people sometimes abuse the doctrine of justification by faith as if it
meant that Christians at the last were not to be judged. But they are,
and there is such a thing as 'salvation yet so as by fire,' and such a
thing as salvation in fulness. Do not let filial confidence drive out
legitimate fear.

He 'judges according to every man's work.' I do not think it is
extravagant attention to niceties to ask you to notice that the Apostle
does not say 'works,' but 'work'; as if all the separate actions were
gathered into a great whole, as indeed they are, because they are all
the products of one mind and character. The trend and drift, so to
speak, of our life, rather than its isolated actions and the underlying
motives, in their solemn totality and unity, these are the materials of
this Divine judgment.

Now, let me say a word about the disposition which the Apostle enjoins
upon us in the view of these facts.

The Judge is the Father, the Father is the Judge. The one statement
proclaims the merciful, compassionate, paternal judgment, the other the
judicial Fatherhood. And what comes from the combination of these two
ideas, which thus modify and illuminate one another? 'Pass the time of
your sojourning here in fear.' What a descent that sounds from the
earlier verses of the letter: 'In whom, though now ye see Him not, yet
believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving
the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.' Down from
those heights of 'joy unspeakable,' and 'already glorified,' the apostle
drops plump into _this_ dungeon: 'Pass the time of your sojourning here
in fear.' Of course, I need not remind you that the 'fear' here is not
the 'fear which hath torment'; in fact, I do not think that it is a fear
that refers to God at all. It is not a sentiment or emotion of which God
is the object. It is not the reverent awe which often appears in
Scripture as 'the fear of God,' which is a kind of shorthand expression
for all modes of devout sentiment and emotion; but it is a fear, knowing
our own weakness and the strong temptations that are round us, of
falling into sin. That is the one thing to be afraid of in this world.
If a man rightly understood what he is here for, then the only thing
that he would be terrified for would be that he should miss the purpose
of his being here and lose his hold of God thereby. There is nothing
else worth being afraid of, but that _is_ worth being afraid o