Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith

“Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter.” (Psalms 74:17)

God placed His marvelous creation, man, on the earth He created. He made all the landmarks; the mountains, gorges, rivers, valley and deserts and established them just where He wanted. It was His creation and He placed everything in its place according to how it pleased Him. If you arrange furniture in your home, it’s much like that. In your home, you move furniture here and there until it pleases you; until it feels right and comfortable. The Lord placed every mountain, gorge, river, valley and desert just where He wanted.

It’s marvelous how the ocean stays in its place. And the deserts are confined to areas. We cannot say that the ocean is getting bigger or expanding. Nor can we say that the deserts are expanding and that the earth will eventually be all desert sand or be completely covered by ocean waters. They have their place where the Lord has positioned them. “You covered the deep as with a robe; the waters stand above the mountains.  “You covered the deep as with a robe; the waters stand above the mountains. At Your rebuke they flee; at the voice of Your thunder they hurry away. They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys to the place which You have founded for them. You have set a bound that they may not pass over, so that they do not turn again to cover the earth.” (Psalms 104:6-9)

Jeremiah prophesying the judgement coming to Israel says, “Do you not fear Me? says Jehovah. Will you not tremble at My presence, I who have placed the sand for the boundary of the sea by a never-ending decree, so that it cannot pass it? And though they toss themselves, yet they cannot prevail; though its waves roar, yet they cannot pass over it?” (Jeremiah 5:22) We take so many things for granted. But the Lord God is the One Who is Creator. Think about the magnitude of that. It’s beyond our imagination that the One Who set the oceans and rivers in their boundaries loves us. We should have the fear of the Lord. This should be our forethought in every one of our actions, words and thoughts. What does the Mighty and powerful God think about what I’m doing?  ...what I’m saying?...what I’m thinking? And although our sins, past, present and future are forgiven, there is no room for flippancy. We should only be awed at His greatness and grateful for His mercy and love. Matthew writes, “And do not fear those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. But rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28) This was written to Jewish Christians many years after the resurrection of Jesus in writing about the coming persecution of Christians. In persecution, a choice is given. Is the fear of God stronger than your life? Many Christians in restricted and hostile nations have had to and continue to make that decision. In free countries like the U.S., generally we have not needed to make that decision. But there is still persecution. To find it all one has to do is mention the Name of Jesus or pray publicly in the Name of Jesus. There is no organized persecution and people are pretty quiet until the Name of Jesus stirs up the devils in them.

The Jews of the Old Testament knew the fear of the Lord. There was no grace then. The punishment for sin came fast. And death was near the sinner.  It was always spiritual death and physical death for some sins. Adam and Eve’s spirit died when they sinned. They lost their relationship with God. “And the eyes of both of them were opened. And they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made girdles for themselves. And they heard the voice of Jehovah God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah God in the middle of the trees of the garden.” (Genesis 3:7-8) Death was the punishment for immorality in the Law. Death was the punishment for adultery, incest and bestiality. (Leviticus 20:10-16) Anyone who claimed to be a prophet and led others astray after other gods was also to be put to death. (Deuteronomy 13:1-5) And anyone dealing in the occult was to be put to death. “A man also or woman that has a medium or that is a necromancer, shall surely be put to death. They shall stone them with stones. Their blood is on them.” (Leviticus 20:27) Whoever murdered was to be put to death. “Whoever sheds man's blood, his blood shall be shed by man; for He made man in the image of God.” (Genesis 9:6) The punishment of death was carried out so precisely that if you accidently killed someone you had to flee to a city of refuge where you were safe until the high priest of the city where the murder occurred died. (Deuteronomy 19 -whole chapter) A girl could be put to death if she married and she could not prove her virginity if her husband accused her of not being a virgin. “But if this thing is true and tokens of virginity are not found for the girl, then they shall bring the girl out to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones so that she dies, because she has done foolishness in Israel to play the harlot in her father's house. So you shall put evil away from among you.” (Deuteronomy 22:20-21) In the cases of rape, if you were raped in the city you could be put to death because you didn’t scream for someone to help you, but not if you were raped out in the country where there was no one who could help. (Deuteronomy 22:23-29) A rebellious son would also be put to death. (Deuteronomy 21:18-21) The last sentence in those verses tells why. “So shall you put evil away from you, and all Israel shall hear and fear.” With these examples, you can be sure that there was a real fear of the Lord.

The word fear of the Lord in the Old Testament Hebrew has the same meaning as the fear of the Lord in the New Testament Greek. Strong’s definition:

Old Testament Hebrew:

yârê' (yaw-ray')

A primitive root; to fear; morally to revere; causatively to frighten: - affright, be (make) afraid, dread (-ful), (put in) fear (-ful, -fully, -ing). (be had in) reverence (-end), X see, terrible (act, -ness, thing).

New Testament Greek:

phobeō (fob-eh'-o)

From G5401; to frighten, that is, (passively) to be alarmed; by analogy to be in awe of, that is, revere: - be (+ sore) afraid, fear (exceedingly), reverence.

How many of us didn’t fear the punishment for misbehaving. It brought us a respect for our parents. In the same way in the Old Testament, the punishment for sin, death, brought a respect and honor to a great God. In the New Testament, death is still the punishment for sin. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) But Jesus took our death for us so that we could live in righteousness. There is grace in the New Covenant. In this dispensation of grace, there will be a punishment for sin if we don’t accept God’s way of salvation at our departure from this life and at the end of time. The goodness of God draws us to Him in repentance. “Or do you despise the riches of His kindness, and the forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4) And when we believe on Christ and the Gospel, we are born again of the Spirit of God. He births us a new creation (2Corinthians 5:17) with the nature of God, no longer slaves to sin, but free to lead a righteous life in Jesus. And it is God Who works in us to perfection. “... looking to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2) It’s a merciful and grand gift of the Lord. He does it all. He puts the old sinful man to death (Romans 6:6), makes us a new creation with God’s nature and completes the work in us to perfect us. In a simplified way this is what happens. And we cannot take any credit because it is all a work of God.

Summarizing, our God is awesome. We have no idea of how great He is because we only have a glimpse of Who He is through His creation of earth. He is worthy of fear because everything is in His Hands. But He works through His Word in which He has put the guidelines of how man can approach Him and how He will allow us to have a relationship with Him.

Let us pray:

Father God how awesome is the knowledge I have of You. And I know that it isn’t but a little glimpse of Your glory. I know that there is much that I won’t know until I am in Your presence, face to face. But for what You have revealed, it’s a wonder. I cannot imagine the glory of You. I praise You and worship You because of Who You are and because of Your love and mercy toward me. Your goodness is undeserved, yet You poured it out on me because of Jesus, my Lord. The words of gratefulness are not enough, but it’s all I have and it’s all You want. My heart is Yours my Lord and my God. Be glorified in the work that You do in me, for me and through me. In the Name of Jesus I pray, amen.