What makes terror fearful is what agape destroys.
Even animals have a built-in fear. From our earliest conscious moment, this nameless dread of the unknown oppresses all of us. All through life, even to our dying moments, we live constantly on its threshold. Happy and secure one moment, we can be in terror the next, and down come our Trade Towers.
Fear with its root of anxiety is the substratum of human existence. Too deep for us to understand, it can make us sick, gnawing at the vitals of the soul until even one's physical organs weaken and become susceptible to disease. Years may go by before we can see or feel its ravages, but at last the weakened organs break down, and doctors must go to work to try to repair the damage that fear has caused.
This universal fact of human nature is recognized in one of the most joyful statements of Good News to be found. Christ delivers us from the Bad News of fear: "Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death" (Hebrews 2:14, 15, NIV; that word "destroy" in the original has the meaning of to paralyze).
So long as we know that fear of death, just so long are we "held in slavery." Generally speaking, the more one enjoys life and the healthier he or she is in mind and body, the greater his abhorrence of death.
Death is not simply like going to sleep. Sleep is welcome rest, but death is terrifying. It is the conscious, devastating dissolution of all that makes the individual a person. This means that every threat to our uniqueness or worth as a person has overtones of that ultimate threat, "fear of death," from which Christ came to deliver us.
Anything that diminishes our personhood is an aspect of that "fear of death" that humans know "all their lives." This constant sense of insecurity that plagues all humans in one form or another is what the book of Hebrews is talking about.
Don't let anyone kid you into thinking you don't have this problem. If you're human, you will come to terms with it. Even kings and presidents know it. When a United States president was faced with the prospect of losing the presidency in disgrace, he came almost emotionally unglued. So would any intelligent person in similar circumstances, unless, of course, he has fully appropriated the "Good News" we are talking about. Whether one is a teenager or in his 90s, the diminishing of one's sense of self-worth is an annihilating experience, and all degrees of it are an approach to that ultimate diminishment—death.
How Agape Frees Us From the Slavery of Fear.
Since the sacrifice of Christ perfectly demonstrates agape, it is the perfect remedy for fear. "There is no fear in love [agape]; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love [agape]" (1 John 4:18, KJV). The reason this is true is that as agape confronts ultimate fear and vanquishes it, in the process it overcomes all lesser fears.
Three realities underscore this truth:
1. When He became man, Christ became our personal representative or substitute, more so than any lawyer represents a client in a criminal court case. The Bible says that because of Adam's sin we all die (see 1 Corinthians 15:22; Romans 5:12). Thus we inherited from Adam not only death but the slavery to the fear of death. The whole human race was "in Adam."
This is evident from the fact that without Adam we wouldn't exist. But the Good News immediately says, "Even so in Christ all shall be made alive" (1 Corinthians 15:22). Christ's victory over death and the fear of death therefore automatically becomes our victory by virtue of this corporate oneness with Him. He has effected that for all of us. (Remember, God is no respecter of persons—all share in these benefits unless they choose not to.)
So real is this experienced oneness with Christ that Paul can say, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). Faith is the glue that cements us to Christ's experience, as it were. Something more intimate than sympathy or even empathy unites us to Him, and His death to sin and fear becomes our death to sin and fear.
This oneness-with-Him is also seen in Paul's expression, "If One died for all, then all died" (2 Corinthians 5:14). All died with Him, and faith is simply experiencing His death and victory over our enemy, living our way through it. Faith is what enables us to feel how Jesus felt when He went through that cross experience. Faith actually enters into His love, into His experience, and this is how He expels fear from our hearts. What Christ went through, we go through, all "by faith."
The Bible does not teach that Christ's substitution for us leaves us alone, so we are excused from understanding and appreciating what He went through. He asked His drowsy disciples to "watch with Me one hour" and was disappointed that they had so little interest that they were children in the most fateful hour of earth's history, the climax of their Master's agony (see Matthew 26:40). The more closely we can identify with Him in that "hour" when He conquered fear, the more complete will be our release from fear. Every person truly crucified with Christ (through faith) learns to scorn fear.
Since Satan is the author of fear and employs terror as one of his most effective tools, it is obvious that he wants to hide from us this discovery of Christ's cross. It was there that Satan was "cast down" (Revelation 12:10). One of his prime lies is to tell us it's impossible for us to understand what happened when Christ died for us, anymore that we can understand all the commercial intricacies of our insurance company's organization. "Just trust it," that's all, "and turn your attention elsewhere," is what we think is the extent of our "Christian experience." Just "trust Him," that's all; and be content to remain an infant in understanding.
But That Grieves Him Immensely.
Satan wants us to remain infants in understanding what it means. It's true that as finite humans we can never fully appreciate that sacrifice, but to be content not to grow in our appreciation of it is a cop-out equivalent to despising it. Our intelligent identification with Christ in His death makes possible our sharing in His conquest of fear and death.
Not only does Christ hunger for our closer fellowship with Him, He is disappointed when we don't seek it. How would you feel if you had risked your life to save a loved one, and then he flippantly thanks you with the superficial appreciation appropriate for picking up a nickel he had dropped? One of the reasons many are to a large extent still in slavery to fear is that they understand and appreciate all too little what it cost Him to redeem us.
