Fear and Trembling

An Old Testament expression that Paul sometimes uses is “fear and trembling”. It describes great weakness, the sense of inability and the total lack of confidence in and distrust we have of our own flesh. If all we have is our own human ability the prospect of working out of our salvation and achieving the loving of one another with the love of God is terrifying to contemplate. When we consider our natural resources of love we shrink away from the task with fear and trembling. It is the response of the person who deeply knows that "without Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).

It describes the man who must pay his bills but has no money in the bank. He views what he has to do with fear. It fits with the first statement of the faith: "Blessed are the poor in spirit." (Matthew 5:3). A translation that gives the full meaning of the Greek text is, "Blessed are the spiritually bankrupt." I.e. "Blessed are those who tremble when they consider their own resources." Faith begins with a reality check that tells me that in myself I have nothing.

There is urgency to our salvation; we are dealing with eternal issues. This is not as some have described it, a “pop religion that can take Coca Cola commercials and invite people to ‘try Jesus’" as if He were another brand to be compared with others. We live on the fragile edge of time; in this lifetime we are called to work out our salvation (Phil. 2:12), and we do not know when we shall be called from this life. The humanistic attitude, acting as if we shall live in this life forever, has crept into the church. There is little or no thought of urgency that we are given the task of working out our salvation now before we stand before the judgment seat of Christ. When we consider the salvation of our souls it is a healthy thing to tremble.

We should not look at this reaction as a sign of immaturity. The text indicates that we supposed to feel that way!

If we do not feel this way then we must take ourselves in hand to think of our selves according to the truth. If we feel able and cocky then we are living in the illusion of strength and must repent of the lie.

If we do not fear proceeding in our own strength then God will let us crash and smash to pieces our confidence in ourselves. Our crashes are very important to God! We must discover in our experience the inability of our flesh to please God, not merely know it intellectually. Our dependence upon Him is of such importance that He would allow us to fall flat on our face in order to know we can do nothing without Him. Such crashes therefore become redemptive.

Peter's fall is just this. The arrogant man in the Upper Room is of no use to God for he is depending only on Peter. Jesus actively allows Satan to have him in order that all of Peter’s self confidence in could be taken away. When it is all over Peter will be in a position to strengthen his brothers (See Luke 22:31-34).

Jacob had to wrestle with God and lose in order to become Israel.

Moses was unusable while he trusted in his own ability. Only when he confessed his helplessness, looking upon the task with fear and trembling could God use him.

God will use every situation to bring us to be among the blessed that are poor in spirit. He will use the circumstances of life to strip us of our self sufficiency, our independence, and our self confidence. He wants to bring us to the end of ourselves. He commands us to do what is impossible apart from Him.

For example, we are told by Jesus to “love your enemies” (Luke 6:35). Face it! We are not capable of loving, our wife or husband, or our friends, let alone our enemies. In addition, in our flesh we are incapable of faith, obedience, serving others, or any other aspect of the Christian life. But have we realized the impossibility of the task. The disciples asked, "Who then can be saved?" and Jesus answered "With men it is impossible." He then tells the miracle of salvation "With God all things are possible."

It is more impossible than we think. We tend to love those that we like, fit in with, and enjoy being with. We equate liking with God's love! Those who bring out the worst in us, being given to us to reveal the ugliness of our flesh, we cannot find love for them anywhere in our feelings. In both cases we miserably fail. We incapable in our own strength to love those we like, or those we wish we had never met, but in all cases the ability to love is found in Christ.

We are being called to obey the impossible command and work out the impossible life. And the hope of our salvation is that we are going to do it (Phil. 2:13).

Nevertheless, we are afraid of feelings of distrust in ourselves. We loathe our insufficiency and weakness. Our flesh always wants to feel in control and self-sufficient. But to live in this reality and embrace our weakness, is to understand what Paul meant when he said, "When I am weak, then I am strong" (II Cor. 12:10).