Don’t be anxious about anything, but in every circumstance, with thankful prayer and petition, make your needs known to God. And God’s peace, which transcends all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Phil. 4:6-7
For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.
2 Cor. 7:10
There is no fear in love, for perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with judgment. The person who fears is not made perfect in love.
1 John 4:18
Why did Jesus die on the cross? If we listen to much of modern Christian music – and a fair amount of preaching – one would believe that shame, fear, and anxiety are the great enemies that Messiah defeated. In many ways, this kind of thinking dovetails with secular views of what’s most devastating to the human psyche. In the background is the long-promoted view of our selves as needing two things: a big boost of self esteem, and a mostly smooth, worry-free life.. Let’s make sure that we not feel bad about who we are or what we’ve done. Let’s be “chill” about life around and within us. And let’s not be afraid of anything, especially those people or ideas that seek to limit our full potential.
It’s not that shame, fear, and anxiety are unimportant. I would agree that they are both hostile to human prosperity and to God’s purpose for us, and that Jesus’ death does deal with them in a conclusive manner. But there are some crucial points lacking in any analysis that assigns them first-rank among the forces that oppose our spiritual flourishing. Unfortunately, we have fallen into a habit of seeing emotional and psychic trials as the key deficit affecting the human person. By doing so, we ignore the biblical understanding of who we are and what we need as creatures. And missing Scripture’s paradigms of what constitutes true versus distorted humanity is a sure means of becoming more distorted, rather than more true human persons.
God’s perspective on the advent and persistence of our psychological trials is rather simple: Anxiety, shame, and fear are all products of disobedience and unbelief. In other words, they arise from sin. All three of these character malfunctions make their first appearances immediately following Adam and Even’s transgression in Genesis, chapter 3. What happens to our fallen parents? They realize they are naked and sew fig leaves to cover their newfound shame. They hide from the Lord because “they were afraid” (v. 3). And the whole narrative has that sense of inevitable anxiety: What are they going to do? Whom can they blame? What’s going to happen to them now that they have offended God?
If we don’t treat anxiety, fear, and shame as symptoms of sin, we will fail to understand three important aspects of our spiritual lives. First, we will misconstrue the reality of judgment that follows on rebellion. When I am anxious about money, my feelings cannot be isolated from sources such as greed, intemperance, pride, or a lack of trust in the Father. To fear for my children is often a hedge against the goodness and promises of the Lord that endure even through their imperfect movements toward his kingdom. To cling to shame over my sin is a repudiation of God’s power and love. These three wearying forces are signs of being separated from the Lord, even as Adam and Eve fled God’s presence when they transgressed his commandment. In John’s words (1 Jn. 4:18), “fear is connected to punishment.”
Second, not paying attention to my sin as the source of my disquietude of heart causes me to deal with my illness in the wrong way. It’s as if I have a rash that indicates cancer, but all I do is lather ointment on the external wound. Anxiety tells me that something is wrong, but simply trying to not be anxious is equivalent to scratching the symptomatic itch. I will only end up opening a deeper sore. Meanwhile, the cancer remains unrelenting in its progress.
Third, we will find it impossible to find the peace that passes comprehension. Focusing on fear, shame, or anxiety usually gives them more power than they already possess. For a good part of my life, I have suffered from certain kinds of panic that began with an inner-ear infection. Over time, I have found that the more I attend to the fear, the more I fear the fear, and the more I even anticipate the fear. It’s something I can conjure up at any time. The outcome is that I don’t find freedom or rest until and unless I am able to look at and deal with the source and cause of what ails me.
So it is with our spiritual enemies. We might rightly be ashamed of something that we have done. Even “proper” shame can drive us to inward stress, to self-justification, to self-hatred, or blaming others. Or simply to more shame – unless we shun the fig leaves and take on God’s gift of humility and his forgiveness to cover ourselves. Likewise with fear and anxiety. It is reasonable to tremble in the presence of a bear (ask our son Ben what it’s like to be unexpectedly ten feet from one). But God’s word literally commands us to allow faith in him to overwhelm the scourge of our fear, even in the face of death itself. Jesus’ admonition to “not be anxious” is an equally potent admonition that counters the intense scrutiny under which we place every detail of our existence, whether that be our livelihoods, our children, our relationships, or our health.