2. Our personal faith in Christ makes possible our sharing with Him His victory over fear. We all know how we tend to identify with an actor in a movie or a drama. Many go so far in identifying that they weep unashamedly in sympathy with the actor or actress. There is nothing redemptive in sharing such experiences vicariously, but when "we see Jesus" in His sacrificial agonies for us, there is redemption. Identification with Him brings healing to the soul, because He truly identified with us and that effects for us an identification with Him. The agenda for Christ's battle to conquer fear and death is outlined as follows:
"We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren. ... Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." (Hebrews 2:9-11, 14, 15).
If we were to "taste" our own real death ourselves, the poison of it would do us in forever, for there is no hope of a resurrection after "the second death" (see Revelation 2:11; 20:14). Such a final death involves a horror of utter self-condemnation totally and eternally destructive to human personality. Since human beings are finite creatures, in no way can they endure total destruction for an infinite duration. To hold such a view is a contradiction of terms. It is the consciousness of being condemned in judgment and shut out from light and life forever that is the real pain of "the second death."
Jesus "tasted" this death "for everyone" as He hung on the cross in the darkness. Himself the Blessed One, He was made "a curse for us (for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"' (Galatians 3:13). The feeling of being forsaken by His Father was drinking a bitter cup of sorrow unsweetened by the tiniest taste of hope.
Although Jesus feared death (see Hebrews 5:7), it is not right to say that He yielded to this fear. He faced the fear of eternal separation from God, and "for everyone" He felt the total unspeakable horror of its essence. Yet He conquered it totally.
The True Dimension of Christ's Love For Us.
With the deepest reverence, we might say that Christ figuratively went to hell, and then came back. The apostle Peter at Pentecost seems to have recognized that this was the true nature of His sacrifice: "God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him" (Acts 2:24, NIV). The King James Version renders as follows Peter's quotation from Psalm 16:1 0: "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." ("Hell" [Hebrew sheol] here means an eternal grave.) When Christ "poured out his soul unto death" (Isaiah 53:12), He felt that His Father had "forsaken" Him forever.
None of us can duplicate Christ's sacrifice, for that would be impossible. He was the infinite Son of God, and we are mere creatures whose sacrifice (if we could make it) would be meaningless. We can never be co-saviors of ourselves. But we can appreciate His sacrifice for us.
This burns out of our souls our petty little self-centered motivations. Amazed and awed by the agape that led Jesus to His cross, we "pour contempt" on our selfish desires to avoid the punishment of eternal death and win Paradise because of its rewards. Suddenly an entirely new motivation grips our souls—the passion to honor and glorify the One who redeemed us at such infinite cost. It's saying "Thank You for saving our souls!" In that gratitude, selfish motivations are transcended.
As surely as day follows night, this new motivation expels the root of fear. When faith identifies with Christ, one never again feels alone and bereft, for we have participated by faith in Christ's death-grapple with the enemy in His awful hours on Calvary. Christ has built the bridge that spans the chasm of eternal death; now we simply cross over it "in Him."
How Agape Alone Can Meet the Final Test.
Bible prophecy tells us that fear and terror will constitute the final test of "the mark of the beast." So exquisite will be Satan's perfected method of temptation that he will sweep into his ranks all who then remain susceptible to terror imposed by the sinful slavery of fear.
"He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand, or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name" (Revelation 13:16, 17).
Modern society is uprooted from its attachment to the land and agriculture, huddled in vulnerable megalopolises, utterly dependent for survival on economic integration, with peoples' minds conditioned by clever mass media presentations that major in horror movies and political herding. All this will combine to make death become the most terror-inducing threat that man has ever known.
And we can be sure that the author of “the mark of the beast” will also concoct a terror-inspiring spiritual fear through fiendish counterfeits of a false christ and a false holy spirit. Included in that final test will be his manufactured threat of God's eternal condemnation of all who dare to stand up for truth. If we are still subject to fear, down we will go!
This threat of starvation and of economic and social ostracism will terrify multitudes who have never learned agape by kneeling with Jesus in His Gethsemane.
But there will be a "remnant" who face this terror-inducing threat with holy calmness. They are described first of all as those "whose names have ... been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (verse 8). Fellowship with Christ in His capacity as the crucified Lamb is the secret of their fearlessness. They are also identified as "those who keep the commandments of God." Revelation 14:12. True keeping of the commandments is the experience of agape, for only "love [agape] is the fulfillment of the law" (Romans 13:10).
3. John adds another insight as to how love conquers fear. "Love [agape] has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world" (1 John 4:17). Without such agape, it is inevitable that one must cringe in terror when confronted with this ultimate judgment. But with agape, he walks fearlessly into God's presence, past all the holy angels, utterly unashamed and unafraid. Those who identify with Christ are "Marines" who have fought side by side in the fiercest, most dangerous battles with the enemy of our souls, unfazed by peril. Our faith-participation "with Christ" in His atonement has uprooted fear from our souls, because the self-centered motivation is uprooted. Thus there is nothing left in the soul that the presence of judgment can burn in condemnation.
"God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Galatians 6:14). The Good News of that cross will be a never-ending joy.