Predominance of the Fear of God in Biblical Thought

Albert N. Martin

The fear of God is one of the great and dominant themes of Holy Scripture. However, it is a subject concerning which there is almost total silence in our day. It is a theme that was very prominent both in the thinking and in the preaching of our forefathers. It is interesting that, when our spiritual forefathers desired to describe someone who was marked by unusual godliness, they would often call him a “God-fearing man.”

The fear of God is the soul of godliness. Take away the soul from the body and all you have left, in a few days, is a stinking carcass. Take away the fear of God from any expression of godliness and all you have left is the stinking carcass of Pharisaism and barren religiosity.

To begin, let us consider the predominance of the fear of God in biblical thought. One does not need a great measure of learning to be able to reach the conclusion that the fear of God is a predominant theme in the Bible. In fact, armed with a relatively good concordance and about an hour’s time, you could pretty well lay out the study that I am here presenting. If you took your concordance and looked up the word “fear,” you would notice that there are no fewer than 150 to 175 distinct, explicit references to the fear of God. If you add to these explicit references all of the instances in Scripture where the fear of God is illustrated, though not explicitly stated, it is accurate to say that the references to the fear of God will run well into the hundreds. Isn’t it amazing, then, that a theme so dominant in the Old and the New Testaments can be either so completely overlooked, or so shallowly and carelessly handled as it is in our day? I trust after we grasp something of the predominance of this theme, that we will not be content with a mere cursory knowledge or acquaintance with this theme of the fear of God.

The Fear of God in the Old Testament

The Books of the Law

Genesis 31: Genesis chapter 31 is perhaps one of the most significant passages in all of Scripture as it relates to the predominance of the fear of God in Biblical thought. In verse 42 we read, “Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the Fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now hadst thou sent me away empty” (cf. verse 53). God’s name is a revelation of His character. Here, one of the names attached to God as a revelation of His character is “the Fear of Isaac.” When God is rightly apprehended, having true biblical fear of Him is so much a part of a right response to the revelation of His character that He calls Himself “the Fear of Isaac.” If my apprehension of God and my comprehension of God do not lead me to fear Him as Isaac did, I have not rightly understood Who God is. He identifies Himself as “the Fear of Isaac.”

Exodus 18: Next, in the book of Exodus, we have the record of Moses’ problem of seeking to single-handedly govern the entire nation of Israel, including dealing with many needs that arose that called for the judgment of a mature mind. Remember the suggestion made by Jethro, his father-in-law, that he was not up to carrying out this task by himself and that he ought to share this oversight. When the requirements are given for those who will fill this role as judges in Israel, Exodus 18:21 says, “Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating unjust gain; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.” Of all the requirements that could be laid down for men to administer justice in the mighty nation Israel had become, set at the very pinnacle place of importance is that they must be men who fear God. Whatever other qualities they may have or may not have, if they are not men whose primary characteristic is the fear of God, they are not qualified for this significant role of the administration of justice and the solving of problems within the nation of Israel.

The Book of Job

As we turn to the book of Job, we shift from God’s dealings with an entire nation to teach them His fear to His dealings with an individual Old Testament saint. This saint is not like the Pharisee who boasted of his own supposed attainments in grace, but one of whom God Himself boasts concerning his attainments in grace. The book begins with these words: “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright. . .” (Job 1:1). There was the outward expression of his life, “perfect and upright.” And then there was the inward soul of that life: “one that feared God.” The first few words are a description of his outward bearing. This is, as it were, the body of a godly man; and then God tells us that the soul of that godliness was that he feared God. This thought is underscored in verse 8: “And Jehovah said unto Satan, ‘Hast thou considered my servant Job? for there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God.’” The soul of his external piety was this inwardness of the fear of his God. Verse 9 reads, “Then Satan answered Jehovah, and said, ‘Doth Job fear God for nought?’” He says, “Ah yes, You say that the fear of Your name is the soul of his godliness, but he has some other motive than Your glory.” The whole story then unfolds as God vindicates His claims on behalf of His servant Job. But we see that the essence of Job’s piety—and God’s estimation of all true piety—is that it is suffused with this fear of God.

