Word of Salvation – Vol. 42 No. 14 – April 1997
Why Does God Discipline His People?
Sermon by Rev. Prof. R. O. Zorn on Hebrews 12:4-13
Scripture Reading: Proverbs 3:1-12
Suggested Hymns: BoW 92; 236; 334; 73; 238; 117
Beloved Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In our text, the apostle speaks of divine discipline and its purpose. Discipline means a number of things to us. It may mean: maintaining order in a classroom; or conforming to rules and regulations; or training to bring about obedience, including punishment when necessary.
The last definition is what the apostle has in mind in our text. You see this from verses 6 and 11, ie, punishment = “spanking”! The apostle is talking about a subject with little natural appeal. Who likes a spanking? And if you do it to your children, our society may even charge you with child abuse!
But the apostle says that discipline is a sign of God’s fatherly care. We may not like it, but if we’re God’s children, His discipline of us will make it clear that we indeed have God as our divine Parent.
This is simply saying that, if you’re God’s child, He will discipline you. You see (as the apostle makes clear), those not disciplined are not God’s children (vs 8). And their end will be judgment and its consequences of banishment forever from the presence of the Lord.
Let us see, then, what our text intends to teach us about discipline:
1. its nature (what it is);
2. its ultimate purpose (or aim);
3. its fruit (or good result).
1. ITS NATURE
Discipline is the mark of parental interest in the child. Child training is a basic part of a parent-child relationship. As the apostle puts it in verse 7b: “What son is not disciplined by his father?”
Notice how the apostle bases his argument about the divine-human relationship upon the human parent-child relationship, taking into account the necessary ingredient of spanking when necessary. Notice also that he doesn’t defend spanking as such; he simply presupposes it as necessary.
From the background present in verse 4, we see that the Hebrew Christians had been ‘spanked’ with persecution which had not yet led to bloodshed or martyrdom for them.
The point the apostle then makes is that their difficult and trying experiences weren’t something that had happened to them because God couldn’t prevent them. Even though it is true that we tend to think of hardships, difficulties, trials and losses like this. The apostle, however, doesn’t make excuses for God. He says that there’s a divine purpose in the adversities we suffer. Behind them is God’s discipline as a parent interested in our best welfare.
Don’t we confess as much in Lord’s Day 1 of our Heidelberg Catechism when we affirm, “[Christ] has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven: in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.”?
Let us shift the focus for a moment to the relationship we have with our children, for God’s relationship with us as His children should help us to understand the responsibilities we have with respect to our children.
Children need the temporal, moral and spiritual help of the older generation. That’s why God has given children to parents, together with the implications of the 5th Commandment, “Honour your father and your mother…!” No one denies that children need the everyday things of life. And parents usually cannot be faulted for giving them food, clothing, shelter and other good things, as they can afford them.
But not all parents fulfil their responsibilities for their children’s moral needs, for this takes modelling in speech, behaviour, conduct – all of which take time and effort, and even sacrifice. Dads, especially, need to pattern their parenting on the model of their heavenly Father. Nothing is clearer in our society today than the fact that youths who grow up without fathers become a potentially criminal menace – as their increasing number in prisons so eloquently testifies.
But if parents are increasingly lax with respect to their moral responsibilities to their children, even fewer, sadly, fulfil their spiritual responsibilities. Of course, you can’t do this if you have little or no faith yourself. It may be a statistical fact that over 80% of Australians believe in God but it is just as true that less than 20% go to church.
Leaving children’s religious training to the church is not good enough either. For when this is done, it amounts to just too little.
What children learn in church must be backed up and reinforced at home. In fact, Scripture makes it clear that it should be the other way around, with parents giving their children religious training and it being reinforced by the church.
But even for God’s people, teaching a child what he needs to know in the temporal or moral or spiritual sphere will take discipline on the parents’ part that is the result of their faith in the Lord and obedience to His commandments. After all, do children want to turn the TV off and do their homework? Or chores? Or go to school? Or go to church? Or attend catechism class? Since this is usually not the case, what do you do as parents? Just let children have their way, or do you see that children do these things?
We must remember that children, like adults, like to take the line of least resistance, the most pleasurable, the course with immediate gratification. And we, too, are all just grown-up children in this respect. But as we all find out sooner or later, this does not get the job done. Work and effort are necessary. And so the Lord gives parents the right and duty to exercise discipline if and when it is necessary, just as our heavenly Father does with us.
