When you fear God, you're really,
really thankful because the people who are most thankful in this
world are the people who realize they deserve nothing. Think about
it this way. If you worked hard all day long
and your employer said, I'm going to give you $100 at the end of
the day, you're thankful to get it. And you might say, thank
you. But if someone gave you a task and you did the opposite,
and you sinned, and they came along and said, you know what,
I'm going to have grace, I'm still going to give you $100,
though you accomplished nothing. You're like, this is amazing,
I'm very grateful to this person. But you're most grateful if someone
comes along and says, you know what, you were supposed to do
this and you didn't have the ability to do it, and so I'm
gonna come along and do it for you, and then I'm gonna give
you $100? I'm just doing it out of love for you?" You say, what
in the world is this? You're suspicious. What kind
of motivation is this? What kind of love is this? You
see, that's how John feels in 1 John 3. What kind of love is
this? That the Father should give his Son for me, that I could
become a child of God. And so what Jesus does, He stands
in the fear of his own father, and he comes and obeys his father,
but not for himself, but for us as sinners who put our trust
in him. And so the primary place in the
world where we learn the fear of God is at the cross, because
we look at the cross and we say, what manner of love is this that
Jesus would do this for me when I'm so unworthy, when I've never
done anything but sin?
How Thankfulness and the Fear of God are Connected