Those who follow the right path fear the Lord; those who take the wrong path despise him.

Prov. 14:2  Those who follow the right path fear the LORD; those who take the wrong path despise him.

One of the ways a person can know that they are right before God is whether or not they fear Him.  Fear is one of the things that characterized people before Calvary.  The law of God taught His children to fear Him.  It was very clear that if man did not obey God, there was an eternal price to pay.  God’s children understood that you don’t mess with God.  God is holy and will not condone or tolerate sinful living by His children.

At Calvary Jesus took upon himself the wrath of God.  He did for us what the law could not do; He provided a way for us to know God on a personal level.  We now live in grace and therefore the edge of fear has gone away.  But, is that really a good thing?  I personally believe that we should still have a sense of fear for God.  If there were a greater fear for God, there would be greater respect for Him shown.  There would be more careful living; sin would matter more to us than it tends to today.  We have lost the sense of need to strive to be holy since Jesus is our holiness.  We become spiritually lazy and rest solely on the finished work of Christ at Calvary on our behalf.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  We cannot make ourselves holy by what we do.  We cannot save ourselves by what we do.  We cannot be accepted by God as His own without our embracing the finished work of Christ on Calvary.  We cannot do for ourselves what Christ has done for us.  We are saved by faith in Christ alone; it is a gift of God.  We just cannot use our new relationship with God as an excuse for not fearing Him.

Those who try to get to God another way than through Christ despise God.  All other attempts to reach God are futile and causes man to express his frustrations over the emptiness and hopelessness of his life.  Man tries to look good in his own eyes; he tries to do his best to do things his way.  He hates God and His ways because it brings man up short.  It is a slap in man’s face to be told he is not good enough, that he will not enter into heaven without Christ.  Man wants to be in control and when he is told he cannot be in control and be right with God, it causes him to rebel and despise those who declare Jesus to be the way, truth and life.

Choose today the right path.  Fear God and turn away from evil and you wll make it to heaven when you die.