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Acts 9:31, “…walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit [the church] multiplied.”
Short Thoughts:
The Spirit’s work will only be a comfort to the one who fears the Lord, and only the one who fears the Lord will know the comfort of the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit comforts us in no other context than that of a trembling recognition of the transcendent holiness of God in the Son.
Long Thoughts:
The fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Spirit. These two are not at odds with one another, neither are they balancing sides of a scale—as if we need so much fear of Jesus, but that fear is tempered by an equal amount of comfort from the Spirit….a “good cop / bad cop” scenario. No, that is a repulsive concept and not at all the point here.
First of all, the fear of the Lord—and the Lord here, as the preceding context makes clear, is Jesus—the fear of the Lord does not mean “fear” in the way a prisoner fears the torturers, or in the way a child fears the monsters in the dark, or in the way a hypochondriac fears sickness….rather it is the fear of numinous awe. The fear that recognizes transcendent power, unapproachable holiness, consuming fire and which recognizes our acceptance into the heart of that glory at infinite cost. The fear that recognizes: were it not for the wounds in those hands, this glory that preserves and satisfies me would damn me in perfect justice for everlasting ages. A fear that feels the weight and wonder of our God……that feels the glory and splendor of His Name…that stands amazed in the presence of the risen crucified Lord. It is the fear of John who falls on His face as though dead before the radiance of the risen Jesus. It is the fear of the angelic hosts, the fear of the seraphim who cover their eyes and scream the glory of His name. It is the fear that humbles, that silences, that awes, that satisfies, that orients, that orders, that aligns…..and it is the fear we are to have of Jesus Christ. May God grant it by His grace!
And this fear of the Lord is granted by, sustained by, accompanied by the “comfort of the Spirit.” The word for comfort here can also mean encouragement or exhortation, it seems more or less to entail the working of the Spirit in the lives of the saints for their ultimate and lasting good. Sometimes as challenge, sometimes as conviction, sometimes as encouragement—always (for the one whose desire is to be conformed to the image of Christ) always as comfort.
The Spirit’s work will only be comfort to the one who fears the Lord, and only the one who fears the Lord will know the comfort of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit comforts us in no other context than that of a trembling recognition of the transcendent holiness of God in the Son. This is a warning to our natural tendency to think that comfort from the Lord will come from a “taming” of the Lord, as it were. As if a “tame lion” will be greater comfort to us than the wild and raging and free lion—who is yet for us. No, true comfort does not come from having a “genie” Christ, a “tame” Christ, a controllable, predictable, pliable Christ, a puppet Christ who nods his head only when we make him…..the comfort that flows from that relationship is a lie.
True comfort comes from the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, and He gives His comfort in the context of the fear of Christ. He gives His comfort to those who know that “we all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Cor.5:10), who know that “our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29), who know that His face shines with the radiance of the noon-day sun, that earth and sky will dissolve in His presence, that His eyes are flames of fire, that a spirit-rending sword comes from His mouth, and that eternally etched in His hands and feet are the wounds of damnation that He suffered in our—in my—place so that we might not perish but know and enjoy God in Him for eternity….to those who receive these realities and tremble before them, the Holy Spirit ministers His comfort.
And, it ought to be said, the recognition of these things is itself the work of the Comforter! It is He who grants us to see the crucified Jesus as the Lord of Glory (2 Cor. 3:18, 4:6), it is He that teaches our hearts to fear…..
