Have you ever wondered how and why Adam and Eve sinned so quickly and easily with little coercion? I believe it was the absence of a crucial component that affects the soul as a deterrent against temptation and sin: The fear of the Lord, which has become outdated and unpopular in sermons and as an evangelistic tool. Many Christians have come to focus on love and grace and mercy and peace to the neglect, and even to the aversion, of this teaching. But without a healthy, Biblically-sound and sanctioned fear of the Lord, people esteem lightly the consequences of sin and disobedience.
Consider the condition of Adam: He was wiser than we are physiologically, because the fall of man brought a curse upon his progeny, and we do not use all of our brain potential and capacity. He did not have the sin nature to contend with, facing daily temptations to corruption and lust. He was in the perfect setting of Edenic peace, love, and all things good, including daily face-to-face fellowship with God. Yet he forfeited all in one careless moment of disobedience.
Adam had no concept of the consequences of sin and death. Had he realized the awful price they would pay, their children would pay, all humanity would pay, and ultimately, Jesus Christ, the second Adam, would pay to reverse the curse, and reconcile us back to God, he would not have yielded to the fruit of death. Unpopular or not, the fear of the Lord is a serious deterrent to sin. The Wiseman said: “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride, arrogance, and the evil way” (Proverbs 8:13).
We are saddled with the sinful nature of our father Adam, and as long as we are in this world, we will face temptations and opportunities to sin. Yet we know that in the beginning Adam was created perfect and righteous (Ecc.7:29), with a body that did not have the motions of sin in it. Yet, we in a fallen world, fighting daily against the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life (2 John 2:17), and the motions and impulses of a sinful nature, can overcome and resist temptation and Satan’s subtleties, when he did not in a perfect world. WHY?
Ultimately, because we have been born again of the incorruptible seed of God’s Word (John 3:6, 1Peter 1:18), are partaking of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (2 Peter 1:4), and are being conformed into the image of Christ (Romans 8:29, 2Cor.3:18) through the authority of His name and His blood (John 1:12, Hebrews 9:14).
But we also have something that did not exist in Eden: the fear of the Lord.
Adam had no knowledge of or sense of fear of any kind, good or bad. The Scripture states: “A wise man fears, and departs from evil…” (Pro.14:16). Made in God’s image, Adam had superior knowledge. He named all the animals, sharing in the creative process with God. But he did not possess the all-wise fear of God that could have prevented him from falling for the snare of evil and its awful consequences. This is why it is imperative that we do not water down, sugar coat, or otherwise downplay the role of the fear of the Lord to persuade men from evil. In fact, Paul said this very thing in 2Cor. 5:11: “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men…” And who can ignore Jude’s impassioned exhortation to “…earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints…. and of some have compassion, making a difference. And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh” (Jude 3, 22-23).
For Christians, the fear of the Lord keeps the sin of pride in check and opens up the spirit of man to the deeper things of God: “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant” (Psalm 25:14). The fear of the Lord is nothing to be feared, but to be embraced as part of a healthy spiritual constitution. Had Adam and Eve possessed this divine gift, they might not have hearkened to the voice of the Tempter.
The Wiseman declared God’s reaction to those who do not choose the fear of the Lord which is “the beginning of knowledge” (Pro.1:7): “I will mock when your fear comes; When your fear comes as desolation, and your destruction comes as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish comes upon you…. For they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord” (Pro.1:26-27 &29).
The Scripture teaches: “By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil” (Proverbs 16:6). This verse illustrates the necessity of balanced teaching on sin. Truth will tell us what our sins are, and mercy will purge the iniquity of the repentant. But in modern pulpits there is far more preaching on mercy than conviction, and the subject of “the fear of the Lord” is unpopular, if not obsolete. The focus is on love and grace to the neglect, even to the aversion, of this subject. But it is the fear of the Lord that causes people to “depart from evil.”
It may surprise some to consider the fact that Jesus the Messiah was not only anointed with a fivefold anointing of “wisdom, might, counsel, understanding, and knowledge,” but also with “the fear of the Lord” (Isaiah 11:2). If the holy, sinless Son of God was imbued with the fear of the Lord, I dare say we cannot afford to be without our own healthy dose.
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