Be Strong and Courageous in the Lord

by Pastor Paul Wolff

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9)

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God told Joshua, “Be strong and courageous for I am with you wherever you go.”

The context of Joshua 1 is that the prophet Moses has just died and God was giving directions to his successor, Joshua. Four times in Joshua chapter one God tells Joshua to “be strong and courageous,” and a few chapters earlier in the book of Deuteronomy (chapter 31) Moses tells Joshua twice to “be strong and courageous” and God tells Joshua the same thing once. One gets the idea that Joshua was neither strong nor courageous that he needed such encouragement.

One might think this despite the fact that 40 years earlier Joshua and Caleb were the only Israelite scouts of the 12 who scouted out the land of Canaan who were not intimidated by the Canaanites and their fortified cities and who courageously told the Israelites, “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.” (Numbers 14:7-9)

In an article from 2014 (Perfect Love Drives Out All Fear) I showed how courage comes from love, especially from the love of God above all things. Whether Joshua needed such encouragement or not, I do not know. Perhaps God was only reminding Joshua of His love for the Israelites to strengthen Joshua’s courage to do what needed to be done to take the land that God was giving to His people to prepare for the day when all His promises will be fulfilled and the Messiah would be born in that land who would save the world from their sins.

Jesus shows how God loves us like a loving father loves his children.

The courage that God gives to Joshua and the Israelites is not a generic courage to not be afraid in any circumstance. It is a very specific courage. It is a courage to remain faithful to the One True God in the face of all doubt and temptation that the world may use to try to turn you against God, or to fear something above God, which is idolatry. There are so many temptations in the world to doubt God, and to fear what the world could do to us. When Christ’s followers were turning away from him because they found His teaching hard (John 6), Jesus did not beg His disciples to stay. He gave them the opportunity to leave, too, saying “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Peter answered for the disciples, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Likewise Saint Paul had a similar courage from the love of Christ when He wrote to the Romans, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39)

If God is with us, as He has promised (See Matthew 28:20 where Jesus said, “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”), then what can the world do to us? The most the world can do to us is to make our lives a little more painful for a little while, and take away our lives, but as sinners we already suffer and we will all die at some point, but all who love Christ belong to God as His children and will live forever with Christ who saves us. Why should we fear the world? Why would we ever turn our backs on Christ who lived and died to save us from the wickedness of this sinful world?

Do not be tempted by the world’s sinful pleasures. Do not be afraid of their empty threats. Do not be discouraged. God has come down to earth to be with you and to save you from sin and death. Jesus lived and died to pay for your sin so that you will live forever with Christ in His heavenly paradise. Be strong and courageous through faith in Christ, for He is the Lord God who will be with you wherever you go.

Safe Space in Christ

by Pastor Paul Wolff

Is it safe to learn to play the organ like Johann S. Bach?

I remember hearing a short “Public service” message several years ago on a local Public radio station where a mother was talking about providing a safe place for her daughter. This did not sound so bad at first. Parents should want to protect their children from harm and from all who would seek to hurt them or take advantage of them. However, this is not what the woman meant. She went on to define what a “safe place” meant to her. She wanted her daughter to be “safe” from criticism, and from people who would tell her that she couldn’t do something!

I thought that this was extremely strange, especially considering the context that this was a classical music station and I presumed the mother paradoxically wanted her child to learn to play a musical instrument. It is impossible for someone to learn to play an instrument without receiving all kinds of criticisms about technique and note choice and style and encouragements to practice and the like. I thought to myself that this woman’s child will not only never learn to play an instrument, but would also grow up so spoiled that she would never be a productive member of society if she embraced this attitude.

Wikipedia defines “safe space” as “an autonomous space created for individuals who feel marginalized to come together to communicate regarding their experiences with marginalization.” That is the politically correct view, though even that brings up the images of a group of whining complainers who can’t take a little criticism. A more honest definition can be found at the urbandictionary.com where the most direct definition defines a “safe space” as “A place where cowards with cultural authoritarian and pro-censorship leanings go to in order to evade criticism and exposing of whatever absurd ideas they may express, as well as ideas that are even slightly opposed to the safe space dweller’s ideas. These are labeled as whatever kind of bigotry would make the safe space dweller look like a victim the most.” This accurately shows how such “safe places” are not really safe, and are quite bad for all concerned.

