By Dr. Chad Wiles
There is much debate in our culture about how people are to understand themselves. Yet if we acknowledge that we are created beings, the answer is not nearly as complicated as many make it out to be. Created things can only be rightly understood in light of their Creator. We cannot know ourselves apart from the One who made us.
John Calvin captures this reality well: “Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.” (1)
Calvin rightly places the knowledge of God before the knowledge of self. We can only understand ourselves rightly when we first understand who God is. While those who reject God altogether will naturally reject this premise, it is far more concerning when those who profess Christ still possess a distorted view of God. A false understanding of God inevitably produces a false understanding of ourselves.
How does this happen? Much of the confusion stems from the many false versions of God that have found their way into the church. Some imagine God as a genie in the sky who grants every desire if only we have enough faith. Others picture Him as a gracious grandfather who simply winks at sin. Still others view Christ primarily as a divine psychologist whose purpose is merely to meet our emotional needs, while others see God as a harsh taskmaster who demands religious rituals whenever we fail. Every one of these false views diminishes God’s holiness and ultimately produces a distorted understanding of ourselves.
One of the clearest examples of this misunderstanding is the way many Christians think about the fear of the Lord. It is often reduced to little more than respect. While respect is certainly part of biblical fear, Scripture presents something much greater. God’s holiness, righteousness, power, judgment, and wrath are realities that should cause us to tremble. This truth is not intended to drive believers into despair. Rather, it enables us to see God rightly so that we may walk with Him rightly. A biblical fear of the Lord protects us from sin, guards us against the deception of our flesh, and gives us the discernment to distinguish truth from error.
Hebrews 12 addresses this issue directly. Jewish believers were tempted to abandon Christ because following Him had become costly. Rather than presenting an easier picture of God, the author presents a proper understanding of the fullness of God’s character.
Sinai: Why God Revealed His Holiness
Hebrews 12:18-24 contrasts two mountains: Mount Sinai and Mount Zion. At Sinai, God revealed His holiness through blazing fire, darkness, thunder, a trumpet blast, and an earthquake. Boundaries were placed around the mountain because no sinful person could casually approach God. Even Moses confessed, “I am full of fear and trembling.”
Why would God reveal Himself this way? Moses in Exodus 20:20 gives the answer: “Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may be with you, so that you may not sin.”
The fear of the Lord was never intended to drive God’s people into despair. It was given to protect them. God’s holiness exposes the seriousness of sin and reminds us that He is not to be treated casually. When we understand who God truly is, we stop minimizing our sin, excusing our disobedience, or entertaining sinful thoughts as though they are harmless.
Sinai also revealed something else: the law exposed sin, but it could never remove it. It showed God’s righteous standard while simultaneously revealing humanity’s inability to meet that standard. The law pointed beyond itself to the Savior who would fulfill it perfectly.
This is why Hebrews immediately turns our attention from Sinai to Zion. Through Jesus Christ, believers have not come to a mountain of judgment but to the heavenly Jerusalem. Christ accomplished what the law never could. Through Christ’s perfect sacrifice, those who trust in Him by faith have their sin atoned for, God’s wrath has been satisfied, and are invited to draw near to God with confidence (Heb 4:14-16). The fear of the Lord protects those who have been reconciled to God through Christ.
Zion: Why We Can Draw Near Without Fear
After describing Zion, the author immediately warns, “See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking.” (Heb 12:25a).
That warning was especially relevant to the original readers of Hebrews. These Jewish believers had already experienced public ridicule, rejection by their families, the loss of their possessions, and persecution for following Christ. Returning to Judaism promised acceptance, security, and relief from suffering. Yet to abandon Christ would have been to exchange the substance for the shadow and the Savior for a system that could never save.
Do you ever struggle with the temptation to turn away from following Christ? We are often tempted to trade wholehearted devotion to Christ for comfort, the approval of others, worldly success, personal pleasure, or simply an easier version of Christianity. Every one of those
promises ultimately disappoints because none of them can provide what only Christ offers.
The fear of the Lord exposes those false refuges. It reminds us that God’s judgment is infinitely more serious than any hardship we may experience in this life, while His promises are infinitely greater than anything this world can offer.
Hebrews reminds believers that we are receiving “a kingdom which cannot be shaken.” (Heb 12:28). The God whose holiness causes unbelievers to tremble has become Father to those who believe in Jesus Christ (Rom 8:15-17). If you belong to His unshakable kingdom, you will endure rejection, suffering, and even persecution without abandoning the gospel. Our courage is not found in ourselves but in the God we fear and trust.
The Fruit of Fearing God
A right view of God’s holiness always produces gratitude. When we understand what we deserve (wrath) and what Christ has accomplished on our behalf (Salvation), pride has no place to stand. The only fitting response is humble worship.
Imagine being trapped inside a burning building with no hope of escape when someone rushes in and carries you to safety. Or imagine drowning beneath the waves when someone reaches down and rescues you. Gratitude would be the natural response. How much greater should our gratitude be toward Christ, who has delivered us from the wrath of God and given us eternal life?
This gratitude reshapes every part of life. We recognize that every ability, every opportunity, and every blessing has been entrusted to us by God for His glory. Rather than living for ourselves, we desire to present our lives as living sacrifices, offering acceptable worship with reverence and awe (Rom 12:1).
The fear of the Lord also produces wisdom. Proverbs tells us that “the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom.” (Prov 9:10) We cannot know what pleases God unless we first know God Himself. Every decision, every ambition, and every desire should first be measured by one question: Does this glorify God? Only then can we rightly ask how our lives should serve and love others. A proper fear of the Lord leads to worship because it teaches us to see all of life from God’s perspective rather than our own. The fear of the Lord is not merely one doctrine among many. It is one of the primary ways we come to know God rightly. And as Calvin reminds us, only when we know God rightly can we truly know ourselves.
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- What does your response to temptation, suffering, or uncertainty reveal about your view of God?
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- What does your pursuit of comfort, approval, success, or pleasure reveal about what you fear most?
(1) John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Henry Beveridge (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2008), 4.