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This podcast critiques doctrines commonly called hyper-grace.
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Our focus is on teachings, not individuals.
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All views expressed are biblical reflections intended to help listeners weigh every message against Scripture.
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Caleb, last episode changed how I think about partnership with God.
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But now I'm wrestling with something.
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If I'm supposed to cooperate with Him, work with Him, doesn't that create anxiety?
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Like what if I mess up the partnership?
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And I keep hearing that verse perfect love casts out fear.
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Shouldn't grace eliminate all fear?
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That's the exact question that reveals our misunderstanding of biblical fear.
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Eliana, here's the truth.
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1 John 4.18 says perfect love casts out torment, not reverence.
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The Greek word is phobos, which can mean terror or holy awe.
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Perfect love doesn't eliminate the fear of the Lord.
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It transforms human terror into divine reverence.
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Wait, so there are different kinds of fear.
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Exactly here's the hidden layer.
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In Eden, Adam had perfect love and perfect fear.
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Not terror of punishment, but awe at the magnitude of walking with the Almighty.
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He trembled not from condemnation but from the overwhelming privilege of breathing the same air as his creator.
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When sin entered, fear became twisted into shame and hiding.
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But redemption doesn't delete reverence, it restores it to its proper place.
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So the fear that love casts out is different from the fear of the Lord.
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Precisely the fear that love casts out is the fear that says God might reject me.
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The fear of the Lord is the awe that says God is magnificent and I get to know him.
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One fear drives you away from God.
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The other draws you deeper into his presence with appropriate wonder.
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The other draws you deeper into his presence with appropriate wonder.
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But, caleb, if I'm in this partnership with God and I need to have reverent fear, how do I know I'm not just becoming religious, like trying to impress him instead of resting in his love?
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Here's the test.
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Religious fear asks am I good enough?
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Holy fear asks is he glorious enough?
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Religious fear makes you perform.
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Holy fear makes you worship.
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Religious fear breeds pride or despair.
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Holy fear breeds humility and joy.
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Think about it when you truly grasp his magnificence, your own inadequacy doesn't terrorize you.
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It amazes you that he chooses to partner with you anyway.
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So holy fear actually deepens intimacy.
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Yes, and here's the forbidden insight Hyper-grace has created a generation that thinks familiarity with God means casualness toward God.
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They've confused intimacy with God means casualness toward God.
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They've confused intimacy with irreverence.
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But look at Isaiah 6.
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When Isaiah saw the Lord, he didn't casually wave, he cried woe is me.
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Yet that encounter led to his commissioning, his purpose, his deepest intimacy with God.
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When churches lose the fear of the Lord, they lose the weight of his presence.
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And when His presence loses weight, everything else becomes light.
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Sin, holiness, truth, eternity, all of it becomes negotiable.
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So perfect love doesn't eliminate awe, it purifies.
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It Makes it clean and safe and beautiful, makes it clean and safe and beautiful.
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Exactly, that's the raw truth.
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No filters, just freedom.
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True intimacy with God includes appropriate fear, not terror of rejection, but trembling at the privilege of partnership with the Almighty.
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And in episode 14, we'll see how this holy reverence leads to something the modern church has forgotten the necessity of cutting sin off at the root.
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This is Truth Talk, where filters die and truth speaks.