Daily Archives: April 13, 2015

Discipline Versus Punishment

Bible Study, , ,

DISCIPLINE VERSUS PUNISHMENT

Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you completely forgotten the word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his sons? ‘My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the ones He loves, and He chastens everyone He accepts as sons.’ (Heb. 12: 3-6).

How important it was for his readers to fix their eyes on Jesus! Like Peter walking on the water, the turbulent circumstances around them caused them to waver and to lose confidence in their Master and in themselves and their resolve and ability to follow Him, no matter what. As His disciples, they knew that their relationship with Him was far closer than mere admirers. To be a disciple was to learn to become just like their rabbi, to live like him and to imitate him in everything he said and did.

By turning away and going back to the yoke – the teaching and way of life – of a lesser rabbi, they were in effect saying that they no longer believed that Jesus was most authoritative rabbi to follow. They were declaring, by their defection, that His life and teachings were no longer authentic for them, and repudiating their right to be called sons of God.

By doing that they had forgotten the reality of who they were. If they regarded the suffering they were undergoing as believers in Jesus as punishment for their sins, they had missed the truth of the radical change that had happened when they believed and received Jesus as their Messiah and Saviour. They were no longer slaves but sons.

The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children (Rom. 8:15).

Slaves had a different relationship to their master from sons. Slaves did not belong in the family. They did not share the name or the inheritance of sons. They lived in fear of punishment if they did not comply with the master’s orders. They could be beaten or even killed if they disobeyed.

‘You are not slaves, but sons’ the writer reminded them. The troubles they were experiencing were not punishment for sin as they might have erroneously viewed them. God has dealt with sin, once and for all, in the death of His Son. The writer had taken pains to explain to them that Jesus’s once-for-all, never-to-be-repeated sacrifice had taken care of sin forever. Unlike the sacrifices of the old covenant which had to be repeated again and again as a reminder of sin, the blood of Jesus had perfected them forever and they were now undergoing the process of being made holy.

Their hardships were not punishment but discipline. Punishment was for slaves; discipline was for sons. Punishment was retribution for doing wrong; discipline was correction to point them towards becoming true sons in their attitudes and behaviour.

How important it is for us to understand what God is doing in our lives when we go through the pain and hardships that don’t make sense and seem to indicate that God is either absent or doesn’t care! “The problem of suffering” has troubled both believers and unbelievers from time immemorial. Books and sermons abound; solutions are offered or denied.

Two facts must never be ignored; we live in and are part of a fallen world – we cannot evade the effects of sin and the suffering which sin brings; we are God’s children – He uses every experience we go through to mould us into the likeness of Jesus.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters (Rom.8:28-29).

How else can God reveal the remnants of the old nature in us if He does not allow us to experience the circumstances that trigger our sinful responses? Because we don’t understand what He is doing, we mistrust or blame Him. Instead of growing in grace, we waste the opportunities to imitate Jesus. He endured opposition from sinners because His eye was on the reward. If we keep our eyes on the prize instead of bewailing our suffering, like Jesus we shall endure, persevere and, in the end, inherit God’s promises.

What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived’ – the things God has prepared for those who love Him – these are the things God has revealed to us by His Spirit (1 Cor. 2: 9-10).

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com or www.kalahari.com in paperback, e-book or kindle format, or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my blogsite at www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

 

This One Thing

Bible Study, , , ,

THIS ONE THING

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race set out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfected of faith. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Heb. 12: 1-2).

Why did the writer call the people he had written about in chapter 11 “witnesses”? Witnesses can be one of two things – people who are the process of seeing something happen, or people who bear witness to what has already happened. Are these witnesses those who sit in the grandstand and watch the readers perform or are they those who bear witness to what they have already experienced in their lives of faith?

I believe that these witnesses are people who trusted God and obeyed Him in spite of adversity and opposition. They have gone ahead and are even now reaping the reward of their faith. They bear silent witness to us who are still in the arena of life that God’s promises are true and that there is a life beyond the grave which is worth the suffering.

To run the race of life as winners requires letting go of the encumbrances which hinder us, whether they be legitimate or illegitimate. There are many things that entangle us and hinder our progress towards the goa. Legitimate things can become distractors which pull our attention away from our purpose – activities, money and possessions, friends and even family, books we read or programmes we watch on television can so occupy our attention that we drift away from the Lord and become entangled in the affairs of this life.

There is nothing wrong with any of these things in themselves but, when they take our attention away from Jesus, they slow down our progress and even cause us to veer off course and lose sight of the one who has called us to follow Him

Of course there are also illegitimate interests and activities which we must shun at all costs – anything and everything that goes against the nature of God. On this race course of life there are many “No entry” signs which warn us of danger if we trespass in these areas. They are clearly spelled out for us in God’s word. Sin not only takes us off course, it also ensnares us so that we become slaves to its power all over again.

The writer warned us not to allow ourselves to become entangled in the things of this life that are necessary – we must do what we must do, but no more – and we must avoid at all costs those things that ensnare us and pull us back into slavery again.

How do we do that? He gives us a simple prescription for staying on course – keep looking at Jesus. He is both the pioneer and perfecter of faith. What is a pioneer? One who goes ahead and charts an unknown way. He is the way to the Father and, by His life and example, He opened the way to the Father through His death, He showed us how to live to please the Father and He gave us His Spirit to live within us so that we have the power to do as He showed us.

In every awkward and difficult situation He shows us Jesus if we are willing to pay attention. Instead of going it alone and living out of our old sinful nature and reacting in our old fleshly ways, through the Holy Spirit God provides the grace to die to our sinful ways and to live out of our new nature which is a reflection of Jesus. Instead of worrying, we trust; instead of bearing grudges, we forgive; instead of hating, we love; instead of getting even, we respond with kindness because Jesus showed us how to be true sons of God.

How did Jesus overcome? He kept His eye on the goal. What people did to Him because they hated Him paled into nothing compared with the reward that lay ahead for Him because He persevered and endured. Every marathon runner keeps going because he wants to win the prize. No matter how long the course or how many obstacles he has to overcome, he keeps going because the reward far outweighs the suffering.

So it was with Jesus, and so it is with us if we want to gain the eternal prize. There are others who have gone before us who bear witness that it was worth it. The worst that human beings could do to them could not deter them from trusting God and believing His promises. What about us?

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com and www.kalahari.com in paperback, e-book or kindle format or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my new blogsite at www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com