STIMULATING THE
FEAR OF GOD

17 And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to every man's work, pass the time of your stay here in fear:
18 Since you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your meaningless manner of life received by tradition from your ancestors;
19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
20 Who truly was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
21 Who through Him believe in God, who raised Him up from the dead, and gave Him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

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Along with a reminder that our life on earth is only temporary, we are exhorted to spend it in the fear of God. Yet the fear to which we are exhorted cannot be a fear in the sense of terror, since I John 4:18 tells us that "perfect love casts out" that kind of fear. Since we are to "live by fear" because we know God as Father, evidently whatever is meant by this "fear" is compatible with that relationship to God. Yet this "fear" is more than simply an "awesome respect," as some say it is. It translates the Greek word "phobia;" and we all know that a "phobia" is much more than an awe. It is something that produces dread of something; but the difference between the right and wrong types of fear is found in what we dread.
It is possible to seek to please God because of fear of chastisement; but this is not the highest, noblest form of fear to which we should aspire. It is rather a sign of wanting to get away with as much as possible, which shows lack of love for God.
The proper fear of God is actually a product of love-- loving God so much that our greatest dread would be to disappoint Him. It would make us feel so badly. Let us picture a father and his grown son, who enjoy an excellent relationship. One day the father entrusts to his son a very important task that he hasn't performed before, and which is a great responsibility. The son would be very preoccupied with doing it well, and much concerned if anything risked to go wrong, because he would dread a disappointed look from his father when he had finished. It isn't that he's afraid his father would do anything to him; it's just that he couldn't bear anything that would spoil their relationship.
The truths expounded in the verses that follow, are intended to stimulate the proper fear of God in us, by touching our hearts in a way that increases our love-- for the more we love God, the more we'll fear Him with that highest and noblest type of fear. We couldn't bear to disappoint One whom we love so much.
We are induced to this loving fear of God be realizing the great PRICE of our salvation (verses 18, 19). Christ paid the price to provide a permanent salvation for us. He "redeemed" us; and to redeem is to buy a slave in order to set him free. This was commonly done with "silver and gold" in antiquity. But it was not an eternal redemption, as ours is.
In Old-Testament typology, Israelites were redeemed with silver shekels (Exodus 30:12, 13); but that was only a type of the redemption of our souls. It is from that atonement offering that we gather that silver is a type of redemption. Also, many ancient monarchs demanded gold from those they had conquered, before they would make peace with them. That was redemption with gold. Our redemption is of much greater value than that, and it cost a much greater price.
The corruptibility of silver and gold is not like that of iron; they don't rust, though silver tarnishes and turns black when it's exposed to sulphur. But both silver and gold will wear down because they're not hard like iron. I learned from a visit to the Royal Canadian Mint, that that's why coins always have a rim around the outside. The rim is higher than the design, and thus it keeps the design on the coin from being sanded off when the coin is slid around on a counter. That reminds us of the fragility of even the most valuable things this world offers.
A song that children at least used to use in singing games, is called "London Bridge is Falling Down." Remember that song? Have you noticed how it points out the limits of even the best this world can offer? The second verse says, "Build it up with iron bars;" but the third verse says, "Iron bars will bend and break." The strongest building material has its limits, and can bend and break under sufficient strain. Then the fourth verse says, "Build it up with silver and gold;" but the fifth verse says "Silver and gold will rust away." Even the most incorruptible metals on earth have their limits, and there are ways that they can wear down. The salvation Christ purchased for us is permanent, and nothing can destroy it; and He paid the price it cost for such a salvation.
Christ also paid the price to give us an effective salvation. He redeemed us from the empty, futile life we had before. In the Old Testament, the word "vanity," or "futility," is often connected with idols, because they can't do anything. Those among Peter's readers who had been heathen before their conversion, would identify with that meaning. For those readers who were Jewish, the same term could apply to the rules and traditions that many religious leaders had added to the law given to them by God. And in both cases, the false hope of their former religion was empty and futile.
The natural course of life is also empty and useless. It is the way of life that anyone learns from his ancestors, unless he was raised in a Christian home. He must break with it. Yet some think that everyone should stay in whatever religious beliefs his parents raised him with, to show respect to them. That is false! That is a way of loving one's family more than Christ, and therefore not being worthy of Him.
It is therefore evident that we needed redemption, not just from definite sin against God's law, but even from simply wasting our lives. This ought to stimulate a Christian not to spend his life on trivialities, but to "redeem the time" by using it for God.
Christ furthermore paid the price to give us a costly salvation. "Precious" is a word Peter uses especially often; ten of the sixteen times the word appears in the New Testament, are in his epistles. The blood of Christ is to be considered precious because of His total perfection, and because of the horror of His suffering in shedding it. He is compared to "a Lamb without blemish and without spot." The expression "without blemish" emphasizes good health, which would make the lamb a type of Christ's perfect character. "Without spot" emphasizes there being no visible defect, making the lamb a type of Christ's deeds, His spotless conduct. For this reason, He has the power to save permanently, as a hymn says--

Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood
Shall never lose its power
Till all the ransomed church of God
Be saved to sin no more.