Jesus taught the people in Nazareth but they sought to kill him. See Luke 4:16-30

One big problem with shielding children from criticism is that they never get the chance to test or defend their ideas or point of view. They can thus be more easily manipulated and controlled by whoever is moderating the information that they take in. In the real world where people have all sorts of crazy ideas it is necessary to learn what is good and true, and separate that from what is bad and false. When a real person in the real world is challenged on his worldview, he has to be able to defend his position and show how his ideas are better than the ideas proposed by his opponent. If he finds that he cannot defend his point of view, then he must consider rethinking his position to account for the truth, and thus make his resulting worldview much better.

Children need to be sheltered and protected from harm, but the process of maturation should be a gradual removal of the shelters as the growing child is better able to discern the truth from lies. The sheltered child who is never challenged until later in life doesn’t know how to deal with criticism, and is not likely to be able to distinguish the truth from lies. This can be very unsettling when they are faced with people who have a different view of the world. This is true even when someone has a better view of the world, and can effectively communicate that to others.

It is also ironic that many of the Internet definitions of “safe spaces” make reference to activities going on at college campuses or universities. One cannot learn unless one admits that he doesn’t know all things and maybe he has to broaden his view of the world or learn to stand up and defend what he knows to be true against false views of the world. Christians have known for years that there are no university campuses (including Christian universities) where we are “safe” from criticism and ridicule and sometimes outright attacks (mostly verbal, but increasingly some physical) on us, and on our faith. Many of the attacks on Christianity come from unfounded assumptions by teachers and others that Christians are non-intellectual and the Christian faith is somehow irrational. Sometimes people come right out and question the morality of Christianity without providing a basis for their own moral view. I faced some of this when I was in college in the 1980’s, and it has only gotten worse in the subsequent decades.

There is a saying that “No one is useless. You can always serve as a bad example.” If you want a textbook example of the tragedies which ensue when children are never disciplined or challenged, then look at the former mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick. Kwame’s mother was a U.S. Congress representative from Michigan, and she apparently never told her son that he couldn’t do anything. The result of this is that he thought he could do anything, and so he did. He cheated on his wife with another man’s wife. He abused his authority as Mayor of Detroit. He extorted bribes to enrich himself and his cronies at the expense of the people of Detroit. He also had something to do with the murder of a prostitute and was instrumental in the cover-up obstruction of the investigation into her death. Kwame is currently where he belongs in prison for federal crimes of corruption and accepting bribes and various other crimes related to his abuse of power.

Though prison keeps the greater society safe from uncontrolled wicked people like Kwame Kilpatrick (and more openly violent people), prisons are the opposite of what is now commonly referred to as “safe spaces”. In prison the inmates are continually told what they can and cannot do. Prison is a good lesson in obedience, which has saved the lives of many people who didn’t learn the lesson earlier in life.

It is certainly not safe to be tempted by the devil, but Jesus endured without sin to rescue us from sin, death, and the devil.

Jesus was quite familiar with opposition throughout His ministry, and He was well prepared for it. When Jesus began His ministry at around age 30 He was challenged by St. John the baptizer when Jesus came to be baptized. John’s baptism was for sinners, and John asked Jesus, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Now, John was not a hostile opponent. He was a prophet sent by God, but he still didn’t fully understand why Jesus would “dirty” Himself with a sinners baptism. Jesus responded, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” (See Matthew 3) Immediately after Jesus was baptized by John He was sent to the wilderness by God to fast for 40 days, and at the end He was tempted by the devil. (See Matthew 4) The devil was certainly a hostile antagonist, though he portrayed himself as a sympathetic friend. Even when tired and hungry Jesus responded to the devil’s temptations by quoting Scripture passages and remaining faithful to God the Father.

Though Jesus never sinned in anything He did or said, some sinners considered Him to be their enemy and several times in His life they tried to trap Him and catch Him doing or saying something wrong, or even giving the appearance of doing wrong so that in their wicked plans, they could hang Him (literally). In a famous story (see Matthew 22 or Luke 20) they asked Jesus whether it was right to pay taxes to Caesar or not. This was a clever trap because if Jesus said it was right to pay taxes to Caesar they could portray Jesus as being allied with the Roman oppressors, and make Him lose respect with the Jewish people. If Jesus said it was not right to pay the Roman taxes, then they would report Him to the Roman authorities as someone who was leading a rebellion against them. Jesus responded by asking His accusers to show Him a coin used for paying the Roman tax. Jesus asked, “Whose portrait is this, and whose inscription?” They replied, “Caesar’s.” Jesus then said, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” This was a brilliant response which left them amazed. This was an answer that they could not use against Jesus without lying completely about what He said (though they later did exactly that). The coin showed the image of Caesar, but when God made people, He made us in His image. Our whole lives ought to be dedicated to serving God, but as God has instituted the governments that exist we also owe them service and allegiance.

