“For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.” Hebrews 12:6 – 8
All true Christians need to understand that our sins have been paid for in full by the blood of our Saviour. "To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;" Ephesians 1:6 – 7 A child of the Living God will never account for our sins, Jesus paid our sin debt in full. Sin is fully accountable for, and the punishment is not only death, but to suffer the full wrath of God on this earth and after death. The word wrath means the anger of God. God’s children are chastened, which means – as to train up a child, that is, educate by discipline which is punishment – it is like a parent training their child to do right. The word wrath means – a justified punishment by anger, indignation or vengeance – God said of this word, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;” Romans 1:18 A deep study of the scripture you will never see God “chastening” a lost person, nor see God executing His wrath against His children. Why not, because Jesus suffered our wrath during His beatings, His being shamed, and His time on the cross through His death. His punishment was all sufficient to the command of God for the sins of all Gods elect. A Christian have no unaccountable sins to pay for because God said we have been saved from the punishment of sin even God’s wrath through Jesus. “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Romans 5:9 – 10 The wrath of God is reserved for God’s enemies which are the lost whom God hates. “For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.” Psalms 5:4 – 5 A worker of iniquity is any lost person who was not cleansed by the blood of the Lamb by the process of His crucifixion. Therefore, let us understand that God never hates His elect children for anything, never, ever because God has an eternal love for them from eternity past to eternity future. God never changes from eternity past, the time of this world never changes God, all the pleaser and will of God is executed in time as God elected.
Therefore, let us now look at God’s chastening of a child. God said, “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons…” God will never deal with a lost non-elected person as a son, because God hates them. However, the saved are God’s children and that relationship is likened to an earthly father executing discipline to their child. A good father never executes wrath on their child because that kind of punishment would be classified abusive. Let us remember, the word “wrath” as related to God – is a justified anger – which means the law of God called for this punishment. With this being said, let us understand that our chastening or righteous discipline form of God is in love to correct not to punish. While the chastening of God can range from a spat on the hand to destruction of your earthly life and goods, and even death, it is still not wrath. So, why does God chasten a child if not for sin? God demands that we walk as children in our life walk, if we do not walk as God commands then we are disobeying our Father and are subject to our Fathers correction. God is showing His Fatherly love to us by correcting us to walk orderly, and the more a child disobeys the more severely the correction can be. But God’s correction is always in love, therefore we ought to praise God we are being corrected because it shows us that we are His child, and corrects our walk. “My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.” Proverbs 3:11 – 12 Remember obeying God is not an option, it is a demand, and refusing to do so could bring great pain or even death to a child. Paul told the church at Corinth that their disobedience to properly do things in order brought discipline from God on them. “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.” 1 Corinthians 11:30 – 32 This was brought on an entire church not just a couple of members, God demands churches do things decently and in order. “Let all things be done decently and in order.” 1 Corinthians 14:40 The level of God’s chastening is in God’s choice but the way to avoid God’s chastening is to walk in the Spirit which is to walk in the order and command of the scriptures, the bible is a commandment not a suggestion! “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” Galatians 5:16 - 17
