20th August, 2005

NICK HODGSON

As I explore the Old Testament one of the major recurring themes I have observed is that God repeatedly, and at times violently, reminded the Jewish nation (and those nations that stood against the Jews) that a healthy fear of his power was a very good thing? 'Sin' has serious consequences that go way beyond the individual or group committing them - spiritually, emotionally and physically.

PICTURE: Duckycards (iStockphoto.com) Your thoughts, actions and behaviours do not affect just you. Obviously they impact the people around you who have to put up with you. But do we understand that our thoughts, actions and behaviours can impact people and events distant from ourselves? Could the decisions and at times resultant mistakes impact our community, our country and even the heavenly realms?

I have heard it argued that with the advent of the New Covenant, this view of God as a judge is now extinct: we are now in the age that “all you need is love”. But I wonder how comprehensive this view is?

Removing the concept of the “fear of God”, has the potential to remove the apparent connection between our thoughts and actions, and their effect on the world around us, and, the need for us to take responsibility for what we are doing - or else.

Sin is a difficult concept because the height of the bar seems to move depending on where you stand with God. The “non-believer” would see sin as pretty well aligned with the 10 commandments which after all, form the skeleton of our legal system. But for the mature Christian, they may feel the burden of sin when they have a revelation that they are not following the will of God for their life and behaviour - it appears that all things are not equal when it comes to sin.

Your thoughts, actions and behaviours do not affect just you. Obviously they impact the people around you who have to put up with you. But do we understand that our thoughts, actions and behaviours can impact people and events distant from ourselves? Could the decisions and at times resultant mistakes impact our community, our country and even the heavenly realms?

God says that “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake and I will not remember your sins.” (Isaiah 43:25) When you sin, God can forgive you - but for His own sake! He understands that your sin affects Him and His plans for you, and everything that you can impact in your life. Every time you fail because you “missed the point”; in a sense God fails.

Ultimately part of our life and learning is failure-based. We may even learn more from our failures than we do from our successes. The fear of God does not have to be about the fear of failure though.

There is an important distinction between failure and the outcomes of bad choices. The fear of God is about respecting this distinction. History is full of amazing examples of people whom the more they failed in their quest for their destiny, the closer they drew to success. This doesn’t mean they graduated into God’s good books when they 'made it'. They were no less blessed by God when they were failing than when they succeeded.

But making bad choices is more about some of the little glitches we make when no-one is looking. If we ignore the 'pangs' telling us that that was a bad choice, or if we are deceived enough to build a list of rationalisations for why that choice wasn’t really that bad, then we start to live without a fear of god. Big mistake - huge.

Ultimately I think a key to this respect for the implications of our behaviours for ourselves, our loved ones, and the community that we impact narrows down to developing a healthy 'fear of God'.

In my own life I have seen some recurring patterns that seem to exist when I am getting 'off-track'. These may or may not relate to you, but I think they emphasise my point about the bigger results of our sin:

The Cost of My Sin

Dear Father - Forgive me for the cost of my sin

When I fall - Relationships are cracked
When I stumble - Progress towards destiny is halted
When I slip - People jump out of the way
When I slide - I pull my children with me

When I’m blind - I can’t see your glory
When I’m deaf - Your voice cannot be heard
When I’m deceived - The world “seems” a better place
When I’m tricked - Everyone loses

Dear Father forgive me for my sin costing you the life of your Son.