THE FEAR OF THE LORD AND FAITH IN FUTURE GRACE

There are other Old Testament motives for obedience, such as love to God and fear of the Lord. We will deal in coming chapters with the relationship between faith in future grace and love for God.1 But this is a good place to say a word about the fear of the Lord and its relationship to obedience and to faith in future grace.

Moses taught Israel that the fear of the Lord would give rise to obedience: “Fear the Lord your God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments” (Deuteronomy 6:2). Solomon summed up his own teaching in Ecclesiastes, “The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep his commandments” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). Nehemiah told the nobles and rulers in Jerusalem to “walk in the fear of our God” (Nehemiah 5:9). And Proverbs 23:17 says, “Live in the fear of the Lord always.” Right “walking” and right “living” flow from fearing God. But to my knowledge there are no expressions corresponding to these which link gratitude and obedience in the same way.

And even these expressions about fearing the Lord are probably the flip side of trusting the Lord’s future grace. In other words, “fear the Lord” means “fear the terrible insult it would be to God if you do not trust his gracious promises of power and wisdom on your behalf.” That’s probably why Psalm 115:11 says, “You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord; He is their help and their shield.” In other words, if fear is not mingled with trust it will not be pleasing to the Lord. “Without faith it is impossible to please [God]” (Hebrews 11:6). The obedience that comes from fearing God without faith in his future grace will not be free, but servile.

The interconnectedness of fear and faith is probably why people looked at the grace given to David in distress, and felt fear and trust rising side by side in their hearts. “And He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; many will see and fear, and will trust in the Lord” (Psalm 40:3). The same thing had happened at the Red Sea. “When Israel saw the great power which the Lord had used against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord” (Exodus 14:31). Fear and faith happen together in response to God’s mighty power and his promise of future grace.

To fear the Lord is to tremble at the awareness of what a terrible insult it is to a holy God if we do not have faith in his future grace after all the signs and wonders he has performed to win our obedient trust. It’s this faith in future grace that channels the power of God into obedience. We search the Old Testament in vain for the explicit teaching that gratitude is a channel of this power.

Piper, J. (1995). Future grace (pp. 35–36). Multnomah Publishers.