The Psalms

Psalm 2: As we observe the central place given to the fear of God in the Old Testament, let’s look next at the book of Psalms, where we find dozens of references to the fear of God. In Psalm 2, God issues a command in the light of the exaltation of His Son: “Now therefore be wise, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve Jehovah with fear, and rejoice with trembling” (Psalm 2:10-11). God is saying, “In the light of what I have done with reference to My Son and the pivotal place which I have assigned to Him, the only right response is service that is carried out in the context of godly fear.” “Serve the Lord with fear.” We must say, then, that if our view of Christ and His exaltation by the Father’s decree does not induce us to serve Him in the climate of godly fear, we have not rightly understood nor responded to the exaltation of the Son by the decree of the Father.

Psalm 67: One of those great gospel Psalms that has as its vision the proclamation of the message of saving mercy to the ends of the earth is Psalm 67. The psalmist there pleads that God will be merciful to him and to His covenant people to this end: “That thy way may be known upon earth, thy salvation among all nations” (Psalm 67:2). And what will be the result of God’s saving message going out to the nations? The answer is in verse 7: “God will bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.” In other words, the whole end for which the gospel goes out through God’s covenant people is to teach the nations the fear of God. That makes the fear of God a pretty central issue, doesn’t it? God expresses His determination to bless His people in order that they in turn may bring blessing to others. And He states His purpose in these words: “God shall bless us and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him.” Obviously this is no peripheral issue when it is so central to the thinking of the psalmist.

Psalm 103: The 103rd Psalm contains several references to the fear of God. And these several references have a common thread. They teach us that the fear of God is an indispensable characteristic of the people of God. So much is this the case that when you want to describe the people of God you can do so by using a synonymous phrase—those who fear God. The people of God are those who fear God. Notice verse 11: “For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his lovingkindness toward them that fear him.” Does it say that His lovingkindness is toward all men? No. The idea that God’s redemptive love is just some kind of a general, gushy benevolence that is focused upon all men is not the teaching of Holy Scripture. Here the psalmist says, “His lovingkindness is upon them that fear Him.” His peculiar love is upon His people. And who are His people but those who fear Him? If there is no fear of Him, there is no lovingkindness. Verse 13 makes a similar assertion: “Like as a father pitieth his children, so Jehovah pitieth them that fear him.” The Lord’s “children” are in a parallel relationship in this verse to “them that fear him.” “Them that fear Him” is synonymous with “His children.” This tells me that if I have no fear of God, I have no right to claim that I am under the canopy of redemptive love (verse 11), no right to claim that I am one of His children (verse 13; see also verse 17). Such parallelism occurs frequently in the Psalms and in other biblical poetry. The psalmist conceives of the people of God as those who are in every instance marked by this characteristic of the fear of God.

The Writings of Solomon

Proverbs 1: Another important Scripture text regarding the fear of God is Proverbs 1:7. Solomon introduces the book of Proverbs in the first six verses as a textbook full of wise counsels with a manifold purpose. Then, as he begins to lay out the path to the attainment of knowledge and wisdom, he makes this statement at the very beginning of his discourse: “The fear of Jehovah is the beginning [that is, the chief part] of knowledge; but the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.” In other words, learning the fear of God is not only the A-B-C from which we move on to D-E-F-G-H, etc. It is not simply like learning to spell the word “cat”—i.e. one of the first, or “beginning,” words you learn to spell—compared to spelling the word “disestablishmentarianism.” Rather, it is the chief part, just as the use of the alphabet is something which is not left behind but becomes the chief part of all your learning. Thus when a man is studying the most complicated book on physics, he is dealing with the same numbers and letters he learned in kindergarten and first grade. Now the physics book may contain complex and confusing arrangements of those letters and numbers, but the physicist works with the same letters and numbers he learned as a four or five-year-old. In the same way, the fear of the Lord is the chief part of knowledge. That is, it is not only the beginning, but that which permeates all accumulation of heavenly knowledge at every point along the way. Without the presence of that fear, God says there is no true wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the chief part of knowledge.

Ecclesiastes 12: Then we turn to the book of Ecclesiastes, and we listen to this man who surveyed all the possible avenues down which a man may go to find the meaning of life and to find satisfaction in life. At times you may have contemplated going down some of those paths—and sometimes they seem to be sweet paths, as they did in the beginning to this man. But as he went down to the end of every one of those paths he saw that they were nothing but vanity and vexation, until he comes to this conclusion in the last verses of the last chapter:

This is the end of the matter; all hath been heard: fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).

