Hebrews 12:3-11
“Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or efainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. iGod is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, jin which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to kthe Father of spirits land live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, mthat we may share his holiness. 11 nFor the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields othe peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
For those of you like myself who have been blown away the realities of the biblical doctrine of justification, the discipline of the Lord can be a little puzzling at first. Included in justification is the imputation of Christ perfect righteousness credited to the Christian. When a Christian is in their deepest moments of sin we can be staggered and amazed that in that very moment we have a credit of loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving our neighbor as our self. If that is true then how can we be disciplined? If God sees only my imputed righteousness in me then how can He discipline me for my sin?
The passage in Hebrews gives us some insight. Although the Christian is fully forgiven, God is still very aware of our daily sin. Although He has given us a credit of righteousness, our present sinfulness has not escaped Him. This is a mystery. God can fully see the believers Union with Christ life, death, and resurrection and simultaneously sees our present sin. God does not however condemn us for the sin he sees in us or punish us because He already has on Calvary. So what does He do? He disciplines us. He does not discipline us in wrath but in love as sons. This discipline is for our good and for our joy. Jesus said to abide in him so “his joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full”. When we are not abiding in Christ the Holy Spirit convicts us with Christ-Centered conviction called discipline.
Christians ought to feel the daily discipline of God. This sounds like bad news until you see the Trinitarian beauty of the discipline of God. Only God could make disciple sweet.
1. When we sin the Holy Spirit convicts us and points us to Jesus.
2. When we look to Jesus we see the seriousness of our sin.
3. When we look to Jesus we remember the Father’s love that He would chose us in Christ.
4. When we look to Jesus we remember His sinless substitutionary life.
5. When we look to Jesus we remember His substitutionary death.
5. When we look to Jesus we remember His substitutionary death.
6. When we look to Christ we Glorify God.
7. When we look to Christ we want to abide in Him.
8. When we Glorify God and abide in Him we have joy!
Only God could discipline in a way that is Good News. Heb 12:11 “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” What is the fruit of righteousness or of abiding in Christ? Joy! So bring on the discipline Lord. Convict, reveal, show me my sin and lead me to the Good News yet again!
Leave a Reply