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THE DYNAMICS OF GRACE,
Part 2
The Fear of Judgment
and the Power of the Atonement
by Jay Wegter INTRODUCTION –
Scripture makes it clear that all men are in bondage and slavery to the fear of death (Heb. 2:14,15). The source of the fear has to do with what
lies on the other side of death (Job 18:14).
The fear involved is a dread fear of punishment
(1 John 4:18; Heb. 9:27; 1 Cor. 15:56). The fear beneath
all fears is one of ultimate judgment.
In that form of judgment, the person and his right to exist are
condemned. There is a radical
diminishing of the self so that all wellbeing is lost. (In our earthly experience, think of how
difficult it is to forget times of intense shame and humiliation that we have
experienced.) Living with this
fear of judgment colors our whole experience of life. The fear is rooted in the fear of ultimate condemnation. That fear finds its day to day expression in
anxiety, rage, tension, stress and depression.
People will do almost anything to prevent returning to that unbearable
place of exposure and condemnation. When sin entered
the human race, the fear of condemnation was its instantaneous companion. Immediately after sinning, Adam and Eve
utilized strategies to ward off the threat of judgment. Adam attempted
to cover
his shame. He was afraid. He tried to hide from
his Creator and Judge. He engaged in blame
in order to defer judgment away from himself (Gen. 3:7-13). According to
Scripture, the guilt man feels as a sinner is not simply the irritations of
conscience, it is actual legal guilt before
God (Rom. 3:23; 2:5). Adam’s fear of
punishment (his response to loss of innocence), is the universal response of
his sinful descendants. The human
condition is characterized by guilt, blame, shame, hiding, anxiety, flight and
defiance. By nature, we
are like Adam, we do not deal courageously with our sin. The fear of punishment makes cowards of us
all (Note the baseball and the broken window story). The roots of cowardice penetrate deep in our lives because not only are we condemned in our
acts of sin, but also in our whole nature
and being. Only a perfect
atonement can end our fear of judgment!
The design of Christ’s propitiatory sacrifice was to deliver us from the
bondage of fear. Only when that fear is cast out can we be perfected in love (1 John 4:18). (The word propitiation refers to the power of Christ’s substitutionary death
to fully satisfy the claims of God’s law against the sinner. Apart from His propitiation, the full eternal weight of God’s wrath falls upon the
unbeliever.) THE POWER OF SIN
IS THE LAW (1 COR. 15:56). By means of the
Law, sin is charged to our account (Rom. 5:13). When we transgress the Law of God, iniquity is imputed to
us. The Law declares death’s legal
power over us as the just penalty for sin (Ez. 18:4; 1 Cor. 15:56). Sinners are
capital offenders in custody, awaiting judgment (Gal. 3:22). The degree to which God’s verdict is
resisted by the human race almost defies reason. So great is man’s antipathy to the verdict, it could be compared
to the following scenario. A man was
led to an immense stack of bricks and lumber.
He asks the purpose for the building materials. He is told that he is to construct a
courthouse in which he will be tried and found guilty, to build a cell in which
he will be incarcerated and to erect a gallows on which he will be hung. Men imagine that
they are acting in their own interest when they refuse to believe God’s verdict
regarding their sin and what it deserves.
But such is not the case, for only those who agree with God’s verdict
avail themselves of God’s merciful remedy.
The legal
condemnation of God’s Law hangs over a person like a huge sword ready to drop,
pierce and cleave us by God’s wrath. (In our glorious gospel, the Son of God placed
Himself between us and God’s “sword” of wrath.
In the substitutionary death of Christ, the “sword” of God’s wrath falls
upon the Son of God in His death by crucifixion.) THE LAW WAS THE
MINISTRY OF CONDEMNATION AND DEATH (2 COR. 3:7-9). Sinful human
nature staggered under the Law’s crushing demands. Instead of being able to control a person morally, the Law
strangles and suffocates the sinner.