Jesus did not defend Himself at trial yet Pilate declared Him innocent. Though the political schemes of the Jewish leaders convinced Pilate to sentence Jesus to die.

The trials of Jesus before the High Priest and Pilate and Herod are other examples of antagonistic opposition to Jesus and His teaching. Though Jesus did not invoke His rights to defend Himself, because He knew it was His Father’s will that He die as an innocent lamb for the atonement of all people, Jesus did answer some questions that were given to Him. When the High Priest asked Him if He was the Christ, Jesus answered “Yes,” which made the court want to kill Him all the more, even though it was true (see Matthew 26). Jesus also engaged Pontius Pilate in some conversations about the nature of His Kingship, and the nature of truth, but Jesus did not otherwise defend Himself against the false accusations of the Jewish leaders. This led Pilate to publicly declare Jesus innocent several times. This public proclamation was necessary to fulfill the role of Jesus as the sacrificial atonement lamb to be without blemish or fault. When Jesus was taken before Herod, He said nothing whatsoever.

The Christian life is in many ways the opposite of the popular view of “safe spaces” in our society. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught, “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:10-12) Jesus knew well that He would be hated for loving God above all and loving His neighbor as Himself. If Jesus was hated and persecuted, so would His disciples and followers suffer persecution. There is also much temptation and violence here in this sinful world, and that is not “safe” for anyone.

Jesus also taught, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. … a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household. Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:34, 36-39) Jesus is certainly not advocating violence, but rather patient endurance of persecution, and love for one’s neighbor. Jesus Himself practiced this in His life, even to His death on the cross.

A Christian’s safety does not consist in peace with the world. Indeed, it is written in the Scripture, “Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” (James 4:4) Everyone in the world is a sinner, and sinners are, by nature, enemies of God. Those who love their sin more than God view themselves as enemies of those who side with God against the world.

Nicodemus came to Jesus at night to learn. It was not safe to be seen as a disciple of Jesus. Later Nicodemus assisted in the burial of Jesus. See John 3 and John 19:38-42

And yet, Christians do live in a “safe space” that the world cannot know, nor imagine. Psalm 46:1-2 tells us, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.” God Himself is our “safe space” because not only does He protect us from all evil, but He has also redeemed us from our sin. We have peace with God through the forgiveness of our sin which Christ won for us. It is sin which puts us in danger, and estranges us from God. Because Jesus has taken the guilt of our sin upon Himself, and took the punishment for our sin, God the Father is not our enemy, but our rescuer and defender. We need not fear God’s wrath, because He took it all out on Jesus at the cross. We now have peace with God and are therefore safe from all harm and evil. If God would go so far as to become incarnate as a man, and then suffer and die to take our place in suffering the punishment for our sin, then He certainly will not let any evil do us any lasting harm. Thus, we can be at peace even while in the midst of the worst chaos of this sinful world. Psalm 32:7 says of God, “You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance.”

Sinful people have a far too high opinion of themselves and their cleverness and power and worth. We think that we can find a solution for all our problems, and work everything out on our own. When Adam and Eve first sinned against God’s law they were ashamed of themselves, and that manifested itself in a feeling of shame in their bodies. They sewed fig leaves together for a covering of their shame, as if God would not know exactly what that meant. Likewise, we ought not think that we can hide our sin and guilt from God. In Psalm 139:7-12 David writes:

Atheists think that the grave will be a place to hide from condemnation. But Jesus conquered death for all. There is no hiding from Christ’s final Judgment.

Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,  
even there your hand will guide me,  
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,’  
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

This passage is surely a condemning passage for those who do not love God or trust in Him for salvation and rescue. No one can escape God’s judgment. However, these are also words of great comfort for those who know God loves them and has rescued them from sin and guilt and all that would trouble us. If we live in faith in Jesus as our savior from sin, our sins are completely forgiven, and God considers us His beloved children, not His enemies. We need not fear God’s wrath and anger over our sins. Nor do we need to fear death, because Jesus has conquered the power of death by dying an innocent death in our place. God knows where we are at all times. Even when we have been in our graves for a thousand years or more, God remembers us, and Christ will call our names on the last day to resurrect us to glory so that we may live with Him in His heavenly paradise forever. “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” (Hebrews 9:27-28)

David sought shelter in God. There is no safer place, even in the midst of trouble and persecution.