Here is the true meaning of life. Here is where you find what life is all about. What is the summary of the totality of man’s duty? How is the true meaning of life to be found? Fear God and keep His commandments.

The Prophets

Isaiah 11: In the book of Isaiah we have a beautiful prophecy of the Messiah who would come out of the stock of Jesse.

And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots shall bear fruit: and the Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah; and his delight shall be in the fear of Jehovah (Isaiah 11:1-3).

Here is an explicit statement that the Spirit would come upon Messiah, as He did in fact come upon Him in the waters of Jordan. And Isaiah says He would come upon Him not only as the Spirit of might and of power—by which He raised the dead, unstopped deafened ears and loosened dumb tongues—but that He would be upon Him as the Spirit of the fear of the Lord. And that very concept is the one aspect of the Spirit’s ministry which is enlarged upon in verse 3: “His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.” The prophet foretells that the dominant aspect of Messiah’s own character is that He should live and move and delight in the fear of the Lord.

Jeremiah 32: In Jeremiah 32, Jeremiah speaks of that New Covenant which Messiah would bring to pass by His own sufferings and death. This covenant is the covenant sealed and ratified by the blood of Christ as expounded in Hebrews, chapters 8 and 10 (in which Jeremiah 31 and 32, as well as Ezekiel 36, are quoted). Notice what God says through the prophet will happen when the blessings of the New Covenant are brought to men:

And they shall be my people, and I will be their God: and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from following them, to do them good; and I will put My fear in their hearts, that they may not depart from me (Jeremiah 32:38-40).

God says, the whole end for which I will work in such power in this New Covenant is to so put My fear within the hearts of My people that they will not turn away from Me.

Do you believe that you are a beneficiary of the blessings of the New Covenant? Do you frequent the Lord’s Table, where you take the outward symbols of the blood of that covenant? God says if you have inwardly partaken of the benefits of that covenant, the dominant characteristic—or one of the dominant characteristics—of your life will be that you are held by the fear of God. But if you are a stranger to that fear, then you are a stranger to the blessings of the New Covenant; you are yet in your sins; you are under the wrath of Almighty God. For every time the benefits of the New Covenant are applied with power by the Spirit, God says it is applied in such a way that He puts His fear in the heart. The fear of God is a central theme of the New Covenant itself.

We must conclude, in the light of this handful of references, taken from the dozens of references in the Old Testament, that the fear of God, whatever it is, is a predominant theme in the Old Testament. It is a virtue that is not peripheral, but absolutely essential in the saving work of God.

But we could imagine someone objecting, “Ah yes, but that is part of the dark and shadowy religion of the Old Testament. Now, we have the full revelation of God’s love and mercy in Jesus Christ in the New Testament. And just as the types and shadows of the blood of bulls and goats and of heifers have been swallowed up in Christ, so has that dark, foreboding concept of the fear of God, as a dominant characteristic of worship, given way to the bright and breezy quality of the joy of the Lord.” Is that true? Let’s see whether the New Testament itself will support such thinking.

The Fear of God in the New Testament

The Gospels

What do we find as we turn to the New Testament? Shortly after the Lord Jesus is conceived in His mother’s womb, you remember that Mary goes to pay a visit to Elizabeth. Upon her arrival at the home of Zacharias, she is filled with the Spirit, and she breaks forth in what has been commonly called the “Magnificat.” In this hymn of praise, Mary testifies that she sees in God’s dealings with her, an illustration of a principle which has been characteristic of God’s dealings with His people throughout the centuries, and characteristic of His dealings with His people through the very One she now carries in her womb. Mary sees that what God is doing to her is simply illustrative of what He has always done with His people and what He will continue to do through the coming of the Son of God. Here is her testimony: “For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name. And His mercy is unto generations and generations on them that fear Him” (Luke 1:49). God’s way is to show mercy to those who fear Him. Mary sees God’s mercy to her as an illustration of this principle, a principle that will continue to be operative as Messiah comes and carries out His mission.

