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Last week we discussed the tension between fear and love as it is worked out by Christ in our lives. The Apostle Paul makes a statement that is so astounding in its simplicity and yet so profound as to take our breath away in its ramifications.

It is all too often overlooked in attempting to fathom why the world thinks the way it thinks, and does what it does. It is easy to make sweeping generalities, but this one is worthy of all acceptances. It disassembles us, and reassembles us, and disassembles us again. In some ways, it truly is the reason for being what and who we are naturally in the world. It can be unwise to take a scripture out of context, and use it as "proof text". However, some statements in God’s Word are so all encompassing and strong. They can stand alone.

"And also that He might deliver and completely set free all those who through the [haunting] fear of death were held in bondage throughout the whole course of their lives." - Hebrews 2:15 (Emphasis mine)

What a tender, loving, and abiding compassion inherent in the Gospel, and its astounding power for deliverance and transformation of our whole life and being in its working!

Although from Romans chapter one we learn that the world knows enough to be without excuse and incur the penalty of death, God also sees and feels the burden of the world’s futility (Ecclesiastes 1). However, in truth and experience the world does not know just what it is experiencing. Therefore, it does not know the real cause of its thoughts, feelings, and actions. The real reason rarely, if ever, occurs to it. It has been buried too deep in the sub-subconscious, and covered over by its enemy (Ephesians 2:2)

This enemy has therefore guided the world into various diversions, seemingly endless in number and variety, to keep it from even having the opportunity - or the time - to think about the inevitable. It is a very complete deception. And it is a terrible bondage! So, it is constantly in movement, in endless endeavors, running to and fro, ever creating, learning but of course, never coming to the knowledge of the truth. If they were confronted with the fact that they are doing what they do from an innate fear of death most would deny it, because it is a quiet and silent affliction. Without comprehending it, they are running - and running very hard and fast - from the fear of death. They can’t escape it. They are the living and waking dead, and something deep down that cannot be articulated tells them that this is true. But they do not hear.

In the book of Lamentations is a section of scripture that has buoyed and sustained this writer many, many times. It reflects the compassionate and tender heart of God in many ways. God pities His creation, especially us - His grand project for eternity. "It is because of the Lord's mercy and loving-kindness that we are not consumed, because His [tender] compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great and abundant is your stability and faithfulness. The Lord is my portion or share, says my living being (my inner self); therefore will I hope in Him and wait expectantly for Him." - Lamentations 3:22-24

God has more than one "compassion"- God has many compassions (plural), each one adapted and adjusted to the need of each one of His own. And we can apprehend this promise as our own, every day. In this, He exhibits His faithfulness. The Christian can hope in Jesus Christ, and "wait expectantly for Him". The world cannot. It can only rush headlong to the inevitable end. It fails to comprehend that it’s all a vapor, and when they are gone, the game is over - even if they have accumulated many "toys". If the world could get still long enough and get quiet long enough to reflect on such things as the past, present, and future, perhaps they could understand. Do you realize that each split second of time when past, might just as well be a billion years? Why? - because it is gone. It is gone forever.

The past split second of your life is just as "old", just as unrecoverable as that second in the Garden of Eden when God said "you shall sure die. And that second is just as near and immediate as the one that just occurred. It can never be again, although it is a few seconds in the past. And then, finally, the seconds run out. There are no more seconds, or minutes, or days, or years, to enter into what is called "past". But for the real Christian who can agree with and believe as Jeremiah above, all his lifetime is not a frantic running away, but a wonderful expectant running toward. The fear of the "seconds" running out have been turned into seconds that are just a continuum toward an ever more glorious future (Isaiah 59:7-10; Philippians 3:13-14).

The truth of this phenomenon is not naturally discernable. That is the reason that it is not a cognate reality to the world. This truth and its impact must be spiritually discerned and responded to. This is the entrance of the preaching of the Gospel, the drawing by the Father to His Son (John 6:44).

But the world does not know it has a hope! They do not know that they are carrying a burden of hopelessness. They don’t know what it is - it is too deep and they are blinded by Satan. It is so deeply hidden, that they do not know, and - they do not know that they do not know! If those who are called to preach the gospel do not preach it, then the guilt of the world will also fall on their shoulders.

The Apostle Paul said woe unto himself if he did not preach it. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a message of warning, witness, and release from bondage from the penalty of sin. Sin results in a kind of subliminal fear of death (Genesis 2:16-17). A correct understanding and obedience to the Gospel message will release the world from the fear of death. But - each one in his time and in his own order (Matthew 20:13-16).

They do not know why they do what the do. They have no hope - except the haunting, hopeless "hope" to somehow go on existing in the invisible, inexorable bondage of the fear of death. But they must be told (Matthew 24:14; 28:19-20)! When they know why they need hope, God will draw many to His Son, and release them from their bondage for eternal life (John 3:16)

Do you not know...? Can you see - if you are in this bondage or not?

If you feel you are, God is speaking "compassions" to you - that you can be "completely set free". Turn completely to the One who formed you, died for you, and lives for you. When that bondage is removed, you will become alive and no longer in a living death. When the bondage to this fear is removed, you will experience a cleanness, and yet a kind of brokenness which is the death pangs of the old death-life. It may seem a bit uncomfortable for a time. But do not fear your new life, as Jesus replaces the bondage of fear of death with the assurance of life, a life that is in Christ and He in you, as you begin to become one with Him (Matthew 11:25-30). Great is His faithfulness - He will do it!

Passing seconds or passing decades - it will no longer matter. All your yesterdays, all of your tomorrows, are all wrapped up into one - the now of life eternal...

"Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

"So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." - 1 Corinthians 15:51-57

"Free at last, free at last...!" - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Refreshment in Refuge" from Gina Burgess

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