“Rescue me from my enemies, O Lord, for I hide myself in you.” (Psalm 143:9) What could be safer than to be hidden in the protective care of the Almighty God? The first century Jews should have better remembered David’s Psalms. Many did, and those were the great crowds which followed Jesus and rejoiced at His teaching and benefited from His miracles. The leaders, however, refused to repent, and even when they knew that Jesus was the Christ sent by God, they envied and hated Him and plotted to kill Him. Jesus said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!” (Matt 23:37) Jesus yearned to shelter His people as a hen shelters her chicks, but they would not have it. Part of this was the rejection that the Messiah had to suffer in payment for the sins of the world. Jesus was abandoned by all as He paid for our sins on the cross, even God the Father turned against His beloved Son to punish Him for the world’s sin. Jesus, however, remained faithful to the Father, and continued to love us, even though it was the guilt of our sins which caused Jesus so much pain and torment. This is the love of God which rescues us from all troubles. Who would not love the true God who went to such great lengths to suffer to rescue us from sin and death so that we may be redeemed and live forever with Him in Paradise?

The Real Homophobia

by Pastor Paul Wolff

The Flight to Egypt

Homophobia is often portrayed as being one of the greatest ills in our society. At least, that is what the homosexual lobby and their sympathizing friends in the media would like you to believe. The fiction of homophobia is that all who are opposed to homosexual practice are somehow fearful of homosexuality.

Our neighbors who promote the idea of homophobia would also like you to to ignore the fact that those whom they call “fearful” are the people who are not afraid to speak out publicly about the inherent immorality of all kinds of sexual perversions. Outspoken opponents of homosexual practice are the some of the least fearful people around, but they are the ones who are called homophobic. What is going on?

It would seem that homophobia is, in fact, something that is greatly desired by those promoting acceptance of homosexual lifestyles and practice. If you oppose the homosexual lobby in even the smallest way you are bullied into submission by being called “homophobic” or “bigoted” or other such things until you are afraid to speak out against these people. This is what the homosexual lobby wants. The more that people are fearful of speaking out against the normalization of homosexuality, then the more the homosexuals are free to do whatever they want without having to answer for their actions.

What is the homosexual lobby most afraid of? Jesus gives us the answer in John 3:19-20, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” This is the real homophobia: homosexuals are afraid their actions will be exposed as evil.

Day Six of Creation

This should come as no surprise to anyone. We all have fear that our favorite sins will be exposed. Adam and Eve also had this same fear which they dealt with by first covering themselves with fig leaves, then running away from God in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were naïve about how to deal with the guilt of their sin, because it was all new to them. But we deal with sin every day of our lives from our conception, and we can become quite accomplished at hiding our guilt, especially if we are not frequent with repentance.

Homosexuals fear that if they were forced to admit that homosexuality was wrong, then they would have to give up the one thing which gives them great pleasure. Don’t misunderstand me, they all know it is wrong, everyone knows homosexuality is wrong, but those who promote homosexuality have a great aversion to admitting that it is sinful. Sexual sins are specially difficult to overcome because sexuality is so closely tied to our self-image that when we get caught up in these sins we easily come to believe that our sin is synonymous with who we are, and we fear that we would cease to exist without it. Saint Paul acknowledges this in 1 Corinthians 6:18, “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.” Note that this applies to all sexual sins, not just same-sex desires.

Those of us who are not particularly burdened with great sinful desires for intimacy with people of our same gender find it hard to understand the attraction to this sin, but sinful desires are common to us all. It helps to understand how temptation works. The devil cannot force us to sin, but can only tempt us to sin. He does this by making sin seem desirable to us. Once we desire to sin we do it on our own without any further “help” from anyone else. It would seem that this would be an impossible task – to make the thing which would destroy us an object of our desire, but the devil is quite accomplished at this. What makes the devil’s job easier is our sinful nature, which takes great pleasure in all kinds of sin. By our nature we all want to sin. We enjoy sinning, and we cooperate with those who seek to destroy us. It really is disgusting when you think about how much pleasure we get from sin, but that is the reality of our sinful nature. It doesn’t matter what the sin is, it could be coveting persons, coveting possessions, lying, stealing, adultery, murder, dishonoring father and mother, desecrating the Sabbath day, blasphemy, or even idolatry; our sinful flesh takes pleasure in all these wicked things. (Exodus 20:1-17 and Matthew 15:19)

Though other sinners may not want us to call them to repentance over their sin, and we, too, may not want to confront other sinners with their sin, we cannot keep silent. Just as you would not keep silent if your beloved child was about to do something foolish which would bring great physical harm to himself, so we must speak out to warn our neighbors about the great harm they are bringing upon themselves, in body and soul, through sexual sins.

