Psalm 147:10-11  His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor His pleasure in the legs of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His steadfast love.

Fear is a word most of us would like to obliterate from the Bible. It is easy to believe that it has no place because of our grace-based vantage point in Christ Jesus. Luther helps us to understand the proper place of fear in his writing on the Close of the Commandments. Like everything else that is both overtly theological and also experienced tangibly in some way in our daily world and lives, fear is best understood from a Law-and-Gospel perspective. We wouldn't really dessert with no dinner; we'd be left hungry ten minutes later. And we wouldn't really like a life with no dessert either; then we would miss the sweetness gifted to us by God. Like dessert, fear has two sides. Fear creates images that are uncomfortable for us. However, throwing it off all together, removing it from our experiences, would leave us with less intimacy with God, less understanding of His holiness, His omniscience, and His richness.

God is big. God is perfect. God is jealous. He fills all time and space. We do not want to remove the sweetness of all of this by obliterating the fear included in these attributes. Instead, we embrace the reality of a great, big, powerful God over the universe through the Gospel truth of His plans and purposes in sending Jesus Christ, His dear Son, as our Savior and Redeemer. Jesus stands as Advocate for us. We see God through a Jesus lens. We see even fear through Christ alone.
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