What did our Lord Himself teach? Certainly if His presence should cause men to no longer fear God but simply to have joy in God and to love God, we would expect to find Him discouraging anything like fear, especially anything that had the fear of dread in it. As we will see in our definition, there are two basic aspects of the fear of God, as there are in all human fear. There is a fear of dread and a fear of awe. The one drives us from the object of dread, the other draws us to the object of awe. Our Lord’s teaching makes very clear that both aspects are included in a healthy fear of God—including this element of dread. Speaking to His twelve disciples, He says in Matthew 10:28, “And be not afraid of them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Jesus was not on a mission to do away with the fear of God. Instead He enforced it by exhorting, or commanding (the verb is in the imperative mood), his disciples to see that they possess in their breasts the fear that even includes this element of the dread of what God can do if I fall into His hands with my sins laid to my charge. He did not come to negate the fear of God; He came to enforce it. We shall see in our further studies that, as there was ground in the shadowy revelation of God in the Old Covenant to fear Him, so the fuller revelation in the New Covenant has only intensified the obligation of godly fear.

The Book of Acts

Luke gives us a description of the maturity of the early church and the blessing of God upon her. Notice the beautiful fusion of things that so often we would separate but that God brings together. Following the conversion of Saul, who had been making havoc of the church, we read in Acts 9:31, “So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace, being edified; and, walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, was multiplied.” Our tendency may be to think that wherever there is the comfort of the Spirit, that would negate the fear of God. And if there is the fear of God, that would negate the comfort. But that is not the case at all, for the Spirit that rested upon Messiah, and the Spirit which He received in plentitude and now Himself pours upon His church, is, according to Isaiah 11:2, “the Spirit . . . of the fear of the Lord.” And just as the fear of the Lord characterized our Lord Himself, so the more His church is filled with the Spirit of Jesus, the more that church will also reflect the fear of the Lord.

The Epistles

Now we turn to the epistles of the New Testament. Paul wrote in II Corinthians 7:1, “Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” Is there remaining sin to be dealt with in the life of a believer? Is he expected, on the one hand, to mortify the deeds of the flesh and, on the other, to cultivate every grace that will bring him into closer conformity to Jesus Christ? Every intelligent Christian says, Yes. How then is it to be done? Is the dominant motive to be the thought that the more holy I am the more gifts I’ll get when I stand before the Lord? Is the dominating thought to be that, the more I am filled with the Spirit, the more joy and happiness and peace and vibrancy I’ll have? There is certainly an element of truth in both these things, but I suggest that neither is to be the dominant thought. According to Paul’s words in II Corinthians 7:1, the highest reaches of attainment in practical holiness and godliness are to be achieved and sought after in the climate of the fear of God.

How we conduct ourselves in our interpersonal relationships is of paramount importance in the outworking of practical godliness. The “godliness” that leaves you ugly with your boss, churlish with your wife, nasty with your husband, or snippy with your mom and dad is no godliness at all. The godliness and holiness of the Bible are intensely practical things, things which show up most clearly in the interpersonal interaction of your deepest human relationships—whether in the family, the workplace or the school. Our holiness, our progress in sanctification, must be seen in those relationships. As we seek greater degrees of holiness in those relationships, what is to be the dominant characteristic? In Ephesians 5:21 and following, Paul addresses the climate or the context of the home, the husband-wife relationship, the parent-child relationship. Notice what he says in introducing that subject in verse 21: “Subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ.” He follows with specific directives for husbands and wives: “Wives, be in subjection unto your own husbands, . . . . Husbands, love your wives” (verses 22, 25). Then, to children, “Children, obey your parents” (6:1). All of these injunctions concerning the nitty-gritty of practical godliness in the interpersonal relationships of the home are couched in the framework of the fear of Christ. Therefore, any attempt to go on in holiness in these relationships that ignores this idea of the fear of Christ is something less than that which is set before us in the Word of God.

In Philippians 2:12, Paul commands the believers in Philippi to work out their salvation: “So then, my beloved, even as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” What is to be the context of that working out? Fear—“fear and trembling.” Now I ask, where in the world do we get this idea that the people who are jumping about with jolly, jolly joy all the time are the most spiritual people? No, Paul’s prescription is that our salvation is to be worked out in a climate of godly “fear and trembling.” And anyone who is working out his salvation in any other context is working it out in a context unauthorized by the Word of God.