Christians need to remember that we are no better than anyone else, even unbelieving homosexuals. If we are honest we must say with Saint Paul, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25) We can be kind and compassionate (Ephesians 4:32) about the problem of sin and guilt because we deal with it every day, too.

Creation and the Fall of Man Window from Holy Cross Lutheran Church Detroit, Michigan

It is a terrible thing to have your life defined by your sin. Sin always leads to death (Romans 6:23). But Christ’s redemption sets us free from sin and gives us life. “We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Romans 6:2-4)

Because Christ has set us free from the guilt and punishment for our sin we are truly free from the fear that if we struggle against our sin that we will have no pleasure in life. It is true that Christians still struggle against sin and temptation. It is not easy for anyone to say “no” to the pleasures of our sinful flesh. However, because Christ Jesus has given us eternal life and has freed us from the slavery to our sinful desires we know that whatever we may suffer temporally in our struggles against sin will be more than made up by the blessings of Christ, both now and eternally. Yes, we may suffer for fighting against temptation, but that suffering is only temporary, and we can find joy in Christ, even in the midst of our struggles because the God who rules the universe has redeemed us from our sin and has adopted us as His beloved children through Jesus Christ. (Romans 8:22-27)

The world may hate you for telling them the truth. They may say you are homophobic, hateful, hypocritical, bigoted, prudish, and maybe much worse things. Yet, you should feel free to speak the truth of God’s Word in love to your neighbors. If they don’t hear that what they are doing is deadly then they may never know because they are enjoying their wickedness too much. Then if they don’t hear that there is forgiveness in Christ for even the worst sinner then they may prefer to risk the consequences of their sinful pleasures rather than endure the pains of self-denial for some unknown benefit. Yet, we must speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). For those who receive Christ’s forgiveness are freed from the bondage and terrors of sin and death. Also, in Christ, even the agonies of repentance are trivial compared to the eternal pleasure of life in paradise with our Savior, Jesus Christ. (Romans 8:18-21)

Perfect Love Drives Out All Fear

by Pastor Paul Wolff

Jesus and the Little Children from Emmanuel Lutheran Church Dearborn, Michigan

1 John 4:16b-18

“God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

You may have heard people say, “Fear is a great motivator.” Few, however, are honest enough to complete that thought. If someone ever tells you that “Fear is a great motivator” you can be sure that they are trying (or will try) to manipulate you to do something which will benefit them, but will not necessarily benefit you.

Fear paralyzes people. Fear makes people want to act to save their own lives, or avoid getting hurt, but they cannot act out of fear that they will be harmed in the process. It’s a vicious circle. This is why tyrants employ terrorist tactics to cower people into submission. Fearful people will not effectively resist forceful oppression and therefore can be manipulated and easily subjugated by evil people.

Creation and the Fall into Sin from Holy Cross Lutheran Church Detroit, Michigan

Fear of Punishment

As St. John notes in the Scripture quote above: fear has to do with punishment, or a desire to avoid pain and suffering. When Adam and Eve first disobeyed God they should have run to Him and confessed their sins and asked Him to rescue them from the doom which they had brought upon themselves. They should have known God would have mercy on them (as He ultimately did), but instead they feared the righteous punishment for their sins and ran away from their savior instead of running toward Him for help and salvation. At that time Adam and Eve were naïve about sin, and they were not used to living as sinners as we are, but we act in exactly the same way.

As I was preparing this article I found this interesting news story: Police detectives in California recently solved a 30 year old murder case. Evidence pointed to a 48 year old man who, after police questioned him about the details of the case, took his own life rather than face the consequences of his actions from three decades ago. For thirty years he must have lived in fear that his crime would be discovered. Then, when it was discovered, he feared the punishment so much that he carried out a capital sentence on himself. Now, I’m not saying that the self-imposed punishment did not fit the crime, but until the murderer’s life ended there was forgiveness available for him in Christ. The state’s punishment may not have been as bad as what the man feared, and he could have received true forgiveness in Christ long ago. I don’t know why he didn’t seek Christ’s forgiveness earlier, but had he repented he could have given the family of his victim some sense of justice by confessing to the crime and taking the civil punishment for the crime. Instead, his fear gave him torment throughout his life, and no doubt added to the sorrow and suffering of the victim’s family, also.