Remember, discipline is the result of God’s fatherly love, as verse 6 reminds us. God loves us too much to let us get away with our sins. To be sure, it is a glorious fact that, if we are in Christ, our sins have been paid for and we are forever justified in God’s sight, as Romans 8:1 makes clear, namely, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Thank God for this, for without it we could never have any assurance of salvation.
But as long as we’re not yet like the Lord Jesus, we must continue to fight our sins and our proneness to sin. For, if we’re God’s children, we must also be like Him. Sin, after all, is a contradiction of all that is good and holy and right.
Moreover, we must be fully aware of the fact that God hates sin, for it is not only a contradiction of His will but it is also a defiant rebellion against Him and His will for our lives. Is it hard for us to understand that God hates our sins? Look at Calvary if you want proof of God’s hatred of sin. There, Christ, God’s well-beloved Son, “was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Is.53:5).
Consequently, in the chastisement of discipline, God reveals His goodness and concern for us. You remember, when some of the Corinthians refused to examine themselves and to repent of their sins before partaking of the Lord’s Supper, God took them in death rather than leaving them in the world and to His ultimate judgment and condemnation (we see this in 1Corinthians 11:29-32). While this was indeed a drastic step, it was also a merciful action on the Lord’s part.
It is also true that, sometimes, He lets us reap the consequences of our sins in this life, whether or not we may have asked His forgiveness of them. Parental neglect usually results in wayward children. Think of the households of Eli and David. Selfish living usually results in increasing isolation and loneliness later. Abuse of our body usually means a loss of health, more often sooner than later. It is still true that what a person sows, he usually reaps as a consequence.
We have been looking at the nature of divine discipline, which is God’s fatherly correction of His erring children. Let us now look at:
2. ITS ULTIMATE PURPOSE
It is, in the first place, to bring about our growth to Christian maturity. As verses 9 and 10 point out, God disciplines us for our good that we may live the full and abundant life (compare John 10:10). The lives of both Job and Paul can teach us much in this connection.
Job had no idea as to why he suffered the way that he did. He lost his possessions, his loved ones, his health, friendly understanding and sympathy, and worst of all, loss of meaningful contact with God!
Why did God allow Satan to tempt Job in this way? God was out to show that Satan’s malicious slanders against Job were false. Would Job continue to love God, come what may? We have the answer from Job himself already at the beginning of his great trial: “the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised” (Job 1:21).
Can we still trust God when all seems against us? That’s what God wants us to do. And Job, though in severe trial of his faith, continued to do it, for he could say (despite later doubts and some rash statements), “though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him” (Job 13:15).
You see, Job was God’s child and God was not about to let him go. In his severe trial, Job would experience the sufficiency of God’s sustaining grace. And in the end, Job’s faith and continued trust in his heavenly Father were vindicated. So, too, our extremity, whatever it is that God may send our way, is His opportunity to demonstrate the all-sufficiency of His grace for our lives.
The apostle Paul’s experience with his thorn in the flesh confirms this. The Lord would not remove it even though Paul asked Him three times to do so. But God wanted Paul to learn that, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2Cor.12:9). Paul matured in this experience to such an extent that he could say, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then i am strong” (2.Cor.12:9-10).
Is the Lord’s discipline accomplishing the same with us as it did with Paul who, as a result, increasingly relied upon the Lord in and through every circumstance rather than upon himself! Paul had many gifts: good breeding, a good education, intelligence, a coveted place of service for the Lord as an apostle. However, without the Lord’s discipline in his life, Paul might well have been tempted to feel, “In need of God’s grace? I’m doing alright, thank you.”
We, too, have been given much. Are the many things that we have and the many things that we can do, especially on weekends, weaning us from God? Perhaps our conscience reproaches us, so that we admit, “I should worship God more, love Him more, serve Him more – but I just don’t have the time to do everything.” But we have as much time as everyone else – what are we filling it up with? Do we, therefore, need to experience God’s chastening rod of discipline in order to get our priorities right?
Paul’s adversity made him rely upon the Lord all the more. In fact, God’s grace enabled him to cope with all the demands of his apostleship and of his life. He experienced beatings, persecution, imprisonment. The result? Hear his testimony, “I have learned how to be content in every situation of life – because God loves me, He knows what is best for me, and He will bring me safely through” (compare Phil.4:11-13). Don’t we have to admit that if we’re going to have the same attitude as the apostle had, it will only be as the result of our heavenly Father’s patient steps of discipline with us?
