And have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as His children? He said, “My child, don’t make light of the Lord’s discipline, and don’t give up when He corrects you. For the Lord chastens those He loves, and He punishes each one He accepts as His child.” (Hebrews 12:5-6)
Wait a minute, did God’s word in the New Testament speak of chastening and punishment? This can’t be! I thought the full wrath of God was taken out on Jesus. I thought that because His wrath was fulfilled by Jesus that there is no consequence for sin. I though that grace meant that sin is no longer an issue and no matter what I do, God loves me unconditionally. Well let’s go back and investigate these thoughts one by one.
Romans 3:24-26 says,”Yet God freely and graciously declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, 26 for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for He Himself is fair and just, and He declares sinners to be right in His sight when they believe (obey and follow) in Jesus.”
So we can see in God’s word that Jesus was the sacrifice for our sins and He paid the price but if we interpret God’s word correctly and take the full counsel of God, does that mean that there are no consequences if we sin and fail to repent? Galatians 6:7 answers this question by telling us,”Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” If we sow sin, we reap a great harvest of death for the wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23).
Let’s look look next at God’s grace and His unconditional love. First, the meaning of grace in God’s word has been translated partially to English. God’s grace is attached to His power. When God’s word says,”My grace is sufficient for you”, It translates as ,”My power is enough for you.” So grace is not so much God overlooking sin that has not been repented from, it is His indwelling power in us through the Holy Spirit to overcome sin. If we can’t overcome living in sin as Christians, then where is the power of the Cross in our lives?
As far as His love, it is unchanging! God’s love is perfectly unconditional. However we can not confuse God loving us with being saved. God loves every single person that has ever lived and will ever live, but that does not mean they were or are all saved.
Hebrews 10:26 clearly explains what happens when we constantly, deliberately sin without repenting. This verse is speaking to Hebrew people who received Jesus as their savior, so they were saved and here is what it says, “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left,”
So much insight the Lord has given me through experiencing His chastening in my life. An analogy I can make is that of an expert stringed instrument player tuning His instrument. He knows the exact sound he wants the instrument to play when it is stroked. He turns the tuning dials to pull the cords so tight that you would think they would break, but he knows just how tight to pull them for the perfect note. It is the same with us and God. He knows just how to discipline us to bring out of us whatever sin we are in , and to cause us to play that perfect note for His glory. I have seen God’s discipline first hand, and some label it as consequences, but the Lord Himself spoke to me directly in Jeremiah one day when I cried out to Him. He told me that He has done all these things to me because of the multitude of my sins. Jesus took our sins on the cross but if we choose to continue to live in them, then we judge ourselves. Through God’s chastening, my life has been transformed from the inside out and deliverance has come to me as it never could have. God knows what is best for us and be comforted in knowing that the chastening taking place in our lives at the current time is for a much greater and bigger advancement in the Kingdom than we could ever imagine.
He chastens us because He loves us!
Pastor Michael Cannatello
TMMC The Ministry of Michael Cannatello
