Nothing to Fear

Franklin Roosevelt’s 1933 inaugural speech came at the height of the Great Depression. Fortunes and life savings had been lost. Jobs and homes had been lost. lives were being lost to suicide. Fear was in the air. And it was in hope of quelling that most debilitating of emotions that Roosevelt uttered his famous words—so famous that they have their own Wikipedia entry—“We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

Those of us who have experienced the spiritual (and physical) misery unique to fear might well utter a hearty “Amen!” I’m hard-pressed to think of anything that I dread more than being gripped by fear. “Fear itself” often proves to be much worse than whatever it is I’m afraid of. But was Roosevelt right? Is there really “nothing to fear but fear”? And is there really anything we can do to escape its grip?

The Bible has plenty to say about fear. First, to the chagrin of the fearful, Jesus himself tells us that there is something worse than fear, and that we should be afraid:

“I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more than they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him” (Lk 12:5)!

Jesus tells us, in other words, the only thing worthy of our fear is God. And why should we fear God? Because he has the “authority to cast into hell.” This is something that is far more fearful than “fear itself.” God is holy. We are sinners. Created to bear his image and likeness in the world, we instead spend our days twisting that image to suit ourselves. And the one whose image we are daily defacing is the one who holds our lives in his hands. We would be fools not to fear.

But in his next breath Jesus tells us, “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows (Lk 12:6-7)? In the span of just three verses Jesus first terrifies us, and then tells us not to fear. What is going on here?

I’ll put it this way, the problem, first of all, is not that we fear, it’s that we fear the wrong things. When we understand God’s authority, his power, and his holiness, and that he holds our eternity in his hand, our biggest fears shrink in comparison to the fear of his righteous judgment. Like Isaiah when he came face to face with the preincarnate Christ, we cry out in terror, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (Is 6:5)!

But recognizing our desperate state before God only leaves us with something even worse to fear. And Jesus didn’t come “to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (Jn 3:17). So he turns our attention immediately to the kindness and grace of God. Just look at the sparrows, he says. Witness God’s gentle care for the commonest of birds, and trust him. Cast all your cares upon him, because he cares for you (1 Pt. 5:7).

It is with God’s power and gentleness in mind that Jesus, just a little later in Luke 12, encourages his disciples, “do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Lk 12:22-32).

It is exactly because God is so frighteningly powerful that he is able to guarantee a kingdom to those who trust him, and it is because he is so kind and tenderhearted that it delights him to do so. And so it is only the one whom we most fear that can ensure us with utmost confidence and sincerity that we have nothing at all to fear.

And with this in mind, let me leave you with one of my favorite quotes about the fear of the Lord: 

"Does it strike you as strange that we should be encouraged to fear and hope at the same time and in the same person? 'The LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.' (Ps147:11) Do you hope in the one you fear and fear the one you hope in? It's usually the other way around: if we fear a person, we hope that someone else will come and help us. But here we are supposed to fear the one we hope in and hope in the one we fear. What does this mean? "I think it means that we should let the experience of hope penetrate and transform the experience of fear. In other words, the kind of fear that we should have toward God is whatever is left of fear when we have a sure hope in the midst of it . . . The fear of God is what is left of the storm when you have a safe place to watch right in the middle of it. And in that place of refuge we say, 'This is amazing, this is terrible, this is incredible power; Oh, the thrill of being here in the center of the awful power of God, yet protected by God himself! Oh, what a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God without hope, without a Savior! Better to have a millstone tied around my neck and be thrown into the depths of the sea than to offend against this God! What a wonderful privilege to know the favor of this God in the midst of his power!‘ And so we get an idea of how we feel both hope and fear at the same time. Hope turns fear into a trembling and peaceful wonder; and fear takes everything trivial out of hope and makes it earnest and profound. The terrors of God make the pleasures of his people intense. The fireside fellowship is all the sweeter when the storm is howling outside the cottage." — John Piper, The Pleasures of God