The living God is infinitely perfect and quintessentially, overwhelmingly beautiful in every way: his righteousness, his graciousness, his majesty, his mercy, his all. And so we do not love him aright if our love is not a trembling, overwhelmed, and fearful love.

The Fear of God

C.I. Scofield once called the fear of God “a phrase of Old Testament piety.”¹ And so indeed it was. However, the fear of God is not a phrase of Old Testament piety only, for the right fear of God is, quite explicitly, a blessing of the new covenant. Speaking of the new covenant, the Lord promised through Jeremiah:

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

What is this fear that the Lord will put in the hearts of his people in the new covenant? Unlike that devilish fear we have seen that would drive us away from God, this is a fear that keeps us from drawing back or turning away from him. Is it, then, the sort of “spirit of slavery” (Rom. 8:15) that John Newton wrote of in his hymn “Amazing Grace”?

’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved.

Well, certainly, the Spirit can cause a fear in those he is convicting of sin, a fear that drives them to Christ for refuge. But, as Newton said, that fear is then relieved by grace: it is no longer appropriate for a believer once he or she has trusted in Christ. It is a Spirit-worked fear that serves a good purpose in driving sinners to Christ; it is not, however, that fear which is “the soul of godliness”² or “the beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 9:10).

An Unexpected Fear

In Jeremiah 33, the Lord goes on to explain the nature of this new covenant fear in words so striking they overturn all our expectations. He promises:

I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me, and I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against me. And this city shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and a glory before all the nations of the earth who shall hear of all the good that I do for them. They shall fear and tremble because of all the good and all the prosperity I provide for it. (Jer. 33:8–9)

This is not a fear of punishment—of what God might do if his people turn away from him. Quite the opposite: in Jeremiah 33, the Lord reels off a catalog of pure blessing.³ He will cleanse them, forgive them, and do great good for them. And they fear and tremble precisely because of all the good he does for them.

Here is not a fear that stands on the flip side of the grace and goodness of God. It is the sort of fear Hosea describes when he prophesies how “the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days” (Hos. 3:5). It is a fear “to the Lord and to his goodness.” It is a fear that, as Charles Spurgeon put it, “leans toward the Lord” because of his very goodness.⁴ It is the sort of marveling fear we come across in the face of Jesus’s giving of life. When Jesus raised the widow of Nain’s son, we read,

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