(The Law’s demands are absolute, but it grants no power or inclination
to the sinner that enables obedience.) The Law came
with a curse (Gal. 3:10-13). The Law
was meant to be the great revealer of man’s sinful condition (Rom. 3:20). The inability of the Hebrew nation to keep
God’s Law is an authoritative commentary about the entire human race (Note that
one only has to test one bucket of water in order to find out if a whole bay is
polluted. The nation of Israel was a
small portion of humanity.) THE LAW IS NOT
OF FAITH (GAL. 3:12). In the Sermon on
the Mount, Christ’s words struck the religious establishment of Jerusalem like
a thunderbolt. The Jewish religious
leaders had systematized the Mosaic Law into a predominately external moral
code that was achievable by human exertion. In Christ’s
discourse, the spirit of the Law which was clearly taught in the Torah, was
driven home in His sermon – love for God and neighbor is not just externals, it extends to what a man thinks, loves,
speaks and looks at! Martin Luther’s
comments on the Sermon on the Mount can be summarized in the following
way. The Sermon is meant to exasperate the sinner in order to
prepare him for the gospel. (In other
words, who can possibly keep such a high divine standard?) Not only, does
the Law exasperate, it may also exacerbate the sinner’s problem (Rom.
5:20). (Def. of exacerbate – increase severity of or bitterness of. This is reminiscent of the public’s response
to the freeway signs that said, “Drive 55 and stay alive.” ) (Remember the example of the Law acting as a
stir stick that stirs up the sediment in the glass of water.) The sinner must
learn that the Law way is closed as a
way of obtaining right standing with God (Rom. 3:20; 10:1-4; 4:4-16). The present evangelical function of the Law
is that of a tutor to lead a person
to Christ as the only Way of right standing (Gal. 3:24,25). Though the Law’s
commandments are holy, righteous and good (Rom. 7:12), the Law only brings death, wrath and
condemnation because of the weakness
of human flesh (Rom. 8:3-8). (Man’s
weak and sinful flesh cannot be raised up to God by means of the Law anymore
than overcooked meat can be lifted up in one piece by a two-pronged fork.) THE UNBELIEVER’S
RESPONSE TO GOD WHO DEMANDS JUSTICE AND RIGHTEOUS IS ENMITY (ROM. 5:10; EPH. 2:15,16). Unrepentant man
has no sentiment for God’s purpose to glorify Himself through the knowledge of
Himself. The natural man does not
appropriate God’s purpose that mankind must be a moral reflection of God’s
righteousness. The natural man is an
enemy of God’s glory (Rom. 5:10; Phil. 3:18,19). The N.T. Greek
word for enemy (echthros), is closely related to the Greek word
for enmity, (echthra). The word for enmity describes the
disposition of the enemy, that of hostility.
Paul asserts that the mind set on the flesh is “hostile” (echthra) toward God (Rom. 8:7 – see the
Williams Translation). Man’s refusal to
obey God’s Law involves defiant opposition. The soul
enslaved to sin, alienated from God and under condemnation cannot love God
(Titus 3:3 ff). The sinner ruled by his
iron lusts cannot love the Holy One. Man’s enmity is
a function of his resentment that God should hold him liable to judgment. The good news of the gospel is that the
solution to man’s problem is entirely from the outside of man. Man is not
even part of the solution! God has unilaterally acted to solve man’s dilemma.
In Israel of
old, the murmuring Hebrews were plagued by the bites of “fiery” serpents in the
wilderness. God told Moses to cast a
brazen serpent and place it upon a pole.
When a Hebrew was bitten, all he had to do was look at the brazen
serpent in faith, and his symptoms would be removed. So also, one believing “look” at Christ can strike the enmity
from a man’s heart (John 3:14-18). The
cross not only makes us acceptable to God, it also makes God’s holiness desirable
to us. Justification by grace through
faith annihilates our enmity toward God. MAN’S NATURAL
CONDITION IS AKIN TO BEING STUCK IN A VICE By reason of
sin, man’s image bearing integration in God was lost. Man became darkened, fragmented and broken (Note example of
broken window pane with cracks radiating to all sides of the frame). The aspects of man’s soul were no longer in
harmony. Instead, they were at odds,
pulling against each other. The
conscience and the affections became hopelessly separated -- people attempt to
meet their needs by sinning, then the conscience justly accuses them for doing
so. Sin and self
replaced God at the center of the life.
As a result, dread, fear of punishment, blame and guilt displaced peace.
