Saturday March 29th, 2025
To preface, at time of writing this i am about half way through this book so by the grace of God I will return at a later date once finished to rework what has been written so far. For the time being this should be a sufficient analysis. Soli Deo Gloria.
This was my experience with the Puritan Paperbacks from Banner of Truth Publishing and I was not disappointed. First impressions was that the book feels good in the hands, high quality cover and paper inside, printing is nice, margins and everything. This is certainly a high quality product, I had heard good things about the Puritan Paperbacks and my first experience with them did not disappoint.
The text is based on Psalm 128:1and Revelation 14:7
John Bunyan is commonly referred to as the most impactful Puritan writer and he is most known for his allegorical works which most notably is The Pilgrim's Progress. However, he is often overlooked on his purely theological work, which this is one of them.
This was the second Puritan work I had read and began to read it after I finished reading Thomas Watson's Doctrine of Repentance. This was very beneficial in having a true view of God and what is required of Him. I would encourage all to read both of these works in either order, but would be best to read this work first and then Doctrine of Repentance. Before we can act (repent) we need to know to know why and the motivation (understand and poessesing the fear of God).
As stated above, John Bunyan is commonly referred to as the most well known Puritan writer. Unlike, other Puritan writers he was not formally trained in theology and higher education. There is more I can bring up on this matter but for the sake of brevity I will save that for a later time. I bring this point up because the Puritans are notorious for being hard to read as they were so learned. Yes, the works are written in Elizabethian English. However, after reading a little you will get a feel for it.
As stated in my review of The Doctrine of Repentance, Puritan works were quite systematic in the information layout and flow. Fear of God follows the following layout of chapters.
Foreward
Chapter 1 - The Object of Our Fear
Chapter 2 - The Rule and Director of Our Fear
Chapter 3 - Different Sorts of Fear
Chapter 4 - The Grace of Fear
Chapter 5 - The Privleges of Fear
Chapter 6 - The Practice of Godly Fear
One of the major, overarching themes that is presented in the very first pages of this book is how we view God and the difference between godly fear versus ungodly fear.
Godly fear views God as the Savior through His Son Jesus Christ, His perfect and imputed righteousness along with His finished work. And the outpouring of His Holy Spirit for convicting and converting. This means we will run to God.
Ungodly fear is the fear of God as judge. This view exists because we are not resting in the finished work of Christ. We are unconverted, uncovered and not protected from the judgement of the righteous God. All will come before Him for their judgement and subsequent sentencing. The sentencing will result in either eternal consignment in hell which is misery and suffering or eternal worship and joy for the Lamb. This means we will run from God.
I brought up the point earlier that if someone starting out reading the Puritans should read The Fear of God and then The Doctrine of Repentance this is why. Before we run to God, we need to know why. A good follow up to this would be reading my reveiw on R.C. Sproul's Saved from What? which details what we are exactly saved from. And then reading my review of Thomas Watson's Doctrine of Repentance.
Another key point made through the early stages of the book is the son like fear of the Father, like the above point this fear of the Father will cause us to run to Him and not away from Him. As He is the just and the justifer (Romans 3:26) as such if we need to be saved from Him, we need to run to Him. To summarize R.C. Sproul's Saved from What? We are saved from Him and to Him
Thus calls for the free offer of the Gospel, this is brought forward in 1 Peter 3:18. Jesus Christ as righteous died for the unrighteous that He would bring us to God. This is running to Him and not away from Him.
Jesus Christ fulfilled all the demands of the law as 1. He not only never sinned (in word, thought, or deed) during the course of His human life but also 2. He completed every point in the Jewish law, which warrants Him perfection. As spouted ad nausem in church culture it is commonly stated that "Jesus died for my sins" or similiar. This is a true but not a complete statement, yes it is true that He died for the sins of those who will receive Him as Lord and Savior by the Holy Spirit but there is a major point missing from the statement.
It is not enough if He just died. Countless animals died for the multitude of sacrifices required in the Jewish law. What is commonly left out is that He lived a perfect life and fulfilled the demands of the law. This is referred to as the active obediance of Jesus Christ.
So what is the summary of all this then? Come sinner, one and all. Repent, turn from your sins and turn to Him. Run to Him, run to the Father. As the Judge, plead that you will be covered by the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. That your trangressions may be blotted out, that His righteousness would be imputed to you and your unrighteousness to Him. This is the Gospel as above in 1 Peter 3:18.
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