Christians Living in the Ages of Fear

for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.-1 Timothy 1:7

Today, my schedule is thrown off. We received word, late last night, that a threat to our public school system was being assessed. My wife and I, already in bed, stayed up and, for hours, scoured the internet in our local social media circles for any sort of news. Finally, we had a question for one another, not having any concrete answers otherwise: what do we do? And here is what we did: we went to bed, and we prayed. This morning, we still didn’t have a plan, but our resolve was the same: the kids who participate on campus would go to school, be dropped off and picked up (this is not our habit), and we would carry on, as best we can, about our day. As a family, we sat down and talked about it: we will not give in to fear.

When voices are silenced, and threats are made, what is the purpose? To send a message. They’ve been doing it since the time of Cain and Abel. And why? What is the purpose of threats and violence? To send a message: cower in fear, do not speak up, fall in line or else! Yet I find comfort in the example of Christ: knowing he was to die, he moved forward. The apostles, brought before the council, beaten and threatened not to proclaim the name of Christ, praised loudly, and prayed for more boldness. Stephen, knowing he was being brought before a hostile environment, spoke loudly, and died, praying for his persecutors, and as the church was persecuted and scattered, they proclaimed the name of Jesus, and more were saved.

Christians, we have always lived in an age of fear: the light hates the dark and has always tried to subdue it or snuff it out. The truth has always been unpopular, but in the age when we’re always connected, all the time, it’s more pronounced. But we have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of self-control. We will not go quietly, but proclaim his mercies, even as we are fed to lions, hung from crosses, and killed for the sake of Christ. It is written “the Lord is my helper, I will not fear. What can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:6) Ought we not to live this way? This world is not our home. We are sojourners and exiles on the way to our true home. If I have died with Christ, then I shall live with Him. Therefore, I will not fear, but I will keep before me the Cross and Empty tomb, and the true promises that there is more than what I see. Fear is a liar, and I stand firm on Christ.

Romans 8

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 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.