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THE FEAR OF GOD: The Soul of Godliness
John Murray
'THE FEAR OF GOD' BY JOHN MURRAY IS BACK IN PRINT ONCE AGAIN!
This material is taken from Murray's classic work on Biblical Ethics entitled PRINCIPLES OF CONDUCT. It is a wonderful introduction to a vital area that is largely ignored in our day. Although brief, as with all of Murray's writings, it is a very full and weighty piece of practical theology, that should end in doxology for all who read it with an open heart and a mind in subjection to Holy Scripture.
"Many of us owe more than we can say to the example and teaching of John Murray. He wrote nothing hurriedly and for the short term. These pages, as much as anything he prepared, take us to a most vital aspect of a true relationship with God.May they help another generation to be faithful servants of Christ!." - Iain Murray, Author of "The Life of John Murray"
"John Murray's booklet on the fear of God--a theme that desperately needs to be resurrected today--is the best short treatment of this subject anywhere in the English language. From his renowned opening sentence ('the fear of God is the soul of godliness'), to his emphasis on piety, and his careful exposition of the marks of the fear of God (a consciousness of the transcendent majesty and holiness of God, an all-pervasive sense of the presence of God, a dependence upon and responsibility to God, and a constant consciousness of relation to God), Murray's treatment is biblically balanced and nuanced. It confirms the need for obedience to God that is motivated by filial fear and underscores, as Murray says, that 'the eclipse of God, whether viewed as doctrine or as attitude, evidences the deterioration of faith in the living God.' Buy this booklet in bulk and give a copy to each of your friends. It can do them and the church immeasurable good." - Joel R. Beeke, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids
"'Principles of Conduct' is Murray's masterpiece. It is as solid as Pike's Peak." James I. Packer
"Historically, and more importantly biblically, the fear of God has been regarded as essential to true devotion to God. But in recent years this foundational element of piety has been overlooked or even rejected as belonging to the era of the old covenant and not properly Christian (I actually read the latter sentiment in book by a popular North American author!) How welcome then to have John Murray's classic study of the fear of God available in this format. Read it and nourish your soul!" - Dr. Michael Haykin
"In his 'Principles of Conduct', Professor Murray's insights into Christian ethics are shaped by a careful integration of exegetical, biblical, systematic, and practical theology. The chapter on "The Fear of God," here published separately for the first time, is cut from the same cloth. Rightly seeing that the fear of the Lord is the first and most basic lesson in Christian ethics--the true beginning of godly wisdom and knowledge, Professor Murray conducts us into this inner sanctuary of the Christian life." - Dr. Robert Paul Martin
"'The fear of God is the soul of godliness.' These opening words of Professor Murray's chapter on this theme are like a bucket of ice water thrown into one's face in a day of cozy, comfortable, man-centered and casual Christianity. However they are true words. In this booklet Prof. Murray convincingly defines the fear of God and then demonstrates from the Old and New Testaments how central it is to any biblically framed experience of the Christian life. May God be pleased to use these pages to move many to rethink this central theme of the Word of God." - Pastor Albert N. Martin, Trinity Baptist Church, Montville, NJ
"The fear of God could be nothing less than the soul of rectitude. It is the apprehension of God's glory that constrains the fear of his name. It is that same glory that commands our totality commitment to him, totality trust and obedience. The fear of God is but the reflex in our consciousness of the transcendent perfection which alone could warrant and demand the totality of our commitment in love and devotion." - Professor John Murray
"Murray will be a reminder of what is ultimately important. He presents a needed distinction lacking in most presentations of the fear of God. A crippling, servile, always-looking-over-the-shoulder fear is unhealthy in the believer. We are God's sons and daughters; He loves us. Instead, we need a God-honoring, reverence of Him who produces the pursuit of, and the fruit of, godliness." - Dr. Mike Renihan
"With a wealth of biblical citations, Murray identifies the soul of godliness as a reverence for God as transcendently majestic and holy, constraining the forgiven sinner to adoration, love and obedience. Murray's writing on the subject is pervaded by the awe and filial devotion which he commends to us." - Dr. Sherman Isbell
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The fear of God is the soul of godliness. The emphasis of Scripture in both the Old Testament and the New requires no less significant a proposition. Whether it be in the form, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Proverbs 9:10; Psalm 111:10) or The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (Proverbs 1:7), we are advised that what the Scripture regards as knowledge or wisdom takes its inception from the apprehension and emotion which the fear of God connotes. If we are thinking of the notes of biblical piety none is more characteristic than the fear of the Lord. "Hast thou considered my servant Job? for there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil" (Job 1:8). It is this same protestation that is repeated when our attention is particularly drawn to his persevering faithfulness and integrity (Job 2:3) - "he still holdeth fast his integrity". It is unnecessary to cite the scores of occasions throughout the Old Testament in which the fear of the Lord appears as the mark of God's people and enjoined as the sum of piety. Lest we should think that the religion of the Old Testament is in this respect on a lower level, and that the New Testament rises above that which is represented by the fear of the Lord, we need but scan the New Testament to be relieved of any such misapprehension. We are soon given to see that the notion of God's fear is not irrelevant in that piety which is the efflorescence of Old Testament faith. In the Magnificat of Mary we read: "And his mercy is unto generations and generations of those who fear him" (Luke 1:50). Could anything be more decisive than the words of the apostles: "Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Corinthians 7:1); "And ye servants, be subject in all things to those who are your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice as menpleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing the Lord" (Colossians 3:22); "Honour all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honour the king" (1 Peter 2:17)? And nothing could be more significant than that the fear of the Lord should be coupled with the comfort of the Holy Spirit as the characteristics of the New Testament church: "So the church . . . walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit was multiplied" (Acts 9:31). We may not forget that of him who is the shoot out of the stock of Jesse and the branch out of his roots, who judges the poor with righteousness and decides with equity for the meek of the earth, the girdle of whose waist is righteousness and of whose loins the girdle is faithfulness, of him it is said, "And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; and his delight shall be in the fear of the lord" (Isaiah 11:2,3). If he who was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners was endued with the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord, how can thought or feeling that is not conditioned by God's fear have any kinship with him who is the captain of our salvation and who has given us an example that we should follow in his steps? The church walks in the fear of the Lord because the Spirit of Christ indwells, fills, directs, and rests upon the church and the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of the fear of the Lord.
That ethical integrity is grounded in and is the fruit of the fear of God scarcely needs to be demonstrated. The earliest overt reference to the fear of God (Genesis 20:11) shows that Abraham was well aware that the ethical standards which should regulate marital relationships would not be in evidence where the fear of God was absent. "Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife's sake." There was more integrity in Abimelech than Abraham apparently expected. But Abraham's recognition that the absence of the fear of God produced an ethic other than that of integrity is in accord with the total witness of Scripture. "Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumblingblock before the blind; but thou shalt fear thy God: I am the LORD" (Leviticus 19:14; cf. 25:17,36). "The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the perverse mouth do I hate" (Proverbs 8:13 cf. 16:6). And surely the psalmist and apostle put this beyond question when they find the explanation of the catalogue of the transgressions of the wicked in the fact that "there is no fear of God before their eyes" (Romans 3:18; cf. Psalm 36:1).
