I have written a number of times how the Gospel transforms our fear of God from being scarred, timid, and apprehensive to wonder, awe and amazement. This is why I can always approach my Father with confidence and boldness.

A couple of weeks ago a friend responded, “Yeah but what about Philippians 2:12, ‘Work out your salvation with fear and trembling’?”  Great question.  This sounds as if our Christian growth should be motivated by a fear of what God will do to us if we don’t meet his standard of effort and progress.  It feels like a semi-veiled threat to be faithful or else.  This is what I used to think and I had it wrong.  For a couple of reasons.

First, we discover that if it is a subtle threat it is an empty threat.  In our moments or months or even years of half-heartedness we do not experience a heavenly Father that makes us tremble with fear and duck for cover.  Rather our experience is exactly the opposite, we have the experience of the prodigal son being embraced by his father.  We don’t have a Father who is trying to move us along with a cattle-prod of fear, rather we have a Father who is wooing us with his love and goodness.

Secondly, the person we are responding to with “fear and trembling” is not God…it is us. Ralph  Wardlaw, an early 18th century Scottish Presbyterian wrote, “This fear is self-distrust; it is tenderness of conscience; it is vigilance against temptation…It is taking heed lest we fall…it is the caution and circumspection which timidly shrinks from whatever would offend and dishonor God and the Savior.”

Lastly, the very next verse, verse 13, describes God’s participation in our growth, “For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him” (NLT). God is out in front of us, enabling us to obey and cheering us on–not behind us kicking us in the butt.

Yesterday I was leading a Bible discussion group and because it was a new group and the first time we had been together, we took most of the time to get to know each other.  As I was sharing my story I mentioned that one of the core lies that had been planted in me as a young teenager was that my worth was dependent upon what you thought of me.  In other words I was an addicted people pleaser.

We talked about how pleasing people and pleasing God are two sides of the same coin…and that both sides will cause you to hit the wall at some point.  I then explained that what is true in our relationship with our Father in heaven will be true in our relationships with one another.  And then I shared the part I never like–that what characterizes my horizontal relationships with those around me will be a reflection of what characterizes my vertical relationship with God.  For example, I will only extend as much grace to others as I have received.

At that point one of the individuals asked me this question, “What do you see in your relationships with others that could be a reflection of your relationship with God?”  Even though the shackles of people pleasing have been cut off and no longer hold me captive, I can still periodically hear the rattle of those chains in the background and so I replied that I can find myself wondering what people are thinking of me.  Applying the above principle, that means there are times I find myself wondering what God thinks of me!

After a moment of pause the wonderful truth of the gospel replaced the lies that had defined me for so many years and I  realized that because of the gospel I NEVER again have to worry about what God is thinking about me. Today he is looking at me through the righteousness of Christ and he says “I love you.  That is what I am thinking about you.  Period.”

We all have the rattle of chains in our ears…sometimes they sound far off and at other times as if them are right against our ears. No matter how much noise the chains make, what is important is that the awesome good news of the gospel is the loudest sound our hearts hear.

When I fly I sometimes take with me a set of noise canceling headphones.  They cancel out the irritating noise of the engines and the distracting chatter going on all around me and allow me to hear with brilliance the beautiful music on my ipod that can minister so deeply to me.  That is what the gospel can do for us.

Last week the most influential author in my life died, Brennan Manning.  I only met and talked with him once, but he has deeply mentored me through his writings. The golden thread that wove through all his messages and writings is this, “God loves you just as you are, not as you should be.”  I like to change it to, “My Father loves me just as I am, not as I should be.”

When I think of this unbelievable good news, my mind always goes back to Luke 15 and the parable of the prodigal son.  It illustrates it beautifully. With his rebellion and rejection of his father having ruined his life and now in his mind defining him, the prodigal has no hope of his father ever loving him again.  But he knows he needs help and so as a last resort, plans to return home and say to his father, “I am no longer worthy to be called your son.  Treat me as one of your servants.”  Dan Cruver says that the prodigal is returning home thinking of his father as his master and not as his father.  He plans to return home as a wage-earner hoping to earn his way back into his father’s love.

Sinclair Ferguson writes that we have the same suspicion as the prodigal–that it is impossible for the Father to love us.  And so we return to him as our master and not our Father.  But the good news  the prodigal experienced is the same good news we can experience, “Our Father loves us just as we are, not as we should be.”