We close the week with an email today from a longtime listener named Pete Spradley. Pete writes in to ask this Quote I have now listened to every John Piper sermon on desiring God org That is that's quite an achievement Pete and I don't think I have heard my question answered Pastor John will we continue to fear God and tremble before him in our perfect glorified state in heaven?

What would you say pastor John? Well, I don't I don't know if he's heard the answer to that either because I can't remember Whether I ever talked about it, maybe not. It's a good question. I think to answer The question carefully we have to ask what trembling actually is The first thing it is is the movement of the body so the muscles are quivering and Today in our scientific age we would say the nerves are Active in an increased way owing to some kind of chemical stimulus so in and of itself Trembling is morally Neutral it's neither a virtue nor a vice the motion of irrational inanimate matter like muscle Cannot be described as virtuous or morally evil but Trembling takes on moral dimensions when it is the the overflow of certain spiritual emotions or Affections that are either good or evil so we may be trembling Because we are about to be caught red-handed doing something evil or we may be trembling because we can hardly contain ourselves with excitement that The husband who has been away at war for two years is about to walk off that plane into the wife's arms In other words trembling may be the bodily overflow of something sinful or something good and my guess is that the participation of the body by trembling in something very good and very hopeful does not diminish the joy of The experience but intensifies it That may not always be the case, but seems to me sometimes Surely, that's the case all of that to say that trembling In and of itself is not something we might want to exclude from our glorified State in the age to come the question boils down to whether or not God will design our glorified resurrection bodies in such a way that trembling attaches to the Experience of joy so as to intensify it Now how might we answer that question might God do that or should we expect him to do that and one way to answer?

the question would be to examine whether trembling in the Bible is always attached to terror and is only negative and that's clearly not the case as We survey the scriptures several texts mentioned trembling precisely in connection with Good experiences of God not bad experiences of God so for example Psalm 114 7 tremble o earth at the presence of the Lord at the presence of the God of Jacob who turns the rock into a pool of water and the flint into a spring well, what an occasion for trembling or Psalm 96 9 worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness tremble before him all the earth splendor holiness or Isaiah 66 1 thus says the Lord heaven is my throne the earth is my footstool What is the house?

What is the house that you would build for me? What is the place of my rest all these things my hand has made in other words? I'm the great creator of all things and so all these things came to be declares the Lord but this is the one to whom I will look he who is humble and contrite in heart and trembles at my word as I am revealed as the creator of all things or Philippians 2 12 Therefore my beloved as you have always obeyed so now not only in my presence but much more in my absence work out your salvation with fear and trembling and Here's the ground cause fear and trembling Because it is God who is at work in you to will and to do his good pleasure There's nothing negative about that at all.

There's nothing terrifying about that at all except God is in us What what the creator of the universe is at work in? you If you believe that I mean if you really believe that Fear and trembling would be a wonderful response Even if you thought he were the most kind loving galactic power in the universe so my conclusion would be that we have little reason to think or desire that God's Trembling that that trembling before God In our glorified resurrection bodies would be excluded little little reason to think they should be little desire Why should we desire that trembling would be?

excluded perhaps the safest thing to say is if God knows that the physical experience of trembling in the glorified body Will increase and intensify our enjoyment of him and all that he does and all that he makes He will see to it that we are capable of such a wonderful Trembling the professor John is a really important connection to our eternal joy and delight in God forever Pete thank you for the question and speaking of good questions Probably no question is more common this time of year than the question over Santa Claus What should Christian parents do with old st.

Nick will tackle that on Monday? You've been listening to the asbestos on podcast with longtime author and pastor John Piper You can find our audio feeds in our archive and you can find Your way to our inbox with your own questions all through our online home at desiring God org forward slash ask pastor John I'm your host Tony rank you will see you on Monday day.