"Fear Not" by Wil Mellone
“Fear Not”
Studying Paul’s letters reminds me of studying Mahler’s music. On the surface, both are dense and complex, analogous to asking for a glass of water and being sprayed with a fire hose. In dissecting Mahler’s music, one sees an orderly and logical theoretical construction cognitively divorced from the aural wall of its sonic beauty. Paul’s writings are no different. When one gets past the dense and winding multiplicity of topics, one can see with great clarity the clear and orderly theological construction.
In today’s passage, Paul lays out a massive cosmological explanation of God’s plan, not just for the world or the church but also for each of us individually. This plan was set before the beginning of time. (Some see this as the basis for the Calvinist doctrine of predestination, although I do not.) We are not mere worshipers or observers of God, but adoptees into His immediate family and one with Christ as brothers and sisters. Christ’s sacrifice redeems and lavishes the riches of grace and the forgiveness of sins on us, making us free of blemishes and blameless in the eyes of God for all eternity. We have obtained an inheritance to live for the praise of God’s glory, marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit.
The world is full of conflict, worry, and fear. People ask, “Where is God?” Sadly, our world has been this way for the entire history of human existence. We fear that which we do not know or understand. We can never know or understand this world because it is transitory and illusional, full of shallowness and sin. When we know God, we have no fear because the unknown for our lives does not exist. In a calamitous world, God is the only certainty. As Moses states in Deuteronomy 30:11–15, this is plainly and clearly right before our eyes.
Below the surface of a raging ocean is a calm sea. This is the gift of peace.