COLD FEET

Cold Feet

Everyone knows what the term ‘cold feet’ means, but tracing its origin has proven somewhat elusive. Rather than someone having second thoughts ‘cold feet’ reminds me of a couple of other and perhaps unrelated things! First, one of the wonders of the world must be a penguin on ice incubating and hatching an egg while balancing it on its cold feet. An amazing feet feat! Second, many years ago while living in Canada my wife and I helped rescue a family from their burning home in the middle of the night in winter. We stood in snow and ice in our bare feet. We had cold feet but we didn’t have second thoughts about catching children being dropped to us from a smoking window! It was like an enactment of that old Rescue the Perishing hymn!

              I suppose man’s first negative encounter with fire was at Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden. ‘So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life’ Genesis 3:24. It has never been a popular talking point, but, angels armed with flamethrowers block the narrow path that leads to life! How are we to escape the coming hellfire when the way to life is barred by fire? Do we don (asbestos-lined!) penguin-suits and rush the armed guards as if we’re James Bond? Or should we, with clothes-pegs on noses, bury our heads in the sand and just ignore the death-smell of God’s coming judgment? It seems to me that we perish if we opt for either of these courses. Therefore, it’s best to have cold feet about Judgment Day and simply call out to be rescued. Some of Jesus’s disciples who thought that they were about to die cried out to Jesus, ‘Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?’ Mark 4:38b.

              The fear of death includes having second thoughts about facing God’s judgment. Is it okay to say that Jesus had some sort of ‘cold feet’ experience when He was contemplating the judgment of God? He prayed the following when in the garden, ‘“Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” Then an angel appeared from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground.’ Luke 22:42-44. Jesus was about to go into the burning building, the place of incineration, (the cross!) to rescue His people from the fiery wrath of God’s judgment upon fallen man. Little wonder then He sweated great drops of blood. He was considering going to Hell!

              Jesus is the High Priest, ‘who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear’ Hebrews 5:7. On the cross He was experiencing Hell when He said, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’ Matthew 27:46. He was taken down from the cross and placed in a tomb (John 19:41-42) thus entering the grave of the fallen. But God indeed heard the cries of the One ‘whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come’ 1 Thessalonians 1:10.

              As a fireman rescues someone from a flaming building, so Jesus by His cross and resurrection carried all God’s children out from the grave! While He was on the cross Eden’s armed-guard turned their flamethrowers onto the One carrying all our sins, incinerating them. The dross of our iniquities is being skimmed off. We are purified by Him who is pure, ‘knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin’ Romans 6:6-7.

              ‘By the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men’2 Peter 3:5-7.

              Martin Luther was attempting to escape the judgment and perdition to come by doing everything he could think of as he attempted to save himself and appease the wrath of God. Many today try to do likewise. However, Luther got cold feet about this (futile) way of salvation when he read of an alien righteousness, i.e., a righteousness that comes, not from self, but from God: ‘For in [the gospel of Christ] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, “The just shall live by faith”’ Romans 1:17.

              Before you die it is better to seek God’s mercy than to ignore or demand justice for yourself. Christian, are you not a brand plucked from the fire? (Zechariah 3:2). Having cold feet about facing God’s wrath is good!