FEAR OF GOD VS. FEAR OF ETERNAL DAMNATION

Romans 8:15

For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

2 Timothy 1:7

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

John Buyan says of these 2 verses:

"He cannot, after he has come to the soul as a Spirit of adoption, come again as a Spirit of bondage, to put the soul into its first fear, to wit, a fear of eternal damnation, because he cannot say and unsay, do and undo. As a Spirit of adoption he told me that my sins were forgiven me, that I was included in the covenant of grace, that God was my Father through Christ, that I was under the promise of salvation, and that this calling and gift of God to me is permanent, and without repentance. And do you think, that after he has told me this, and sealed up the truth of it to my precious soul, that he will come to me, and tell me that I am yet in my sins, under the curse of the law and the eternal wrath of God? No, no; the word of the gospel is not yea, yea; nay, nay; it is only yea, and amen; it is so, as God is true (2 Cor.1:17, 20)."

So that is what those verses mean! Wow!

Now that I am a child of God (the Spirit of adoption, salvation), I am no longer to fear the wrath of God (John 3:36) and eternal damnation.

It also tells me that I am washed whiter than snow (Isaiah 1:8)! Even from the sins that seem so unpardonable to some people.

For I was truly a great sinner before God's saving grace, as all mankind are.

Everything I did before I was saved, was sin, not just one certain indiscretion was sin, but everything.

Romans 3:10-12,20,23,24

¹⁰As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

¹¹There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

¹²They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

²⁰Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

²³For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

²⁴Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

AMEN!