Would that every psychiatrist, every therapist, every personal counselor in the country understood that sin, guilt, the wrath of God, and therefore the fear of death create all other fears and lurk underneath all manner of neuroses. Until this central fear is dealt with, these other fears must linger on. Why is that? Because only when we are delivered from the great fearāthe fear of death and judgmentāwill other fears become trivial. They can be dissolved only by the knowledge that I need not fear death because the guilt of my sin has been borne by my Savior.
We have another friend in Scotland, a distinguished professor of mathematics. A number of years ago, one of his daughters, a young freshman Christian student, died suddenly. One moment from the day of her funeral has etched itself permanently into our memory. Our friend was borne along through the day by the grace of God. His quiet words as we greeted him were: āWe know now that we have nothing left toĀ fear.ā
Thatās itānothing left toĀ fear.
All this is true only because Jesus has dealt with our greatest problem.
That problem is not simply that of our fear. Our greatest problem is God himself. For by nature, we are under his wrathāand deserve to be. If we cannot deal with our sin and guilt, we certainly cannot deal with the wrath of God. But it was precisely to bear that wrath that the Lord Jesus, as our high priest, went into the holy place, the very presence of the holy God, and there experienced the awful unleashing of divine judgment.
This is why, when the resurrected Jesus revealed himself to his disciples, his first word was āShalom! Peace! Now at last you may have peace with God.ā25
This is Christās finished work as priest.
Most Christians are familiar with the finished work of Christ but less so with his unfinished work. But the author of Hebrews helps us to understand that although Jesus is āseated at the right hand of God,ā having finished his atoning work, he is still doing something. He now undertakes his unfinishedĀ work.
Alistair Begg and Sinclair B. Ferguson, Name above All Names (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013).
TheĀ bookĀ andĀ study guideĀ are both available on Amazon. The study guide is also available as well as part of myĀ Good Questions Have Groups TalkingĀ subscription service.
ThisĀ serviceĀ is like Netflix for Bible Lessons. You pay a low monthly, quarterly or annual fee and get access to all the lessons. New lessons that correspond with three of Lifeway’s outlines are automatically included, as well as a backlog of thousands of lessons. Each lesson consists of 20 or so ready-to-use questions that get groups talking, as well as answers from well-known authors such as David Jeremiah, Charles Swindoll and Max Lucado. For more information, or to sign up,Ā click here.
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