The Guilt of All Men: The Motive For Sinning

Romans 3:18

¹⁸ “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

(Verse 18) - The motive for man’s sinfulness is his built-in godlessness. The basic sinful condition of men and of their spiritual deadness is evidenced by the fact that, for the unsaved, there is no fear of God before their eyes. The full text of Psalm 36:1, from which Paul here quotes, reads: “Transgression speaks to the ungodly within his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes.” Because men’s ears are attuned to the lies of sin rather than to the truth of righteousness, they have an inadequate concern about and no fear of God.

The word “fear” here denotes “reverence, awe, veneration.” There is no such regard or reverence for the character, authority, and honor of God as to restrain the unredeemed from crime. Their conduct shows that they are not withheld from the commission of iniquity by any regard to the fear or favor of God. The only thing that will be effectual in restraining people from sin, will be a regard to the honor and Law of God.  Implied in the idea of the fear of God is the idea of an awareness of accountability to God and the giving of place to that accountability in the living out of our daily lives.

The Fear of God is the human response to the presence of God.  A prominent element in Old Testament religion is the concept of the fear of God. Most often the sense of fear comes as individuals encounter the divine in the context of revelation. When God appears to a person, the person experiences the reality of God’s holiness. This self-disclosure of God points to the vast distinction between humans and God, to the mysterious characteristic of God that at the same time attracts and repels. There is a mystery in divine holiness that causes individuals to become overwhelmed with a sense of awe and fear. They respond by falling down or kneeling in reverence and worship, confessing sin, and seeking God’s will (Isa. 6).

God as a fearful God - The God of Israel is an awe-producing God because of His majesty, His power, His works, His transcendence, and His holiness. Yahweh is a “great and terrible God” (Neh. 1:5); He is “fearful in praises, doing wonders” (Ex. 15:11); His name is “fearful” (Deut. 28:58) and “terrible” (Ps. 99:3). The fear of God comes as people experience God in a visible manifestation (Ex. 20:18), in dreams (Gen. 28:17), in visible form (Ex. 3:6), and in His work of salvation (Isa. 41:5). God’s work, His power, majesty, and holiness evoke fear and demand acknowledgment. The fear of God is not to be understood as the dread that comes out of fear of punishment, but as the reverential regard and the awe that comes out of recognition and submission to the divine. It is the revelation of God’s will to which the believer submits in obedience.

The basis for God’s relationship with Israel was the covenant. The personal relationship that came out of the covenant transformed the relationship from a sense of terror to one of respect and reverence in which trust predominated. This fear which produces awe can be seen in the worship of Israel. The Israelites were exhorted to “serve the Lord with fear” (Ps. 2:11). Fear protected Israel from taking God for granted or from presuming on His grace. Fear called to covenant obedience.

Fear as obedience - Deuteronomy sets out a relationship between the fear of God and the observance of the demands of the covenant. To fear the Lord is one of the ways by which Israel expresses its obedience and loyalty to Yahweh and to His divine requirements: “and now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?” (Deut. 10:12-13; compare 6:24-25; 10:20; 13:4). Fear becomes a demand that can be learned (Deut. 17:19). Fear of God was part of the religious life of every Israelite, where the acknowledgment of it required a specific behavior from each individual. Fear of God was a requirement demanded from every judge (Ex. 18:21). The kings of Israel should rule in the fear of the Lord (2 Sam. 23:3); even the messianic King would live in the fear of the Lord (Isa. 11:2). To fear God was the beginning of wisdom and thus of the pathway to true life (Prov. 1:7; 9:10; 15:33).

“Fear not” - The expression “fear not” (also translated “do not fear” or “do not be afraid”) is an invitation to confidence and trust. When used without religious connotation (15 times), “fear not” is an expression of comfort. These words come from an individual to another providing reassurance and encouragement (Gen. 50:21; Ruth 3:11; Ps. 49:16). When “fear not” is used in a religious context (60 times), the words are an invitation to trust in God. These words appear in the context of the fear and terror that follows divine revelation. God invites His people not to be afraid of Him (Gen. 15:1; 26:24); the angel of the Lord seeks to calm an individual before a divine message is communicated (Dan. 10:12, 19; Luke 1:13, 30); a person acting as a mediator of God invites the people to trust in God (Moses, Deut. 31:6; Joshua, Josh. 10:25).

The “God-fearers” The “God-fearers” were those who were faithful to God and obeyed His commandments (Job 1:1; Pss. 25:14; 33:18). Those who fear God are blessed (Ps. 112:1); they enjoy God’s goodness (Ps. 34:9) and God’s provision (Ps. 111:5). In the New Testament “God-fearers” became a technical term for uncircumcised Gentiles who worshiped in the Jewish synagogue.

Fear in the New Testament - Some Christians tend to de-emphasize the fear of God in the New Testament by placing the love of God above the fear of God. There is indeed a greater emphasis on the love of God in the New Testament. However, the element of fear was part of the proclamation of the early church.  Paul admonished believers to work out their salvation “with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12). The early church grew in number as they lived “in the fear of the Lord” (Acts 9:31). The fear of God is related to the love of God. The revelation of God to people in the New Testament contains the element of God’s mysterious otherness calling for reverent obedience. The New Testament church stands in awe and fear in the presence of a holy God, for fear is “the whole duty of man” (Eccl. 12:13).

