How can a Christian stop fearing God's wrath and punishment?

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” A child’s certainty off his parents’ unfeigned, unchanging love gives him confidence, and no element of terror in that filial relationship. How much more does God’s perfect love cast out fear. If we are loved perfectly, there is no reason for tormenting fear. Godly fear of course is another subject, involving wholesome, reverential regard for the greatness of God; but a tormenting fear of possible judgment is dismissed when the love of God is rightly known. If this fear is present, the soul has not been “made perfect in love,” that is, he does not recognize the perfect love of God as it really is, pure eternal, unchangeable and precious as when He gave His beloved Son in sacrifice for us. To he “made perfect in love” is to “know and believe the love that God has to us,” because it is a fact.

It is now made known that God by His word assures of His love all that believe, and He sets it forth in Christ incarnate, Christ dying in atonement, and Christ in glory, winding all up with the declaration that "even as He is, we also are in this world." For it is here only that His grace and truth are present; and as Christ was full of grace and truth, to receive Him is to receive of His fulness, as every Christian does. This then is the question for you, dear doubting fearing friend. Do you believe, as a poor guilty sinner, on Him? Do you believe that God out of His own boundless love gave Jesus His Son? Cast away the vain hope of any good thing of your own fit for God; receive on God's authority and in His grace Him who has all good not only for God but for you, and who was sent to be the propitiation for sins. Then, as receiving God's glad tidings, you are entitled to say, as you weigh it all before Him, "By grace I do believe that I have life, and peace, and am His child." Then you know that you are elect. Any other way of claiming to know it is human and dangerous, uncertain and evil, the devil cheating you to ruin. Christ is the truth to settle all election that is true and good. Believing on and confessing Him you are entitled without an atom of argument to say, God has chosen me: else, left to myself and my reason, I had never believed after a divine sort. Thus it is that "perfect love casteth out fear," and gives me by faith peace with God, instead of that punishment or torment which my spirit knows too well.

The power for a Christian life, one who knew it well thus declares to us: "The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Faith, which has Christ before it as its object, works by love; not self-love, but a devout, adoring remembrance of a Saviour's wondrous sacrifice. And the pattern and power for this walk is He whose life and death had been for others, not Himself. Thus the apostle could say as to the moral transformation wrought by Christianity, how Christ "died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him that died for them and rose again." Not mere correct living, not mere conformity to an outward rule, but a life issuing from devotedness of heart to a Redeemer-God! this is, in the apostle's view of it, Christianity. But this is in entire opposition, in principle, to a life which finds its motives in personal needs and ends — in fear of eternal judgment. "Faith worketh by love," not by fear; and, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment." Thus God, whose love alone is perfect, casts fear out of our hearts, that He Himself may reign there.

God is love, and that is first openly seen at the cross of Christ; and then in the new nature we have a capacity to enjoy that love; but the fear must be taken away, because fear hath torment, and torment is not enjoyment. Then he shows what removes the fear. "Perfect love casteth out fear" - not perfect righteousness; that had given the peace before God, but the revelation of Himself, and what He is, alone casteth out fear.

"Herein is love with us made perfect." If my heart has seized the truth that God as a Father is acting in grace towards me, there is no place for fear. In all my need, and even in all my sin (with which I ought to have nothing to do) I fly to Him. I could not in my sin fly to my Judge, but I have confidence in my Father's love, and I fly to Him because "perfect love casteth out fear." In all my sins and follies I can look to Him who gave His Son for me. That is where grace puts me.

be in these things; but it is His love to us in the gift of His only-begotten Son, that tells us of His infinite grace. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16.) There can, therefore, be no peace, no sense of security, where the spring of our eternal blessings is not known as flowing to us in the gift of Christ; and until that is the case, souls, if truly awakened and earnest, will be looking to their own love to God, their feelings, their doings, the performance of their promised resolutions, and the like, which only increase their misery, and can never impart rest and peace. Happy those who so perceive the love of God in the Person and work of Christ, and its suitability to us, as to enable them to realise in their own souls the preciousness of the truth, "Perfect love casteth out fear"

And this being so, it appears from the further teaching of the Spirit of God that two things are sought for and expected from us as His children. I mean "confidence" and "imitation." "God is love," and therefore, in our actings towards Himself, He cannot possibly accept anything less than confidence. It is the answer love is entitled to, the only answer which, from its nature, it can (shall I say) put up with. Nothing will gratify or satisfy love but love; and in the gospel God is to get it from us. The apostle therefore states this (though we might derive it out of the great parent truth): "We love Him because He first loved us." We do not fear Him, we do not mistrust Him, but we love Him because He has already loved us. "There is no fear in love; perfect love casteth out fear." Love leaves no room for fear. It cannot dwell in the same house with it. The elements are destructive one of another. If we know that love, perfect love, is dealing with us, we cease to fear. Confidence only is the due answer, as it is the necessary demand of love.

Do I find many sins in myself? He is the propitiation for our sins. I believe this, and I enter into communion. Why do you find fear and torment when you find sin in yourself? Cannot you trust that love? Have you not believed the love God has towards you? Have you not had the Father on your neck in your rags? You must know the love God has to you, and then you know God. "Herein is love with us made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment." It is Christ all through who is spoken of as He and Him, without reference to His name, the apostle's mind being so full of Christ as not to deem it needful to mention it. God's love was manifested to us in His sending His Son, that we might have life and righteousness; now it is perfected that we may have boldness in the day of judgment. I am in Him who is judging. He is my righteousness: why should I not be bold? "As he is, so are we in this world."

When the reality of guilt is brought home to a man he cannot but be filled with dread. Thus Felix trembled as Paul pointedly urged upon him the claims of God. There will be a universal trembling when the great Judge appears in the clouds of heaven, and every eye beholds Him. But to every soul whose confidence is in Christ and in the precious blood He shed, the divine message is, "Fear not." Such are entitled to know that their sins have been adequately atoned for and put away for ever. Their hearts turn gratefully to the God of infinite love who provided such a costly sacrifice for them. Dread is at once displaced by love. "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has torment" (1 John 4:18). The Holy Spirit, who is then conferred upon them, is not the spirit of fear, but the Spirit of sonship whereby they cry, "Abba, Father" (Rom. 8:15). From that moment we "serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life" (Luke 1:74).

Dear Christian reader, what say you to these things? Can you rejoice in this blessed liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free? or are you fearing, and doubting, and trembling as to your eternal prospects? If so, why is it? Have you not long ago renounced all thoughts of creature righteousness? Have you not long felt that you are a vile sinner before God? Do you not often groan over your uncleanness? Have you not fled to Christ alone for salvation? Do you not renounce every other ground of acceptance but in Christ? And do you not trust wholly in His blood? Then why are you fearful, seeing it is such that Christ hath made free? Oh! look away from yourself, and every other object, to Christ crucified, risen, and ascended believe that He hath done what God declares He has, and be assured that it is because the Spirit hath quickened you that you have been convinced of sin, and been brought as a guilty, needy one to the Saviour. Be comforted, then, dear trembling child of God, for it is because the Lord hath loved you with an everlasting love, that with loving-kindness He hath drawn you to Himself through Christ and the testimony of His word is, that your sins are forgiven, you are justified from all things, you shall not come into condemnation, you have everlasting life — you have passed from death unto life; Christ is your righteousness and life; He ever lives to make intercession for you; and He bids you to be of good cheer, and to go in peace. Rest, then, in God's faithfulness to His own word; for "He cannot deny Himself." May the Holy Spirit take of these precious things of Christ, and reveal them for much blessing and comfort to your soul.