Don’t Be Afraid of the “Fear of God!”

“When then are the works of the righteous not mortal sins? When they fear that they are! Fear of God is the decisive issue.” (On Being a Theologian of the Cross, Gerhard Forde, 1997, writing here about the Heidelberg Disputation’s (1518) Theological Thesis No. 7)

The parsing out of types of sin, venial and mortal, is a consequence, it seems to me, of our inveterate claim on personal power and agency to effect a righteousness, a relationship with God. But, what if we have no power, no ability to make such a move? This, it is this, that we fear. It is not that we fear punishment. It is that we fear that all, even punishment, effects nothing.

Thus, to be told, urged, commanded to fear God is not to be told to be afraid of punishment because God is set to judge us. It is rather to be told to allow the fear of loss of power, autonomy and agency to hold sway. It is there, at that loss, at that fear of loss, that faith is born, that faith occurs. It is in fear of loss, at that simultaneous time, that faith lives. This is much like the dynamic of confession: the moment we confess that we have no faith (a separate and different kind of confession than admitting we have done bad things) is the moment we have faith. In fact, if we confess that we have faith, we do not have faith. We instead have testimony, something that is our action, our activity, our instrumentality. So, this: the moment that we fear God, or more accurately stated, fear our loss of agency with God, is the moment we have faith, the moment we live in faith, or, perhaps more accurately still, live in both fear and faith.

We say things like “I’m afraid I’ve lost my touch,” or, “I’m afraid I’m forgetting things,” or, “I’m afraid for the future.” This kind of fear is what we are talking about. This is not a cowering from punishment but rather a state of loss of control over what happens to us or what will become of us. Faith is to live in this loss of effecting any standing with God and de facto rely on the “naked mercies of God” (as Luther stated it) and to precisely there find our bearings, our security, our salvation. Just there, and only there (the tradition calls this “saved by ‘faith alone,’” a hallmark of the Reformation).

One of the most perplexing statements, both in Scripture and in Church Teaching, is the admonition to “fear God.” We are told and encouraged strongly to “fear God.” This is troubling to us because it works directly against what we think is not only a properly religious thought and feeling to have concerning God but also feeds a notion about the character of God that we think is not very “godly” at all: God is judging, punishing, indeed, deadly. So, a couple more thoughts on this “fear of God.”

One, it’s not like we have to be told to do this fearing! As much as we might think it not properly religious, if the truth be told, it comes naturally to us. We cannot and will not not continually wonder, nay fret and fear, what will become of us. What is our destiny? And this not only personally, but familially and globally.  Slings and arrows abound. And if not flung or shot from a Personal God, then by Karma.

Two, since it’s there not only in our Experience (“duck!”) but also in our Sacred Writings (Scripture: Psalm 130:3-4 stating “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you, that you may be feared”) and Church Teaching  (Luther in his Small Catechism, in the Explanation of each of the Ten Commandments, begins by saying “we are to fear and love God so that…”), maybe this fear of God actually is not something to explain away piously as we normally do. Normally we say “Oh no, ‘fear’ doesn’t mean being ‘scared’ or ‘frightened,’ it means ‘respect’ or ‘awe.’”  By this we mean we are not to be cowering from Dastardliness but we are rather to be contemplating the Greatness. Maybe instead of this saccharine religious thought, a hiding from fear, a living in fear of fear, we can embrace the fear as not only natural (“Oh, truth be told, I do worry that Someone or Something will get me in the end!’) but also redemptive (the moment we recognize we have no ability to effect righteousness, a relationship with God, in any way, is the moment we have a relationship with God that liberates).

Here’s how Gerhard Forde puts it: “The point here is that when we have no fear of the Lord and we instead presume to come before the Lord bustling with self-confidence in our own accomplishments, enjoying ourselves in our works, as Luther puts it, our works are deadly sins even if we think they are done with the help of grace. For then our works stand between us and God; they usurp the honor belonging only to God. This is a transgression of the first commandment. The Self sets itself as an idol. Piety is no protection. Fear of God on the contrary means precisely letting God be God” (On Being a Theologian of the Cross, p. 42,  1997.)

Maybe what we have here is “fear of God” on two levels or in two aspects. One descriptive and the other prescriptive. But note, prescriptive too in a way that is promising and not demanding and in that fact works as a countervailing force against the descriptive. Descriptive: again, truth be told, we are afraid either God or the Cosmos will hurt us either now for tripping up or later simply because we really don’t measure up after all. Prescriptive: when we recognize we have no truck with God, no agency, to produce a relationship (either good or bad!), but that God provides this, we then enter that sacred space called “faith.” Luther, again, called this the “naked mercy of God” (“naked” is what we are, we have nothing to bring, and God’s relationship to this stripped Self is mercy. The whole thing is called Grace).

I’m afraid (!) I’ve run “the fear of God” into the ground, at least for now. I do know I can’t think of what else I might say about it right at this moment. Except perhaps this: there is more to it than we might think; something more helpful than we might think. Helpful? Well, yes. What I am describing here is that the fear of God is actually the place of faith. So, don’t be afraid of the fear of God. Be honest, and be put in your place as human and not divine, and there, find faith.