Is it a Christ-Centered Sermon? Part Five

The Joyful-Fear of Gospel-Centered Preaching

Another way to discern whether or not a sermon is gospel-centered is to consider the kind of fear it produces. Psalm 130:4 is one of those double-take verses. The two halves of the verse have this odd-couple feel. First half: “With You [O LORD] there is forgiveness.” Second half: “[in order] that you might be feared.” What? With You there is forgiveness that you might be feared? Those two halves do not appear to go together. Many might be tempted to think that preaching that majors on the forgiveness of God would diminish the fear of God rather than increase it. For forgiveness to produce fear seems counterintuitive. But the psalmist is clear: forgiveness increases rather than diminishes fear.

Psalm 130:4 is one of the most significant verses to consider when seeking to understand the Old Testament concept of “the fear of the Lord.” It refers not to a servile-fear but to a joyful-fear. In other words, it refers not to a fear primarily motivated by the threat of negative consequences but to a fear primarily motivated by the prospect of undeserved favor. So, it seems to me, one of the ways to discern whether or not biblical imperatives have been preached from a gospel-centered perspective is to consider what kind of fear the sermon produced. Tim Keller is helpful on this:

The more we experience grace and forgiveness and love, the more we get out of ourselves, the more we bow to [God] in amazed, wondering submission to His greatness. When we really understand that we are forgiven, it does not lead to “loose living” or independence, but to respectful surrender to His sovereignty. If we had earned our salvation, our lives would still be our own! He’d owe us something. But since our salvation is by free grace, due totally to His love, then there is nothing He cannot ask of us. We are not our own. It is the joy [of forgiveness] that brings about this submission.

Since (a) we can't really even psychologically admit the magnitude of our sin if we don't know there is hope of salvation, and since (b) self-hatred is basically a form of self-righteousness—how does that effect preaching? When we preach, we need to challenge with the comfort of the gospel. Put another way—the thing that most comforts us (the free, unconditional, sacrificial love of Jesus) should be the thing that most convicts us. The language of preaching should not be: "unless you clean up your act, you will never get the love of God" but "how on earth can you treat this loving God like this?" The first approach is: "repent or God will drop you!" The second approach is: "repent for spurning the God whose Son died so you would never lose Him!"

The first approach (i.e. motivating primarily by threat of consequence) actually encourages self-righteousness. It tries to convict us by increasing self-centeredness, by saying, “the sinfulness of your sin is that it is going to make you unhappy! Better get rid of it or you won’t be blessed.” Ironically, this only gets you to hate yourself (for being a failure) and to hate the consequences of the sin (“this is going to ruin me!”) rather than the sin itself for what it is in itself, a violation [against] God…

The preacher who convicts out of the comfort [of the gospel], who goes for “joyful fear” instead of “servile fear” will find that he can be extremely strong and forceful in his admonitions (emphasis mine)…Paul said, “Do you not realize…that it is God’s kindness that leads us to repentance?” (Romans 2:4).

(Part One) (Part Two) (Part Three) (Part Four)

*Also, check out this blogger's posts on Gospel-Centered Preaching, here and here.