It is crucial to accept the inevitability of being afraid, ashamed, anxious apart from divine grace. The 24/7 news cycle bombards us with external pressures and exaggerated claims about both the highs and lows of human experiences. Such attacks find comfortable lodging in the confines of our weak, sinful hearts and minds. And it is (of course) even more essential that we plead with the Spirit for the gifts of faith, rest, and hope that allow us to live peacefully and contentedly in our disordered world. Specifically, the verses that I quote above give us a roadmap to the “strange peace” that characterizes Jesus’ disciples. Very simply, that roadmap involves:
Welcoming the perfect love that frees us from sin and that delivers us from judgment (1 John 4:18). The Father has declared us righteous as his own children. Holy Spirit, make our stature real to us; overcome the deception that seeks to steal our inheritance; stir up faith that leads us to …
Repentance without regret (2 Cor. 7:10). Lord, test our hearts to find the wicked and anxious thoughts that afflict us. Give us grace to turn away from what you discover for us, and to accept our complicity in acceding to the temptations that arise in our souls. We sin because we are who we are. We are free from sin because you are who you are, and you make us who you want us to be. In the knowledge of that equation, inspire us to …
Thankful, uncomplicated prayer that puts our lives firmly in the Father’s sovereign hands (Phil. 4:6), so that the Spirit can release us to unashamedly serve him and his kingdom in a world that needs to see men and women living from an unassailable, peace-saturated center.
The peace that passes comprehension, but that is nonetheless fully real and, by Jesus’ power, fully realizable.
Mike Gladieux
September 25, 2020 11:00 amPaul, I always read and enjoy your thoughts Thank you for sharing them. Here are some thoughts on . . . just some thoughts, that come to mind as I read your ideas. God bless, Mike Gladieux.
Why would the Lord God allow a world in which sin has a place? We must realize that it is the nature of God that ultimately all things must reflect His goodness and wisdom, that they are necessarily directed to His glory, that they inexorably must lead to an accurate and true manifestation of Himself. All things were directed to the glory of God, Who is pure selfless love and overflowing goodness. Whatever darkness or evil is allowed, it must ultimately be to God’s greater glory. The most perfect possible expression of His nature of goodness and love is manifested in the gift that He gives to humans who are most undeserving, who are alienated from Him by their hatred of Him. God shows His love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). Sin is the occasion for the those whom He has created to see His overflowing goodness and love manifested, transcendentally exceeding all human love. Could God have chosen not to allow sin? Once Adam sinned, could He have decreed that the effects of that sin not fall on his descendants? But man was created in His image and likeness so that we might ultimately share in His divine life with Him. How can children not reflect the nature of the one who begat them? How can the generational link by which He communicates His life to us be nullified? Instead, in His wisdom and goodness, He decreed from before all time—as He planned the ages with His Only Begotten—that we would share in Adam’s fall but also be the recipients of His great mercy through the second Adam. The decision to allow sin was made by God, was built into this world by Him, to manifest His glory—and for our glory as well. God has concluded all under disobedience so that He might show mercy to all (Romans 11:32), and God has confined all under sin so that
the promise of eternal life might be given to those who call upon His Only Begotten Son (Galatians 3:22). This is to His glory, to that of His beloved Son, and to ours as His precious children. Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God (Romans 11:23)!
Paul Beckman
September 25, 2020 12:07 pmThanks, Michael, for your inspiring and incisive comments.
Surely the sovereign ability to turn all things to his glory is one of God’s singular attributes. Only his sovereignty and his own faith and confidence would allow him to create humans with free will. And free will means the capacity for saying “no” to the Lord and thus becoming sinners. And the giving of free will at its heart is an act of love that allows us to respond in love (or, as above, in rebellion). Christians often make hash of this truth, but it is the biblical declaration (as you note) nonetheless.
Glad you find the posts stimulating, and I hope they stir you to greater awe at the pure goodness and mercy of the Father.
Blessings
PB