Untitled Sermon
The Fruitful life chapter 2. Devotion to God
John Owen calls this new attitude “the habitual inclination of [the] heart unto the life of God.”1 The New Testament word for godliness, in its original meaning, conveys the idea of a personal attitude toward God that results in actions that are pleasing to God.2
The attitude of devotion to God is composed of three essential elements:
• The fear of God
• The love of God
• The desire for God
Consider the exacting requirements of a godly lifestyle as expounded by the saintly William Law. Law uses the word devotion in a broader sense to mean all that is involved in godliness—actions as well as attitude:
Devotion signifies a life given, or devoted to God. He therefore is the devout [godly] man, who lives no longer to his own will, or the way and spirit of the world, but to the sole will of God, who considers God in everything, who serves God in everything, who makes all the parts of his common life, parts of piety [godliness], by doing everything in the name of God, and under such rules as are conformable to his Glory.3
Note the totality of godliness over one’s entire life in Law’s description of the godly person. Nothing is excluded. God is at the center of his thoughts. His most ordinary duties are done with an eye to God’s glory. In Paul’s words to the Corinthians, whether the godly person eats or drinks or whatever he does, he does it all for the glory of God.
Now it is obvious that such a God-centered lifestyle cannot be developed and maintained apart from a solid foundation of devotion to God. Only a strong personal relationship with the living God can keep such a commitment from becoming oppressive and legalistic. John writes that God’s commands are not burdensome (see 1 John 5:3); a godly life is not wearisome, but this is true only because a godly person is first of all devoted to God. This devotion is the only motivation for Christian behavior that is pleasing to God.
This motivation is what separates the godly person from the moral person, or the benevolent person, or the zealous person.
Professor John Murray says, “The fear of God is the soul of godliness.”4
In Jeremiah 32:40, God said, “I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me” (emphasis added).
Paul and Peter both use the fear of the Lord as a motive to holy and righteous living.6 The example of the Lord Jesus Himself, of whom Isaiah said, “He will delight in the fear of the LORD” (11:3), should put the question beyond all doubt
Some of the aversion to the phrase “fear of God” may be due to a misunderstanding of its meaning. The Bible uses the term “fear of God” in two distinct ways: that of anxious dread, and that of veneration, reverence, and awe. Fear
The Christian has been delivered from fear of the wrath of God (see 1 John 4:18). But the Christian has not been delivered from the discipline of God against his sinful conduct, and in this sense he still fears God. He works out his salvation with fear and trembling (see Philippians 2:12); he lives his life as a stranger here in reverent fear (see 1 Peter 1:17).
For the child of God, however, the primary meaning of the fear of God is veneration and honor, reverence and awe. Murray says this fear is the soul of godliness.7
The angelic beings of Isaiah’s vision in chapter 6 demonstrated this awe when, with two of their wings, they covered their faces in the presence of the exalted Lord.
One of the more serious sins of Christians today may well be the almost flippant familiarity with which we often address God in prayer. None of the godly men of the Bible ever adopted the casual manner we often do
In our day, we must begin to recover a sense of awe and profound reverence for God. We must begin to view Him once again in the infinite majesty that alone belongs to Him who is the Creator and Supreme Ruler of the entire universe.
In our day, we seem to have magnified the love of God almost to the exclusion of the fear of God. Because of this preoccupation, we are not honoring God and reverencing Him as we should. We should magnify the love of God, but although we revel in His love and mercy, we must never lose sight of His majesty and His holiness.
Not only will a right concept of the fear of God cause us to worship God aright, it will also regulate our conduct.
As John Murray says, “What or whom we worship determines our behavior.
The Reverend Albert N. Martin has said that the essential ingredients of the fear of God are (1) correct concepts of the character of God, (2) a pervasive sense of the presence of God, and (3) a constant awareness of our obligation to God.9 If
The expression “I am the LORD” or “I am the LORD your God” appears sixteen times in Leviticus 19. Through this frequent repetition of His sacred name, God reminds the people of Israel that their obedience to His laws and regulations is to flow out of a reverence and fear of Him.
The fear of God should provide a primary motivation for, as well as result in, obedience to Him. If we truly reverence God, we will obey Him, because every act of disobedience is an affront to His dignity and majesty.
The truly godly person never forgets that he was at one time an object of God’s holy and just wrath. He never forgets that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and he feels along with Paul that he is himself the worst of sinners. But then as he looks to the cross, he sees that Jesus was his atoning sacrifice. He sees that Jesus bore his sins in His own body and that the wrath of God—the wrath that he, a sinner, should have borne—was expended completely and totally upon the Holy Son of God. And in this view of Calvary, he sees the love of God.
The love of God has no meaning apart from Calvary, and Calvary has no meaning apart from the holy and just wrath of God
The love of God has no meaning apart from Calvary, and Calvary has no meaning apart from the holy and just wrath of God
In our practice of godliness, then, we must seek to grow both in the fear of God and in an ever-increasing comprehension of the love of God. These two elements together form the foundation of our devotion to God.
This awareness of God’s love for us in Christ must be personalized in order for it to become one of the solid foundational corners of our “triangle of devotion” to God
Our awareness of God’s love for us must also be constantly growing. As we mature in our Christian lives, we are increasingly aware of God’s holiness and our own sinfulness
Through this present sense of his sinfulness, Paul sees God’s love for him. The more he grows in his knowledge of God’s perfect will, the more he sees his own sinfulness and the more he comprehends God’s love in sending Christ to die for him. And the more he sees God’s love, the more his heart reaches out in adoring devotion to the One who loves him so.
If God’s love for us is to be a solid foundation stone of devotion, we must realize that His love is entirely of grace, that it rests completely upon the work of Jesus Christ and flows to us through our union with Him. Because of this basis, His love can never change, regardless of what we do. In our daily experience, we have all sorts of spiritual ups and downs—sin, failure, discouragement—all of which tend to make us question God’s love. That is because we keep thinking that God’s love is somehow conditional. We are afraid to believe His love is based entirely upon the finished work of Christ for us.
Does this apprehension of God’s personal, unconditional love for us in Christ lead to careless living? Not at all. Rather, such an awareness of His love stimulates in us an increased devotion to Him. And this devotion is active; it is not just a warm, affectionate feeling toward God.
Paul testified that Christ’s love for us compelled him to live not for himself but for Him who died for us and rose again (see 2 Corinthians 5:14–15
So we see that devotion to God begins with the fear of God—with a biblical view of His majesty and holiness that elicits a reverence and awe of Him. And then the fear of God leads naturally to an apprehension of the love of God shown us in the atoning death of Jesus Christ. As we contemplate God more and more in His majesty, holiness, and love, we will be progressively led to the apex of the triangle of devotion: the desire for God Himself.
True godliness engages our affections and awakens within us a desire to enjoy God’s presence and fellowship. It produces a longing for God Himself.
The person who spends time with God radiates His glory in a manner that is always warm and inviting, never cold and forbidding.
This longing for God also produces a desire to glorify God and to please Him. In the same breath, Paul expresses the desire to know Christ as well as to be like Him. This is God’s ultimate objective for us and is the object of the Spirit’s work in us. In Isaiah 26:9, the prophet proclaims his desire for the Lord in words very similar to the psalmist’s: “My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you.” Note that immediately before this expression of desire for the Lord, Isaiah expresses a desire for His glory: “Your name and renown are the desire of our hearts” (verse 8). Renown has to do with one’s reputation, fame, and eminence—or in God’s case, His glory. The prophet could not separate in his heart his desire for God’s glory and his desire for God Himself. These two yearnings go hand in hand.