But does this have to continue all throughout the Christian’s life? Can’t he come to a place where there is no longer the constraint of the fear of God? Let the apostle Peter answer that question. We have looked at the words of our Lord; we have looked at the words of the apostle Paul; and Peter speaks the same word. And he speaks it in a most interesting context. He says in I Peter 1:17, “And if ye call on Him as Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to each man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning in fear.” The question could be raised, “But if you’ve got real assurance that you have been saved by the blood of Christ, doesn’t that negate the fear of God?” No, for Peter says in the next verse, “Knowing that ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb, without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:18-19). He says the knowledge that you have been redeemed at such an awful price will intensify the reality of the fear of God, not negate it. He uses as the very argument to enforce the necessity of walking in godly fear the fact that we know we have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. We are to pass the whole time of our sojourning in fear. So, at any point in my Christian life, from the moment I breathe my first breath as a new creature in Christ, to the moment when the Lord comes to take me home, my sojourn should be marked by the fear of God.

The Book of Revelation

So fundamental to godliness is the fear of God that on into eternity, even after the last remains of sin are purged from the believer, we will still fear God. Our last two references are taken from Revelation 15. Here in symbolic language, we have set before us the redeemed of God in verses 2 and 3:

And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire; and them that come off victorious from the beast, and from his image, and from the number of his name, standing by the sea of glass, having harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and marvellous are thy works, O Lord God, the Almighty; righteous and true are thy ways, thou King of the ages.”

And in the light of the marvel of His works and the righteousness of His ways, what should be the response of even the redeemed there in His presence? Verse 4 gives the answer: “Who shall not fear, O Lord, and glorify thy name.” The fear of God will mark the worship of the redeemed, even in His presence.

A similar hymn of praise is recorded in the 19th chapter of Revelation, verses 4 and 5:

And the four and twenty elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God that sitteth on the throne, saying, “Amen; Hallelujah.” And a voice came forth from the throne, saying, “Give praise to our God, all ye his servants, ye that fear him, the small and the great.”

How are they characterized there in that setting in which their redemption is complete? They are characterized as those “that fear Him.” Their fear of God is singled out as the prominent identifying characteristic of the servants of God, even as those who have begun to experience the completion of God’s redemptive purposes in them.

Conclusions from the Biblical Evidence

What can we conclude in the light of these pivotal texts in both the Old Testament and the New Testament? First of all, I believe we are warranted to conclude that to be devoid of the fear of God is to be devoid of biblical religion. No matter how much of the Bible we may know; no matter how many texts of Scripture we may claim to be embracing; no matter how many promises we may claim to believe; in the light of these texts of Scripture, if you don’t know what the fear of God is in your heart and life, you don’t know the first thing about biblical religion experimentally. That is a serious conclusion, but no less a conclusion can be drawn from these scriptures. Since Jesus Christ is the sum and substance of biblical religion, and since the Spirit given to Him and sent from Him is the Spirit of the fear of God, to be without the fear of God is to be without the Spirit of Christ. And Romans 8:9 says that to be without the Spirit of Christ is to be none of His. If such teaching is utterly foreign to you, and it leaves you completely baffled, you need to engage in some serious reflection. You need to examine the Scriptures and cry out to God and say, “Lord, teach me what it is to fear You! For I see that if I am devoid of Your fear, I have no true saving religion.” You are a stranger to the New Covenant.

The second conclusion we are warranted in making is this: the measure of growth in any individual or in any church is the measure to which that individual or church increases in the fear of God. The Bible speaks of Hananiah in Nehemiah 7:2 as a man who “feared God above many.” His spiritual stature, as a man who possessed spiritual maturity, wisdom and godliness to an exceptional degree, was in great measure due to the fact that he feared God above many.

Thirdly, to be ignorant of the meaning of the fear of God is to be ignorant of a basic and essential doctrine of revealed religion. There are no doubt many in our day and age who are genuine Christians yet who are sadly deficient in their understanding of the concept of the fear of God. They are not strangers to the fear of God in their experience, but they are very unclear about the fear of God in their understanding. Are you such a Christian? Since growth in grace is always joined to growth in knowledge, it is vital that you give yourself to earnest prayer and study that you might have a clearer understanding of the fear of God, which will in turn lead to your further Christian growth and development.

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