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A friend once shared a story about a conversation he had with a Muslim friend named “Anthony.” Anthony spoke about the Day of Judgment. He shared his beliefs on what that day would be like and the judgments that Allah would rain down upon the earth. As Anthony paused from his thorough description of this coming day, my friend asked him the question, “Are you afraid of that day?” Anthony’s response was forthright, honest, and immediate – “Yes.”

He then explained why he possessed this fear. In Islam there is no assurance of salvation in this life. No one can know for sure if their good works have outweighed their sins. No one knows if they will escape the judgment of God. Anthony illustrated his fear this way, “When you were a child, if you were in danger, your father would be able to help you and save you. But there is no father to save anyone on the Day of Judgment.”

Thankfully, my friend had some Good News he could share with Anthony. The Good News that our Father and Judge sent His Son to rescue us.

Peter continues in 1 Peter 1:18-19 saying you should fear God “knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, (19) but with the precious blood of Christ like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”

Fear God because Jesus paid the price to rescue you! Fear God because the price that was paid was infinitely more valuable than silver or gold! Fear God because the precious blood of a sinless substitute was shed in your place! This seems like a strange reason to fear God, doesn’t it?

Think of it like this. Imagine your teenage daughter has been kidnapped. You receive a ransom note for 1 million dollars cash. You sell everything you can, cash in all your retirement, and take out a major loan to get the money. You bring it to the drop-off location in a dark alleyway and you wait for the kidnappers to arrive. Suddenly a white van with tinted windows pulls into the alley and out walks the kidnapper wearing a mask. He’s got a gun pointed at your teenage daughter. You get out of your car with a suitcase filled with cash. He tells you to let go of the suitcase and back away while your teenager loads the cash into the van. Then your daughter puts her arms around the kidnapper, kisses him, then looks back at you and laughs before shouting “sucker!!!” and driving off.

That’s what we do when we sin. We spit on the ransom price that was paid to deliver us. We’re trampling over the blood of Jesus. Rather than seeing this great ransom price as a reason to pursue holiness, we’re using His ransom as a means to subsidize sinning. That should cause us to holy fear. God forbid that we would do such a thing! God forbid that I would do that.

This leads us to a valuable lesson in the fight for holiness. We become holy as we look to Jesus. Charles Spurgeon put it this way, “It is ever the Holy Spirit’s work to turn our eyes away from self to Jesus; but Satan’s work is just the opposite of this, for he is constantly trying to make us regard ourselves instead of Christ. . . . We shall never find happiness by looking at our prayers, our doings, or our feelings; it is what Jesus is, not what we are, that gives rest to the soul. If we would at once overcome Satan and have peace with God, it must be by ‘looking unto Jesus.’”[i]

 

  [i] C.H. Spurgeon, “Morning, June 28,” in Morning and Evening (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1956).