Fear Of Sin And Punishment

Fear Of Sin And Punishment

[Jonah] answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.”

This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?”

Jonah 1:9–10

From the story of Jonah, we learn how to free ourselves from all anxiety and fear. Above all, we should confess our sin. Openly acknowledging our sin decreases the immediate danger and lessens our anxiety. Our hearts must be helped first. Confessing sin makes our hearts lighter and allows them to breathe. Then we can find help for the rest of our bodies. Only after our consciences have been released from their heavy load and are able to breathe freely can we find relief for other areas of distress.

When God’s anger is poured out, we immediately become aware of our sin and become afraid. Foolish people cope with this situation in the wrong way. They ignore their sin and only try to get rid of their fear. That doesn’t work, so they eventually fall into despair. This is the way human reason always tries to handle the problem in the absence of God’s grace and the Spirit. Wise people, however, try to ignore their fear and focus instead on their sin. They acknowledge their sin and try to get rid of it, even if it means that their fear will remain with them forever. They willingly accept their punishment, as Jonah did in this story.

But godless people do just the opposite. They pay attention to the punishment and are afraid of it, but they aren’t concerned about their sin. If there were no punishment, they would never stop sinning. But this isn’t what happens, because punishment consistently follows sin. In contrast, godly people pay attention to their sin and are afraid of it. They aren’t as concerned about the punishment. In fact, it’s almost as if they would rather endure the punishment without sinning than commit the sin without facing any punishment.