In regard to these quotations from the Old Testament, we may make the following remarks.

(1) They fully establish the position of the apostle, that the nation, as such, was far from being righteous, or that they could be justified by their own works. By quotations from no less than six distinct places in their own writings, referring to different periods of their history, he shows what the character of the nation was. And as this was the characteristic of those times. it followed that a Jew could not hope to be saved simply because he was a Jew. He needed, as much as the Gentile, the benefit of some other plan of salvation.

(2) These passages show us how to use the Old Testament, and the facts of ancient history. They are to be adduced not as showing directly what the character of man is, now, but to show what human nature is. They demonstrate what man is when under the most favorable circumstances; in different situations; and at different periods of the world. The concurrence of past facts shows what the race is. And as past facts are uniform; as man thus far, in the most favorable circumstances, has been sinful; it follows that this is the characteristic of man everywhere. It is settled by the facts of the world, just as any other characteristic of man is settled by the uniform occurrence of facts in all circumstances and times. Ancient facts, and quotations of Scripture, therefore, are to be adduced as proofs of the tendency of human nature. So Paul used them, and so it is lawful for us to use them.

(3) It may be observed further, that the apostle has given a view of human depravity which is very striking. He does not confine it to one faculty of the mind, or to one set of actions; he specifies each member and each faculty as being perverse, and inclined to evil. The depravity extends to all the departments of action. The tongue, the mouth, the feet, the “lips,” are all involved in it; all are perverted, and all become the occasion of the commission of sin. The entire man is corrupt; and the painful description extends to every department of action.

(4) If such was the character of the Jewish nation under all its advantages, what must have been the character of the pagan? We are prepared thus to credit all that is said in Rom. 1, and elsewhere, of the sad state of the pagan world.

(5) What a depressing and pessimistic view we have thus of human nature. From whatever quarter we contemplate it, we come to the same conclusion. Whatever record we examine; whatever history we read; whatever time or period we contemplate; we find the same facts, and are forced to the same conclusion. All are involved in sin, and are polluted, and ruined, and helpless. Over these ruins we should sit down and weep, and lift our eyes with gratitude to the God of mercy, that he has pitied us in our low estate, and has devised a plan by which “these ruins may be built again,” and lost, fallen man be raised up to forfeited “glory, honor, and immortality.”

Thought Fearing God has both positive and negative elements. In a positive way, every true believer has reverential fear of God - an awesome awareness of His power, His holiness, and His glory. Proper worship always includes that kind of fear of the Lord. Reverential fear of God is the beginning of spiritual wisdom (Prov. 9:10). That kind of fear is a necessary element in one’s being led to salvation, as with Cornelius (Acts 10:2), and motivates new believers in their spiritual growth.

The negative aspect of the fear of God has to do with dread and terror. Even believers should have a measure of that kind of fear, which acts as a protection from sinning. The writer of Proverbs observed, “By the fear of the Lord one keeps away from evil” (16:6). For the very reason they are God’s children, believers are subject to His chastisement (see Heb. 12:5-11). Sometimes His dealing with disobedient believers can be severe, as with Ananias and Sapphira, who lost their lives for lying to the Holy Spirit. God used that punishment to produce godly fear and obedience within the early church (see Acts 5:1-11). Some of the believers in the church at Corinth also died or became ill by the direct infliction of God’s chastisement for their sin (1 Cor. 11:30).

Ideally, Christians should live holy lives out of love for God and gratitude for His grace and blessings. But it often takes God-given hardship and pain to pry believers from a sin, or it takes the prospect of punishment to keep them from getting into it in the first place.

Unbelievers, however, should have fear of God in its most intense and terrifying sense. The Old Testament is replete with stories of the Lord wreaking destruction and death as punishment for sins of all kinds. He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of their indescribable immorality and turned Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt for simply looking back disobediently on that horrifying scene. Because of its unrelenting wickedness, God destroyed the whole human race through the Flood, saving only eight people. He drowned the entire Egyptian army when it tried to capture the children of Israel and bring them back to slavery in Egypt. The Lord ordered Moses to have the Levites slay some three thousand Israelite men who had erected and worshiped a golden calf while Moses was on the mountain receiving the tablets of the law from God.

On one occasion a group of Jews asked Jesus, in effect, why God had allowed Pilate to kill some Galileans and mingle their blood with their sacrifices and why eighteen people were killed when a tower at Siloam toppled over on them. He replied that those people did not die because they were more wicked than others, and then proceeded to warn His inquirers, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:1-5).

I once heard of a minister who was known for his emphasis on worship and had even written a book on the subject. One day when some members of his congregation were helping him move his office, they discovered a large box filled with pornographic magazines. One wonders if such a man could even be a Christian; but it was obvious that he had little real fear of God’s righteous judgment or reverence for His honor and glory.

One writer wrote: It astonishes that men, while they acknowledge that there is a God, should act without any fear of His displeasure. Yet this is their character. They fear a worm of the dust like themselves, but disregard the Most High. They are more afraid of man than of God—of his anger, his contempt, or ridicule. The fear of man prevents them from doing many things from which they are not restrained by the fear of God. They love not His character, not rendering to it that veneration which is due; they respect not His authority. Such is the state of human nature while the heart is unchanged.

The fear of God is a marvelous and powerful thing that needs to be preached and taught if we are to be the believers and the servants that we need and are obligated to be!