The gospel: Christ saved us from fear

If there is something that has plagued human beings as much as sin and death have, it would be fear. It is astounding to see how many people, deep down, are afraid. I have seen from the most mighty, bold, and macho men in denial of their fear to a sweet innocent child, fear became a part of our nature ever since the fall.

“I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid…” (Genesis 3:10).

It was at the instant moment when Adam ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and sinned—his spirit became alienated from the presence of the Lord God. Adam, who had a spirit and soul perfectly one with each other, could perfectly communicate with the Lord God, perfectly perceive heavenly spiritual things, and then immediately died.

I want you to think about a bright sunny day, or even a bright bedroom. Yet, all of a sudden, the bright sunny day turns pitch black, darker than a solar eclipse, like a bedroom that is darkened to the point you can see nothing—this is what happened to Adam’s spirit in that moment; it lost its connection, perception, light, and beauty in God’s presence.

From that point on, all of us coming from Adam, all of us have this human spirit God created and put into Adam’s nostrils; we have become darkened and alienated from God, and all of us are afraid.

Jesus Christ reveals God’s attitude toward fear. If we look closely, Jesus never wanted His disciples to be afraid and, on various occasions, had to ease their fears.

“And immediately, Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him,” (Matthew 14:31).

It’s quite remarkable how humans manifest their fears: Drink, smoke weed, numb, anxiously think about everything, avoid, run, fight, manipulate, deny—fear has its fingers in so many sins we do.

But, let us see that Jesus Christ has delivered us from the unconscious fears in your spirit, because Jesus Christ tasted at the cross our true deepest unconscious fear, separation from God. I want us to understand the weight and pressure of what Jesus Christ was going through at the cross.

We must understand, Jesus Christ was the incarnate Son of God. He and His Father shared in Their glory before there was time, beginnings, before creation. They are everything and both nothingness. The Son contains everything of the Father, and the Father was the one who desired creation to reflect the glory of His Son. Before creation, the Father already had conceived in His eternal counsel that He would give His Son. He would send His Son, who was eternally bound and equal with the Father, to be temporarily separated at the cross to suffer the eternal separation of mankind from the Father.

I want you to think of an only child, grew up in the most loving, perfect home. Perhaps this has happened to some of you, but I want you to think about a child, maybe the age of five, who always lived with his parents. But then, suddenly, the child is ripped out from this home. The wailing, screaming, crying, fear, abandonment, trauma, and pain forever leave a scar on the child's soul. Abandonment.

This is only an insignificant example of what Jesus had to suffer in His spirit at the cross. Let us look at the physical sufferings another time, but no one can ever understand how abandoned Jesus Christ felt at the cross. I repeat, no one. Jesus had to become that Adam way back when in the garden, the Adam afraid. The Adam lost. The Adam abandoned and betrayed by sin.

Jesus tasted death, not just in His body, not just in the agony and sorrow of His soul, but He tasted the death in the spirit for us all. If we truly understood just how much Jesus suffered because of our sin, we would drop sin and run to Him immediately.

Jesus, tasting fear and taking upon fear, tells us He does not want any of us to be afraid but to come to His cross with our fears. Come to the cross, the “spiritual fig leaves” where Jesus bore our original shame. Come to the cross, seeing sin is the reason for our fears. But come to the cross, seeing Jesus suffering on your behalf. He does not want you to be afraid.

Even though Jesus tasted death for us all because of us all, He was innocent in all of this. He never sinned. The Father knew this and was able to justify Him from the power of death three days after He died, the Holy Spirit raised Christ’s physical body, the same body punctured with nails and a spear—was resurrected into a new immortal life, into a physical heavenly body. A new creation was done in and on Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son, and now He is the firstfruits of this new creation where fear has been annilated.

Now, behold. God, Jesus Christ, now sits in the highest throne, ruling over the universe as created and Creator. He is divine, and He is man. This is why Jesus is the exact image of God. Mankind, we are like. But Jesus Christ is the exact image of the glorious invisible Father. More on this, I think, must be spoken! But for now, come to know the God and Man, Jesus Christ, who has saved us from eternal fear and all fear! Amen.