Fear the Lord Your God

Text: “28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28)

You’ve probably seen the optical illusions where you have two colored shapes and you’re asked which one is a lighter color and which is darker. It turns out that they’re the same color, but they looked different because of the color of the background. In fact, I brought an example:

Graphic: “Chubb Illusion” at https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/54448/5-color-illusions-and-why-they-work

- display graphic, pose question: which square is darker blue?

- fold page to demonstrate that they’re both the same color

I bring it up because we see something similar at work in the three readings today.

It’s not literally in each of the three passages, but all three have something to say about the fear of God and whether or not you and I need to fear God. They might appear to give different answers— one seems to point to a God we most certainly need to fear, while another seems to point to a God that we don’t need to fear in the least. How do we put these two ‘gods’ back together? Or, at a minimum, we might ask how do we “fold” scripture to make them look alike after all?

Jeremiah doesn’t address the question directly, but part of what often bothers people about this section of Jeremiah 20 is the fact that Jeremiah calls down God’s vengeance upon his enemies: “ 12  O Lord of hosts, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you have I committed my cause” (Jeremiah 20:12). Does Jeremiah worship a different God than we do?

Jeremiah’s message, itself, doesn’t help. At his time, he was one of only a few true prophets and there were a number of false prophets. What differentiated the true prophets from the false prophets? The true prophets were preaching God’s wrath and the coming destruction. The false prophets were preaching peace. Jeremiah stood in the Temple and declared that God was about to gather Israel’s enemies from across the river and lead them there to Jerusalem. He would lead them to the very walls of Jerusalem and those walls would not protect the people. Not one stone of the Temple would be left upon another. The false prophets also stood in the Temple, assuring the people that God would never let anything happen to His city and His Temple.

Jesus’ message sounds more like the false prophets: “Fear not.”

Which is it? Is Jeremiah’s God different from Jesus?

We begin to see an answer if we look closely at Jesus’ words. “28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). There is one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. And He has promised to punish all who break His commandments. “Therefore,” as the catechism says, “we should fear His wrath and not do anything against them” (Luther’s Small Catechism, Explanation to the Close of the Commandments). “I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. Punishing the children for the sins of the fathers to the third and forth generation of those who hate me...” (Exodus 20:5).

There is the beginning of the answer. Jeremiah was speaking to those who were quite secure and comfortable in their sins. They quite callously and casually acted out all kinds of wickedness and immorality. Jesus, too, speaks the same way to such people. The God of Jeremiah is not a different god than the one we see in Jesus Christ. That is the first thing we have to deal with in order to see God for who He truly is and not be deceived.

Do you fear God? On what basis do you and I treat sin so lightly? Is it because God does not have the power to cast those who sin into hell?

The strongest have no power to resist Him, nor can any deliver out of His hands. He is not only able to cast wicked men into hell, but he can most easily do it. Sometimes an earthly prince meets with a great deal of difficulty in subduing a rebel, who has found means to fortify himself, and has made himself strong by the number of his followers. But it is not so with God. There is no fortress that is any defense from the power of God. (Edwards, Johnathon. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/sdg/pdf/edwards_angry.pdf)

Justice certainly doesn’t stand in the way. In fact, justice actually cries out for God to punish sins like a tree that produces poisonous fruit calls out for the axe to cut it down. In fact, all those who are in sin are already sentenced to be cast, body and soul, into hell. John 3:18— “Whoever does not believe is condemned already.” Hell is his assigned place. That is where he is bound.

You and I can flatter ourselves that we will escape it, in spite of our sin, because we’re not as bad as others, for example. But that won’t keep you from hell for even a moment.

[You flatter yourself] in what [you have] done, in what [you are] now doing, or what you intend] to do… [to] avoid damnation.... [You do] not intend to go to that place of torment.... But the foolish children of men miserably delude themselves in their own schemes, and in confidence in their own strength[, virtue,] and wisdom; they trust to nothing but shadow.

