common experiences associated with punishment. Many of us know that, when we
get in trouble with some people (even when we do not deserve punishment), we
can expect them to get angry. We also know people who punish us with rejection
if we do not do things their way.
God
makes it clear that anger and rejection are natural components of punishment.
Everything we know about his view of punishment of the wicked includes him
pouring out his wrath/anger against them, and rejecting them forever. Who can
get around that?
In
fact, the very first time we are introduced to sin requiring punishment is in
the third chapter of the Bible. God told Adam that if he ate from the one
forbidden tree, humanity would die. When Adam ate from the tree, his eyes were
opened, he realized that he was naked, he tried his own ineffective way to
cover his nakedness, and he hid in the trees because his way of covering
himself didn’t get rid of his shame, guilt, or fear.
When
God called to Adam, this is how Adam responded: “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and
I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”[2] This was the expression of what John wrote hundreds of years later,
that fear has to do with punishment. Adam sinned, he knew he would be punished,
so he hid in fear. The first expression of fear followed the first experience
of sin.
Part of the good news about Jesus Christ is that through
his death he experienced all the wrath/anger against our sin that God would
ever pour out, and he experienced all the rejection by the Father that we would
ever have experienced had we remained in our sin. When God revels that Jesus is
the one “whom God put forward as a
propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith,”[3] he was telling us that Jesus was the one who took
away the wrath of God by the shedding of his blood.
On the cross, Jesus experienced all the wrath of God
against all the sins of his brothers. All of it! When he said, “It is finished!”[4] it included this work of propitiation, that the
pouring out of God’s wrath/anger against our sin was finished. For those who
come to him by faith, there will never again be any anger against our sin. The
sons of God will experience God disciplining us in love,[5] but never in anger.
When Jesus groaned out from the cross, “My God, my God, why have
you forsaken me?”[6] he was announcing for all the rest of time that he had experienced
all the rejection his brothers have ever deserved from the Triune God. When he
said, “It is finished!” it also
included this wonderful reality, that God rejecting the people he was punishing
was finished. Never again would there be the threat of rejection from God
hanging over the heads of anyone who has faith in Jesus Christ.
When
God says that his perfect love drives out fear, and then contrasts this with
punishment that always includes the fear of anger and rejection, it is to
assure his children that his perfect love will drive out our fear of his anger,
and our fear of his rejection. There is no fear in the experience of the love
of God, so there is no fear of either of these two emotional bullies.
What
does this do to my heart? It makes it run into this light to soak up all the
vitamin D of God’s love (God’s DELIGHT in his children, if you will), so that I
can experience as much of this perfect love today as it is possible for someone
like me to know and experience this side of heaven. If such a love as this is
there, free for the taking (and God says it is), why not stand under the
infinite stream that pours down from heaven so that I can be as satisfied in
this love as a human soul can possibly be satisfied? Seems entirely reasonable
to my heartbroken and hope-filled soul, if you ask me (and I am glad that you did!)
From
my heart,
Monte
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~
Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise
noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible,
English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway
Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
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