We've come to a time when human armaments no longer can assuage deep fear.
1 John 4:18 says that "perfect love casts out fear," but how does "perfect agape" cast out its root? Mouthing empty words, "Jesus will take care of you!" doesn't satisfy children. They fall asleep at night worrying still. They know many believers in Christ perished.
We fear the economy may collapse, but that's not the root of fear. We fear diseases, like cancer, but again, that's not it. We in the western United States worry about wildfires every summer, but again that's not it. The bottom-line root is the fear of eternal hell, separation forever from light, love, and God. One may not know how to articulate it, but all other fears derive from that one.
The Bible calls its horror the "second death." Unspeakable, unmatched by earthly terrorism, if one could go through it just once and come out the other side, he could be done with that root of fear forever. He could tell the devil, "I've been through it already; nothing can faze me now. I'm immune to fear of any kind because I have already suffered the quintessential fear and survived. No lesser fear can touch that one!" But the problem is, you can't do that and survive.
The Bible is clear: (1) Christ died the equivalent of that "second death," endured 100 percent the torture and horror of hell itself, drained the cup dry.
(2) He is your Substitute--but therein lies a problem: if He is only a vicarious Substitute (the popular variety), the root of fear still gnaws away at your insides. What's true is a shared substitution, where you personally identify with Him. "I am crucified with Christ" (Gal. 2:20). "If One died for all, then all died" (2 Cor. 5:14). That's more than signing the Insurance Policy kind of faith; this time, unlike Peter, James, and John, you don't go to sleep while Jesus prays in Gethsemane.
You appreciate what He went through. You identify with Him.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: September 25, 2001.
Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
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