Fear Not! I Bring You Good Tidings Of Great Joy

December, 2004

by: Walt Bertelsen

Have you noticed that your brain is capable of recognizing some impending disaster, yet pretend that it isn’t there? Our brains are truly amazing! I saw this at work while I was serving in South Viet–Nam in 1969. It didn’t take long after I got there to recognize that I was in imminent danger. A few hours after I arrived, I was boarding a crowded military bus. Stepping in, I noticed the heavy wire mesh covering the windows. “What’s that for?” I asked. “To keep the grenades out,” came the reply. I couldn’t comprehend that anyone would want to kill me. Gut–wrenching fear set in as the bus drove away through the deserted night streets of downtown Saigon.

Yet this level of fear didn’t continue. During those first days, I somehow realized that I couldn’t keep my thoughts on death and still be an effective soldier. Those who kept thinking about dying generally did.

When I went home, people asked, “Didn’t you think about dying?” I realized that I hadn’t given it much thought after those first days—until a mortar shell blew me back into reality six months later. Yes, your brain is amazing! But not because it can deny reality. That’s the sinful, self–protective part of your flesh. As a man in Christ, you are a new creation (2 Cor 5:17). Because you share the life of God, you need to walk in truth. Truth and holiness is the very essence of our God, who is light (1 John 1). The truth that you must face as a believer is sobering, but it is also joyous!

Here is some truth: Death is inevitable. It will come; you just don’t know when God will take you out. As human beings, we watch the increasing corruption of the body—yet the desire to cling to life is strong! When we were alienated from God, we were held captive by the fear of death (Heb 2:15). Our fear then was that we would answer to God for our lives. Our amazingly wicked brains sought to hide this truth.

The joyous truths that we share as believers are so much greater! Rightly understood and believed upon, these truths aid us to face reality and overcome fear. In the quiet night fields surrounding Bethlehem, the angel brought the good tidings that Messiah, God’s promised Deliverer, was born. In the fullness of time, God sent His Son to redeem us, so that we might receive the adoption as sons (Gal. 4.4-5), and share the image of the heavenly Man. God is working now to shape us into the likeness of Christ. One day, we shall really be like Him, when we see Him as He is (Romans 8:28,29: 1 Cor 15:49; Col 1:28,29; 1 John 3:2). Jesus, by His death and resurrection, conquered death.

One day, you will leave this world behind and step into the surprising presence of Christ; you shall see Him as He is. You can cry: “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Cor 15:55).

In the meantime, Jesus stands in the presence of the Father as your advocate (1 John 2.1,2). You see all your failure and sin—but the Father sees you in the righteousness of Christ. “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us” (Roman 8:34). “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21). “Fear not, …I bring you good news of a great joy.” That is the amazing thing… amazing grace!