Laden with Guilt and Full of Fears

We've been doing a study in RUF beginning this summer over the holiness of God. R.C. Sproul contends (correctly, in my opinion) that holiness is the attribute of God that Scripture most emphasizes and that we as a modern church have a tendency to downplay the most. Furthermore, Sproul uses Isaiah 6 to contend that God's holiness is so great that even the most righteous man must tremble and quiver when they catch just a glimpse of God's holiness and begin to understand their own rottenness and sinfulness.

Truer words were never spoken. The Scriptures teach that "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:31, ESV). We don't talk about that. We overemphasize God's love (which does merit discussion; don't hear me say otherwise) while robbing Him of his holiness. John argued that we have defanged God, so to speak. What pretentious little peons we are. I heard a modern praise song recently that instructed unsaved sinners to "come home running just as you are" because "His Name is Jesus and He understands". No! Yes, God is a forgiving God, and yes, God loves His own dearly and will forgive us again and again for our innumerable sins and transgressions. But that doesn't mean God just sweeps sin under the rug--a price had to be paid for sin; the price of the life of the perfect, sinless Son of God.

There is a reason why we speak of a place where God is present as being "sweet and awful", in Watts' words. But Watts wrote an even better hymn that is also worth examining: Laden with Guilt and Full of Fears (which unfortuneately didn't make it into the Trinity Hymnal). This is how a Christian should feel when confronted with the holiness of God and struck with the presence of God and the conviction of the Holy Spirit. We should feel laden with guilt and full of fears, and realize that our only hope is in the salvation offered to us through Christ as laid out in the Scriptures. So why do we treat these things with such a flippant attitude?

"Laden with guilt and full of fears, I fly to Thee, my Lord, and not a glimpse of hope appears but in Thy written Word." (Watts)

Luke