What was the correction needed by these Hebrew Christians in our text? Why were they getting some lessons in God’s school of hard knocks, including persecution and possible martyrdom? As the apostle points out to them, God had not abandoned them in their adversity, as he seeks to have them understand by his quotation in verses 5 and 6 of Proverbs 3:11-12.
In other words, they needed to get their eyes off themselves and to get them on God! When they looked at themselves, they had feeble arms, weak knees, and a crooked path of life which was increasingly impossible for them (compare verses 12-13). What they needed to learn afresh was that their “help is in the name of the Lord…!”
What is your trial, your testing, your burden, your difficulty? Look at it not as bad luck, but as God’s discipline, and welcome your heavenly Father’s concern for you. And even more importantly, ask yourself, what is the purpose of His discipline? It will not only keep you from complaining, it will teach you patience and will contribute to your growth in grace and in Christian maturity.
The apostle also mentions another purpose of the Lord’s discipline. It is to make God’s people partakers of His holiness, that is, to make them like Himself (vs.10). Human fathers often have less than worthy goals in the exercise of discipline upon their children. Their judgment is fallible, their goals may be questionable, and their practice of discipline inconsistent and faulty. Yes, sometimes children must forgive a lot that was flawed in their parents’ training of them. But even so, children should remember that their parents’ concern for them was a mark of their belonging to the family. Through it all, they learned respect, obedience, values, increasing maturity, a balanced outlook on life.
But even better than this, our heavenly Father’s discipline is not a fallible exercise, even though we may be tempted sometimes to think that it is, especially when we don’t see the reason for it. But our heavenly Father’s goal for us is to make us like Himself, “that we may share in His holiness.” His goal is to make children of God out of people, who by nature are children of wrath (compare Eph.2:3). With us, such a goal would be impossible; but because God is sovereign, He can and does bring it about! But a good deal of discipline may be needed as a means by which He accomplishes it.
Are we still prone to temptations of all sorts? Are we apathetic as far as doing the will of God is concerned? Are we lacking in love for God and one’s neighbour? Are we still making a god out of material things? If so, is it not because we are not yet fully like our heavenly Father? But He will have His gracious way with us, even if He needs to apply loving discipline in accomplishing His objective with us.
3. ITS FRUIT
It will be, firstly, patient submission to the will of God (vs 9). We must admit that our heart naturally is a rebel. Our tendency is to want our will to be done, not God’s. And when it isn’t, to question the whys and wherefores of God’s providence. We ever need to learn, “Not my will, but Thine, be done” – in sickness, sorrow, heartache, adversity.
This attitude will help us to accept, rather than question, God’s providential activity in our lives and make us useful servants of God in Kingdom activity. For both our prayer and our activity must be that “God’s will be done on earth as perfectly as it is done by the angels in heaven” (cf Heidelberg Catechism, LD 49).
Only the Lord’s yoke is easy and His burden is light, because He is ever the great burden bearer who sustains His people in all things.
Can you take all the difficulties of life without murmuring against the will of God? These Hebrew Christians apparently couldn’t (vs.5), because they missed the divine purpose behind them. This will be true of us, too, unless we see behind all the circumstances of life our heavenly Father’s care and provision for every need.
Finally, the result of divine discipline will be our perseverance to the end, until ultimately the peaceful fruit of righteousness has been perfected in us (vs.11).
The race of life, it is true, is a struggle (vs.1). But the Author and Finisher of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ, has gone the way before us. He’s our Saviour, and He’s also our Model. Therefore, as others, too, in following Him have gone before and persevered to the end, so shall we. For our Lord both keeps and perfects His own (Phil.1:6).
Is the Lord’s discipline in your life producing the “harvest of righteousness and peace” that He intends as ripe fruit in your life?
As obedient children, let us then submit to the divine correction of our heavenly Father. For in doing so, we will find that:
- It will help us to understand God’s fatherly interest in us.
- It will give us assurance that He suits it to our particular need.
- It will strengthen us to bring forth the fruits of righteous living that is His design and goal for us in saving us from our sins and making us His dear children now and forevermore.
Amen.