The great price that Christ paid for our salvation, shows the value He placed on the human soul. He indicated that value when He asked what advantage it would be to gain the whole world but lose one's own soul. That shows that He considers one human soul to be worth more than the whole world. How could we bear to disappoint One who loved us enough to pay such a price for us? Rather, let us show our fear of Him by valuing what He values, and devoting our time and energy to the saving of souls.
Christ paid such a price because He had in mind the great PLAN of our salvation (verse 20). It is amazing that God would want such a plan. Yet He chose Christ for it "before the foundation of the world." Christ's perfect holiness was already known and displayed, and He was already chosen to redeem us before ever the human race existed. This was typified by the Passover lamb's being chosen on the tenth day of the month, for the feast on the fourteenth day (Exodus 12:3-6). Those four days gave time to check its suitability for the Passover, having no spot nor blemish.
This teaches us that the plan of redemption was not an afterthought. It is not as though the entrance of sin into the world created a problem, and that God then needed to find a solution! He had the plan already, before sin originated. So, in God's sight, it was as though the true Passover Lamb was already killed before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). God's plan to do so was already made; and when God decides something, it's as good as done. By the same token, the names of the saved were in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world (Revelation 17:8), since God had already read in their hearts that they would respond positively to His call. Just think of it-- God knew before He created the human race that we'd sin, but He still wanted us, and chose us. What grace!
It is also a marvel that God would reveal such a plan to us. He is in no way accountable to us. A passage in Isaiah compares Him to a potter, and us to clay; and it says that the clay has no right to ask the potter why he is doing what he does with it (Isaiah 45:9). Besides that, God's ways are beyond our understanding (Romans 11:33), and we couldn't grasp them all even if they were explained to us. Yet God has graciously chosen to reveal to us that part of His plan that concerns bring us to salvation.
Old-Testament saints had a much more limited understanding of the plan of redemption than we have. Verses 10 to 12 of this same chapter tell us that; and the end of verse 20 says that this plan was revealed "in these last days, for you!" How touching! We have a greater privilege than Old-Testament saints had in our understanding of God's plan of salvation; but greater privilege always means greater responsibility (I Corinthians 10:11).
How could we bear to disappoint One who loved us enough to work out such a plan for us? Rather, let us show our proper fear of Him by cooperating with this plan, bearing the fruit that He sought and expected in planning to redeem us!
This great plan of Christ aims at our fulfilling the great PURPOSE of our salvation (verse 21). We wouldn't even know God, let alone believe in Him, without Christ-- for neither creation nor instinct could lead us to Him without Christ's revelation. He purposed to lead us to Himself by bringing us to faith in Him. Christ's death gave us the object of our faith, for we trust in His substitution in suffering for us to deliver us from condemnation. His resurrection proved the validity of our faith-- for His death's coming to an end, proved that He had finished atoning for our sin, and that God was satisfied. His now being glorified in heaven, assures us of our hope in His return. Our faith is therefore an assurance of what is past, trusting His death for salvation. Our hope is assurance of what is future, trusting in His return to receive us.
Christ's present life displays His power toward us. There are two major words for "power" in the New Testament. One of them means "strength" or "energy." Christ's resurrection displays that kind of power, which is available to us to enable us to live for Him (Ephesians 1:19, 20). It is called "the power of His resurrection" (Philippians 3:10).
The other word for power means "authority." Christ's ascension displays that kind of power. God has "highly exalted Him" (Philippians 2:9), "put all things under His feet" (Ephesians 1:22), and will "make His enemies His footstool" (Hebrews 1:13). This authority will be exercised in establishing and administering His Kingdom. And, think of it-- He has purposed to include us in that Kingdom! (Luke 12:32; II Thessalonians 1:5; Hebrews 12:28; James 2:5; I Peter 1:3; II Peter 1:11; Revelation 1:6).
All our assurance regarding the past and the future, and the power we need for our present lives, are all found in Christ. That means that He's EVERYTHING to us. The heart of the purpose of our salvation is that He should be so; this is the purpose for which God displayed His grace in saving us.
A young man in Germany had cancer, and the operation necessary to save his life involved the removing of his tongue. Before administering the anesthesia, the doctor asked him, "Do you have anything you want to say, knowing it will be your last words spoken in this world?" The patient answered, "Thank God for Jesus Christ!" In giving that answer, that patient showed that Christ was everything to him.
How could we bear to disappoint One who loved us enough to use us for such a purpose? Rather, let us show the proper fear of Him by letting Him thus become everything to us.
The proper fear of God is therefore not terror; but it is more than "awesome respect." The noblest form of it is not fear of chastisement, but rather a dread of how badly we'd feel if we disappointed One who loves us so much, and whom we love so much. The displays of God's love told of in this passage should touch our hearts and stimulate our love in such a way that what we most dread is to "let God down" by failing to please Him to the ultimate. We couldn't bear to render to Him less glory that the absolute maximum possible (Revelation 4:10). To dwell on the greatness of our salvation should cause our love for God to grow more and more. The more we love Him with genuine, devoted love, the more we'll fear Him with this proper fear, the highest and noblest form of the fear of God.