The Gospel According to Solomon: A Proverb on Atonement and Godly Fear Text: Proverbs 16:6
Introduction: The Grammar of Grace
The book of Proverbs is intensely practical. It is God's inspired wisdom for navigating the nitty gritty of everyday life. It teaches us how to deal with fools, how to handle our money, how to raise our children, and how to govern our tongues. But we must never make the mistake of detaching this practical wisdom from the deep, bedrock theology of the gospel. The Proverbs are not a collection of self-help aphorisms for becoming a better pagan. They are distillations of gospel truth, applied to the streets and the marketplaces. They assume the entire backstory of God's covenant dealings with His people.
Our text today is a prime example of this. At first glance, Proverbs 16:6 might seem like a simple moral equation. Do good things, and bad things are taken care of. Fear God, and you won't do evil. But this is a profound summary of the entire system of salvation, neatly packed into the parallelism of Hebrew poetry. It is a gospel syllogism. It shows us the divine initiative and the human response, not as two competing forces, but as two sides of the same gracious coin.
This proverb presents us with a beautiful harmony. On the one hand, we have the objective work of God for us, outside of us. On the other, we have the subjective work of God in us, which results in our active obedience. The modern church is constantly falling off one side of this horse or the other. Some so emphasize the grace of God that obedience becomes an optional extra for the "really keen" Christian. Others so emphasize the commands of God that grace becomes a mere starting gun for a race we are expected to run in our own strength. But this proverb holds them together in perfect, biblical tension. It shows us that God's mercy is the foundation, and our fear is the necessary fruit. One is the cause, the other is the effect, and both are gifts of God.
The Text
By lovingkindness and truth iniquity is atoned for,
And by the fear of Yahweh one turns away from evil.
(Proverbs 16:6 LSB)
The Divine Initiative: Atonement Accomplished (v. 6a)
The first clause of this proverb lays the foundation. It tells us how the great problem of man, his iniquity, is dealt with.
"By lovingkindness and truth iniquity is atoned for..." (Proverbs 16:6a)
Now, we must be careful here. This is not a recipe for self-salvation. It is not saying that if you muster up enough of your own lovingkindness and your own truth, you can pay God off for your sins. That would be to turn the gospel on its head and make it a message of works, which is precisely what the Bible everywhere condemns. The lovingkindness and truth spoken of here are not ours; they are God's. This is His character on display.
The word for "lovingkindness" is the great Hebrew covenant word, hesed. It means mercy, steadfast love, covenant faithfulness. It is the love that God has for His people, not because they are lovely, but because He has bound Himself to them by a solemn oath. It is a rugged, unbreakable, loyal love. The word for "truth" is emet. It refers to firmness, faithfulness, reliability. God is true to His promises. He is true to His own character. He does not lie or change His mind. So, how is iniquity atoned for? It is atoned for by God's covenant faithfulness (hesed) and His absolute reliability (emet).
Where do we see these two attributes of God meet in their most potent form? They meet at the cross of Jesus Christ. As the psalmist says, "Lovingkindness and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other" (Psalm 85:10). The cross is where God demonstrated His unwavering commitment to His own righteous law (truth) and His unbreakable covenant love for His people (lovingkindness). His truth demanded that sin be punished by death. His lovingkindness desired to save His people from that death. The only solution was for God Himself, in the person of His Son, to absorb the punishment that His truth demanded, in order to extend the mercy that His lovingkindness promised.
The phrase "iniquity is atoned for" points to this great substitutionary work. The Hebrew word is kaphar, which means to cover, to purge, to make an atonement. In the Old Testament, this was pictured in the sacrificial system. The blood of bulls and goats would "cover" the sin temporarily. But this proverb, written centuries before Christ, is a signpost pointing to the ultimate reality. It tells us that the entire sacrificial system worked on the basis of God's faithful, merciful character. And that character found its ultimate expression when Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, offered Himself once for all. Iniquity is not atoned for by our good intentions or our religious efforts. It is atoned for by the finished work of God in Christ, a work flowing directly from His lovingkindness and truth.
The Human Response: Sanctification Enabled (v. 6b)
If the first clause shows us the objective reality of our salvation, the second clause shows us the subjective reality of how that salvation is worked out in our lives.
"And by the fear of Yahweh one turns away from evil." (Proverbs 16:6b)
Notice the tight connection. The first part is God's work for us. The second part is our response, which is itself a work of God in us. How does a man turn away from evil? The world has many answers. By self-discipline. By therapy. By education. By positive thinking. But God's answer is singular: "by the fear of Yahweh."
This "fear of Yahweh" is not the cowering dread of a slave before a tyrant. That is the fear that drives a man to evil, to hide his sin, to cover it up like Adam in the bushes. The fear of the Lord is something entirely different. It is the awe, reverence, and wonder of a son before a good and powerful Father. It is a profound recognition of who God is in His holiness, majesty, and, yes, His mercy. Psalm 130 says, "But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared." It is the very fact that God has provided atonement through His lovingkindness and truth that produces this godly, healthy, cleansing fear in our hearts.
When a man truly understands what happened at the cross, when he grasps that the holy God of the universe, in His steadfast love, took the hell that he deserved, the result is not a casual, "Thanks, I owe you one." The result is a heart-shattering awe. The result is the fear of the Lord. You begin to hate the evil that nailed Him there. You begin to tremble at the thought of treating such a costly grace with contempt. This fear is not what saves you, but it is the undeniable evidence that you have been saved. It is the engine of sanctification.
So, the two clauses of this proverb are not two separate ways to get right with God. They are a unified whole. God's lovingkindness and truth provide the atonement that reconciles us to Him. This gracious act, when received by faith, plants the fear of God within our hearts. And that fear of God is the very power by which we are enabled to turn from evil and walk in newness of life. Grace is not opposed to effort; grace empowers effort. The atonement is not a license to sin; it is the motivation to flee from it. We are not saved by turning from evil, but we are saved so that we might turn from evil. And the means by which we do it is this great gift of a reverential, submissive, and joyful fear of the Lord.
Conclusion: The Harmonious Christian Life
This proverb is a diagnostic tool for our spiritual lives. Is your Christian life out of balance? Perhaps you are trying to turn from evil without being grounded in the lovingkindness and truth of God's atonement. This leads to legalism, pride, and eventual burnout. You are trying to run the race in your own strength, and your legs will give out. You must begin where God begins, at the foot of the cross, where His hesed and emet are on full display.
Or perhaps you claim to rest in the atonement, but there is no corresponding fear of the Lord in your life. You treat sin casually. You are comfortable with evil. You have no deep, abiding reverence for the holiness of God. This is what the Bible calls cheap grace, and it is no grace at all. It is a deception. If God's lovingkindness has truly atoned for your iniquity, the non-negotiable fruit of that reality will be a growing, sanctifying fear of His name.
The true Christian life holds these two together. We look outside ourselves to Christ's finished work for our justification. That is our only hope and our only plea. But as we look to Him, His Spirit works within us, cultivating a holy fear that causes us to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel. God's grace in Christ is the root. Our fear-driven obedience is the fruit. And as this proverb so beautifully teaches, you cannot have one without the other.