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The Greater Our View of God, the Deeper Our Fear of Him

· Jerwin Arnado · 6 min read ·

“Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.” — Psalm 145:3

There is a principle that quietly governs the whole of our spiritual life: the more extensive our comprehension of God’s greatness — though in itself it is incomprehensible — the greater our capacity for the fear of Him.

Read that carefully, because it holds two truths in tension. God’s greatness can genuinely be comprehended — He has revealed Himself, and we are meant to know Him truly. Yet that greatness is never exhausted. We can know Him truly without ever knowing Him fully. And the further we press into what can be known, the more our reverence deepens rather than shrinks.

A Small View of God Breeds a Shallow Fear

The reason so many of us live with a thin, casual reverence is not that we fear God too much. It is that we have made Him too small.

  • When God is small in our thinking, sin feels manageable, prayer feels optional, and obedience feels negotiable.
  • When God is small, worship becomes performance and grace becomes cheap.
  • A god we can fully wrap our minds around is a god we can also manage, argue with, and ultimately ignore.

The fear of the Lord withers wherever God is domesticated. You cannot tremble before a deity you have shrunk to fit your own convenience.

Fear Grows in Proportion to Sight

Notice how Scripture ties reverence directly to seeing God more clearly.

Job spent thirty-nine chapters defending himself. But when God finally answered — not with explanations but with a tour of His own immeasurable greatness — Job’s posture collapsed:

“I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” — Job 42:5–6

Nothing about Job’s circumstances had changed. What changed was the size of his God. A bigger view of God produced a deeper, humbler fear.

The same thing happens to Isaiah. He sees the Lord “high and lifted up,” hears the seraphim cry “Holy, holy, holy,” and immediately says, “Woe is me! For I am lost” (Isaiah 6:1–5). Isaiah was already a prophet. But one clearer glimpse of God’s holiness undid him — and then remade him.

Holy fear is not the fruit of ignorance. It is the fruit of sight.

The Fear That Draws Near, Not the Fear That Flees

Here we have to be careful, because “the fear of God” is easy to misread.

This is not the cringing terror of a slave before a tyrant. It is not anxiety about whether God will turn on us. That kind of fear, John writes, is cast out by love (1 John 4:18).

The fear that grows with our comprehension of God is different. It is the trembling wonder of a child who realizes their Father is also the King of the universe — awe and intimacy at the same time. It is what makes us:

  • Reverent without being distant.
  • Bold in prayer without being flippant.
  • Obedient out of worship rather than mere duty.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” — Proverbs 9:10

Wisdom does not begin with information about God. It begins with reverence before God. The two rise together.

Incomprehensible — and That Is the Point

If we could fully comprehend God, He would not be worth worshiping. A God small enough to fit inside your understanding would be too small to save you.

This is why the incomprehensibility of God is not a frustration to overcome but a mercy to enjoy. His greatness is “unsearchable” (Psalm 145:3) — meaning there is always more. Every answered question opens onto a deeper mystery. Every glimpse of His holiness reveals how much more there is to see.

Paul reaches the end of eleven dense chapters of theology in Romans and does not conclude with a summary. He breaks into worship:

“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” — Romans 11:33

That is the destination of true knowledge of God — not mastery, but adoration.

How Then Do We Grow This Fear?

If reverence grows with our view of God, then the practical question is simple: how do we enlarge our view of God?

  1. Sit in the Scriptures that display His greatness. Read Job 38–41, Isaiah 40, Psalm 139, Revelation 4–5 slowly. Let them stretch your sense of who He is.
  2. Refuse to reduce Him to your preferences. Let God be as holy, as sovereign, and as vast as He reveals Himself to be — even where it unsettles you.
  3. Pair study with worship. Knowledge that never bends the knee only puffs up. Turn every truth you learn about God into praise.
  4. Look often at the cross. Nowhere is God’s greatness more overwhelming than where His holiness and His mercy meet — the infinite God dying for finite rebels.

Closing Thought

We will spend eternity coming to know God better, and never reach the end of Him. That is not a limitation on our joy — it is the guarantee of it. Every increase in our comprehension of His greatness will only deepen our reverence, and every deepening of our reverence will only sharpen our joy.

So do not be content with a small God and a shallow fear. Ask Him to show you more of Himself. The more you see, the more you will tremble — and the more you tremble, the more you will worship.

Lord, You are greater than I can grasp and holier than I can bear, yet You invite me near. Enlarge my view of You until my heart learns to fear You rightly — not to flee from You, but to fall before You in wonder. Amen.