Status Updates From Réjouissez-vous et tremblez...

Page 90: “Knowing God the Redeemer in Christ will make our Christian fear distinct from the fear shown by the devotees of other gods. It is what we need if our fear is to be specifically and happily Christian.”

Chapter 4 considers fear of God as Creator, as distinct from fear of God as Redeemer. Contrasts the way believers and non-believers approach a Creator God with awe & trembling. Accepts Otto’s The Idea of the Holy (which influenced CS Lewis’ Northerness & aspects of Aslan) as far as it goes, but observes that Otto did not consider God as Redeemer, and thus approaches God in the same way as any religion.

“Fear which pleases him is not a grovelling, shrinking fear … It is an ecstasy of love and joy that senses how overwhelmingly kind and magnificent, good and true God is, and that therefore leans on him in staggered praise and faith.” (p67)

Spurgeon: “It is not because we are afraid of him, but because we delight in him, that we fear before him.” (p52)