What Can Stand Against Fear?

After the Japanese attacked the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor in 1941, President Roosevelt told the American people, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” It was a fearful time, but Roosevelt wisely called for courage in the face of fear. Courage is the antidote to fear. But where does courage come from? Courage is not a natural response to fear. Panic is the natural response to fear, but courage comes from somewhere else.

Samson Window from Holy Cross Lutheran Church Detroit, Michigan

Courageous people act out of love. Love is simply when one cares more for someone else than for oneself. Courageous people are more concerned for others than for themselves. So when courageous people see someone in danger they only think of how to help someone in need, they don’t stop to consider their own safety. Courageous people may have fear for themselves, but they do not take time to think about their own needs as they act bravely to save others. Courageous people (i.e. Loving people) cannot be terrorized. They cannot be manipulated. They cannot be forced to submit to tyrants.

Perfect Love Drives out Fear

Saint John writes in his first Epistle, “Perfect love drives out fear.” This sounds like a good thing. I would like to find some perfect love. The only trouble is that we all are sinners in a sinful world, and you will never find “perfect love” in a sinner. However, even the imperfect love of sinners can accomplish wonderful things. Love can heal wounded or broken hearts. Love can drive out wicked tyrants. Love can give comfort and hope to those in despair. But where there is only imperfect love – fear remains.

So where can we find the perfect love which drives out all fear? Since we can’t find it in ourselves or in other sinful people we must look for it outside of ourselves. The only place to find perfect love is in Jesus Christ. There are many descriptions of this in the Scriptures, but one of my favorites is in Philippians 2:5-11. Saint Paul tells us, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!”

Jesus paid the price for your sins Holy Cross Lutheran Church Detroit, Michigan

Jesus is the only person who ever lived His whole life in perfect love. Jesus loved God, the Father, with all His heart, all His soul, and all His strength; and Jesus loved His neighbors as Himself. Even when Jesus learned that it was God’s Will to punish Him for the sins of the world in order to save sinners from that punishment, Jesus loved God, the Father, (and us wretched sinners) enough to do all that needed to be done. Jesus is the only one who could save us from the punishment for our sin because Jesus is fully God and fully man in one person. His death paid the full price for the sins of the whole world. That is why the only place you will ever find perfect love is in Jesus Christ.

The perfect love of Jesus drives out all fear because fear has to do with punishment. There is no greater fear than the fear that God will send us to eternal punishment for our disobedience. He would be completely within His rights to do so, but He would rather take the punishment Himself and save us from that torment – and that is exactly what Jesus did for us. We need have no fear because Jesus endured the punishment for all our sins. Because of Jesus, God no longer has anything more to punish us for. So if we do not need to be afraid of God, then there is nothing in all of creation which ought to cause us fear.

How do we receive the perfect love of Jesus? We can only receive it as a gift through faith in Jesus by believing that Jesus died to save us from our sins. God, the Father, counts us righteous through faith and gives us salvation and eternal life. The courage and love that comes from being forgiven is just one of the many bonuses granted by God’s Holy Spirit.

This is not to say that love has any particular power on its own. It does not. Strictly speaking, love, itself, does not save us. Only the perfect life and innocent death of Jesus can save us. It is true that it was the love of Jesus that caused Him to endure God’s punishment for our sins, but until Jesus was physically hanging dead on the cross our salvation was not complete. It is like a parabolical argument I like to use against decision theology: Three frogs are sitting on a log in a pond. One decides to jump in the pond. How many frogs are left sitting on the log? The answer is three, because until the frog actually jumps into the pond he is still sitting on the log no matter what he has decided to do. Likewise with Jesus, He can love us as much as He wants, but all people were still subject to condemnation for our sin until Jesus lived the perfectly obedient life in our place, and then died to pay for our sin.

Christ has taken away all need for our concern about ourselves. Baptized Christians are God’s children through faith in Christ and God will provide for all our needs of body and soul. His perfect love has removed all threat of God’s punishment, and where there is no threat of punishment there is no fear. In Christ we are freed to think about our neighbor without fear that we might come up short. Jesus has overcome all our shortcomings.

The Crown of Life from Zion Lutheran Church Columbus, Ohio

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39)