[How many people, from Jeremiah’s time until now]... have lived under the same means of grace [as you do], and are now dead, [have, in fact,] gone to hell; and it was not because they were not as wise as those who are now alive, it was not because they did not lay out matters as well for themselves to secure their own escape. (Edwards, Johnathon. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/sdg/pdf/edwards_angry.pdf)

Or, perhaps, we might just try to rip that part out of the Bible so that we end up with a God we like better. Unfortunately, that’s how many Christians resolve the problem.

{Folding and tearing the corner of the page with the optical illusion on it:}

They tear out the angry God who might punish them for their sins and throw Him away, then go away thinking that they’ve resolved the problem. But that doesn’t change who God is. It doesn’t change the fact, that, the moment you give yourself over to sin, you give yourself over to death and hell.

[Left in your sin,] Were it not for the sovereign pleasure of God, the earth would not bear you one moment, for you are a burden to it; ...the sun does not willingly shine upon you, to give you light to serve sin and Satan; the earth does not willingly yield her increase, to satisfy your lusts; nor is it willingly to stage for your wickedness to be acted upon; the air does not willingly serve you for breath to maintain the flame of life in your vitals, while you spend your life in the service of God's enemies. God's creatures are good, and were made for men to serve God with; and do not willingly [serve] any other purpose, so directly contrary to their nature and end. And the world would spew you out, were it not for the sovereign hand of Him who hath subject it in hope. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/sdg/pdf/edwards_angry.pdf)

Don’t think for a minute that Jesus, Himself, removes that aspect of God. He is no false prophet saying, “Peace, peace....” The very next verses after today’s Gospel reading he literally says, “34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household” (Matthew 10:34-35).

No, Jesus, Himself, does not remove or cancel God’s justice. Why does Jesus say to fear not? Because, “You are of more value than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:31). Because “even the hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matthew 10:30). I would suggest to you that this is, arguably, as close to sinning as Jesus comes. I say that because of how enormous an understatement it is.

{Holding up the page with the optical illusion on it, still folded across the center, hopefully now revealing the shape of a cross.:}

The answer is not to rip out one passage or the other. But if we handle the scriptures carefully, you will see them take their proper shape: the shape of the cross.

Are you not of more value than many sparrows? The answer seems obvious: Yes. We’re used to the idea that people are more valuable, more important, than animals. But that’s only half the answer. Are you of more value than many sparrows? Of course. Are you worth the life of the very Son of God? I doubt any of us would dare to suggest that we are. But God’s answer is still ‘Yes’!

He has purchased and won you from sin, death, and the power of the devil, certainly not with the pennies that can purchase you many sparrows, and not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious, blood, and with His innocent suffering and death. He had the power, the right, and, in fact, the just obligation to cast you, body and soul, into the fires of hell. But, instead, the only one to live a perfect life in word and deed suffered an eternity of hell in your place as He hung on the cross so that when He descended, body and soul, into hell, it was not to suffer but to proclaim victory.

Because you were born in sin, He instituted the waters of baptism to quench the fires of hell in your members. Instead of casting you into hell, He claimed you as His own so that you might live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

Living in that grace, you can actually say that “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But, if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8).

And it’s true, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Again, do you realize the incredible promise wrapped up in those words? As one of the church fathers pointed out about this passage,

[C]ounting things that will perish is not a worthwhile task. So[, in this simple promise,] we may know that we are not going to perish.... Because we are going to be completely saved, whatever is innumerable in us must be preserved so that by his favor and power, it may be counted. We need not fear the fall of our bodies, nor should the destruction of our flesh give us any reason for sorrow. Once the body has been dissolved in keeping with the condition of its nature and its origin, it will be re-established in the substance of a spiritual soul. (Hilary of Poitiers, Commentary on Matthew 10.17, 20–21)

In other words, the One who has the power to cast you, body and soul, into the fires of hell and eternal destruction, has given His own flesh to redeem you and give you, instead, eternal life. The hairs of your head are all numbered so that not one of them will be forgotten when you are raised to life again and look upon Him with your own eyes.

How can you treat sin so lightly, when you’ve been delivered from it at such a great price? “15 ...Are we to [go on sinning] because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:15-23).

“28 [D]o not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). Fear Him and take shelter under His cross.