No Fear of God

Romans Written Study #58

3:14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15 Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17 And the way of peace have they not known: 18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.

When something is full, there is no room for anything else. Our mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Even our loftiest language and sincerest sentiments are corrupted because of where they come from. Mt 12:34 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

Verse 14 is a quote from Psalm 10:7 and verses 15-17 from Isaiah 59:7-8. Verse 18 is from Psalm 36:1. You see, we do not discover ourselves to be thus, without the word of God. We naturally think pretty well of ourselves and even we who have spiritual understanding do not perceive the extent of our ruin. What we do know, we didn’t figure out, or perceive with our senses. We trust God’s estimation of us, and by His grace and revelation, to an extent, see the truth of it. Also, our new nature, that new heart that God has put within us, views the old nature, the flesh as it is, and thus we cry with Job, “I abhor myself.”

Our whole being is affected and motivated by our sin nature, apart from the grace of God in Christ. Our feet are anxious and ready to carry us on bloody errands of evil. Death, the shedding of blood, is the consequence of our sin against God. So, in our delusional status as our own god, we are anxious to kill those who “sin against us.” If we are afraid of the civil consequences of doing so outwardly, it does not hinder us from murdering each other in our hearts. How quick we are to do so even over such small matters. Someone cuts us off on the freeway, and immediately, our “sovereignty” being violated, we execute, in our hearts, the penalty for such a “transgression” (Matt 5:22).

Peace with God is the way of all manner of peace, in the home, in society . . . We have not, nor can we know it, unless God be merciful to us in Christ, the Prince of Peace. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, and we have no fear of God, and thus are fools. We must have Christ, the Power and Wisdom of God (1Cor 1:24). He is made unto us “wisdom,” the beginning of which is to fear God, to see God as God, and glorify Him as God, which we cannot do by nature (Rom 1:21). Oh, that God would make Christ this unto us.

Pastor