The obligation to obey God remained in full
force, but the inclination to obey
God was decimated by the fall. This
condition put man is a crushing vice so to speak. A man’s desires, needs and wants are dictating to him one
direction (his mind is set on the flesh), and at the same time, the Law of God
demands that he be righteous or face death. What the Law
says he should be and what his desires dictate form the two arms of the vice
clamped upon him. As he seeks to solve
his needs and problems by sin, the arms of the vice squeeze harder, producing
more fear of punishment. SIN MAKES
COWARDS OF US ALL (HEB. 2:14,15; 1 JOHN 4:18). The fear of
condemnation makes us cowardly concerning our sin. We do not deal with our sin courageously. The principle of guilt before God’s Law
seeks to dominate our lives through fear of punishment. We tend to be cowed, defiant and
self-protective. In our flesh, we will
run anywhere but to the atonement God has provided in His Son. We desperately need Christ’s work in order
to be free of guilt’s captivity. The reason the
roots of cowardice run so deep in our lives is because God’s Law condemns not
only our individual acts of sin, but also our whole being (what we are by
nature). All our fleshly strategies
employed to avoid judgment utterly fail.
Whether it is denial, appeasement, rationalizing or defiance, the
efforts we make to escape the painful truth about ourselves falls short of the
heroism God calls us to practice. STRATEGIES OF
THE FLESH THATARE USED TO WARD OFF JUDGMENT Guilt and fear
of condemnation move a man to seek an “atonement” or a strategy to defend
against the threat of punishment. Fleshly
strategies include: 1. Flight – In this strategy the person seeks to
escape the accusations of Law and conscience by devoting themselves to some
diversion, escape or amusement. Denial
of guilt factors heavily into this strategy.
Biblical examples include Nabal’s feast (1 Sam. 25:36-38), Pilate’s
denial of guilt by hand-washing (Matt. 27:24), Jonah’s voyage in the opposite
direction of Ninevah (Jonah 1:3), Judah’s escapist mentality of “eat, drink and
be merry for tomorrow we may die,” (Is. 22:13,14). 2. Open Resistance – This strategy involves contempt for
God’s judgment. It is an attempt to
take on the judgment with a defense or with defiance. Biblical examples include the Chief Priests’ plot to kill Jesus
(Matt. 21:45), Job’s desire to bring God into court (Job 23:1-7), Zedekiah’s
burning of the Word of God (Jer. 36), the apostates of Jerusalem defying the
Word of God (Jer. 44:16,17). 3. Appeasement – This strategy is an attempt to win God’s
favor by law-keeping. It is an effort
to appease God by successful obedience.
Law keeping that is legal in nature is always selective, scrupulous and
legalistic (Matt. 23:23). Biblical
examples include the rich young ruler (Matt. 19:16), Saul of Tarsus prior to
his conversion (Phil. 3:4-6; Gal. 1:14). THE CONSCIENCE
OF MAN WILL ONLY BE AT REST WHEN TRUE JUSTICE HAS BEEN DONE (2 COR. 5:21). Every strategy
employed by man to elude judgment will ultimately fail. Every false hiding place will someday be
revealed as a “refuge of lies,” (Is. 28:17).
Men take no account now of the fact that they daily “bribe” their
consciences with alibis for their transgression of God’s commandments. The startling
truth is that man is made in the moral
image of God. Man’s conscience is
not a product of social conditioning, it is God’s moral mark upon us. For that reason, the conscience can never be
eradicated. All efforts to do so will
only result in greater eternal anguish.
The conscience
is a constant reminder of the great assize to come, it is a harbinger of
judgment day. Though men experience
temporary “success” in quieting their consciences in this life, a day is coming
when the conscience will take its full revenge. On that day, the
conscience will accept no bribes, it will demand strict justice. It will agree with God’s verdict that man’s
sin deserves eternal wrath. Against this
dark fact, the atonement of Jesus Christ is grace beyond description. In the atonement,
the believing sinner beholds Christ, the suffering God-man, bleeding and dying
in his place. This is NOT to arouse
pity or sympathy – this is the satisfaction of JUSTICE. The law of God and the conscience of man
will accept nothing less than perfect justice.
When the
believing sinner casts a believing “look” at Christ, for the first time in his
life, his conscience is at peace and rest.
He sees that justice has been served concerning his sin. With his sin forgiven, his formerly troubled
conscience becomes like the placid surface of a lake – now he begins to reflect
the character of his Creator. |
