"Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider's web would have to stop a falling rock....There are the black clouds of God's wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful storm, and big with thunder; and were it not for the restraining hand of God, it would immediately burst forth upon you. The sovereign pleasure of God, for the present, stays his rough wind; otherwise it would come with fury, and your destruction would come like a whirlwind, and you would be like the chaff on the summer threshing floor."
- Jonathan Edwards, "Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God"
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls." - I Peter 1:3-9 (NIV)
"'I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.'" - John 15:5-6 (NIV)
For some reason, I like those television shows where they show you how it's made. Maybe it's a hold over from the days of watching "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood," but even the show on how they made cornflakes was fairly fascinating. Yes, if you stopped by Jon's world looking for latest in adrenaline-fueled adventure, you'll be disappointed. I'm a pretty boring guy, who is interested by the mundane :).
Last night, I was watching a show on how they make gold coins. I've always thought the Saint-Gaudens' designed
American Eagle coin is simply one of the most beautiful pieces of art made in the 20th century. I also found it interesting that the gold blanks for the Eagles are made in Rhode Island before they are made into coins at the West Point mint. Anyhow, it showed how the 99.999% pure gold was heated, refined, tested, heated, refined and tested some more - but in the end, was finally good enough to be made into a coin.
While drinking a cup of coffee at the local Home of the Siren and reading some Bonhoeffer, my mind strayed and began to think about stuff.
Over the last year or so, I've been in significant period of discipline from God. No, I haven't broken out in sores and my shower isn't spraying out blood, nor is their a plague of locusts in my backyard. But, God has been putting difficult circumstances in my life that bring out sin and force me to deal with it.
Often, I've feared discipline, in direct opposition to
Proverbs 3:11-12 and
Hebrews 12, where we are told expressly that discipline is an expression of God's love for us. I've often cowered under the bed of life, expecting God to come home like an drunk father, swinging a stick of wrath around looking to inflict punishment. What a wrong view of God, based on what he says about discipline. Sometimes, I, like Adam, hide from God in my sin; forgetting that I have a mediator in Christ and that I am blessed because my transgressions are forgiven, and that my sins are no longer counted against me (
Psalm 32:1-2)!
A few years back, in our singles group at church, we had a discussion on how God disciplines us. It was an interesting discussion, but one question I asked was, "What's the difference between discipline and wrath?" I still think about that question a lot. I think the scriptures I quoted at the beginning tell us something.
Fire is fire. Yes it is. Isn't it somewhat existential to say that the same event happening to two people can be different? A Christian and an unchristian experience the same event in their lives, but for one it is wrath; the other discipline. How does this make any sense at all. For both, it could be the consequence of sin. For both, it could be painful and degrading. I think we need to look at a few things to understand the difference: the purpose, the method and the result.
The purpose of wrath is destruction. There isn't any redemption in the end. It it is simply getting what you deserve. It is the stick being gathered to be burned. It is the hopelessness and despair found at the end of an empty life of sin without God. It is the fire of hell. It's the wholesale destruction of yard waste. The idols of peoples hearts are put on par with the lawn clippings and dead branches. God will collect them up and burn them because these things are -in the end- just trash. Wrath is always retributive and is simply justice served. It is going to the prison, the gallows or hell. It is, as Jonathan Edwards put it, "
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."
The purpose of discipline, however, is rehabilitative. God loves his children, those partnered for the gospel- and God will complete the good work he began in us (
Phillipians 1:6). When God promises something, he will do it - rebellious and hard-hearted as we may be. But, getting through that sin is going to be hard at times.
This is especially true when God messes with the idols of our hearts. We hold onto dead branches like they are gold. From our heavenly father's perspective, we must really appear to be silly children - screaming, crying, cursing and arguing as he takes away those things that are truly worthless.
Charles Spurgeon, a British preacher from the late 1800s frequently suffered from physical pain, stress and depression. However, he began to notice, interestingly enough - that his most serious times of depression were almost prophetic indications of God about to do a great work in his life. He began to see the discipline and trust that God's work was being done. In a sermon he wrote to encourage pastors,
John Piper quotes Spurgeon :
"Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.' Instruments shall be used, but their intrinsic weakness shall be clearly manifested; there shall be no division of the glory, no diminishing of the honor due to the Great Worker ... Those who are honoured of their Lord in public have usually to endure a secret chastening, or to carry a peculiar cross, lest by any means they exalt themselves, and fall into the snare of the devil"
"This depression comes over me whenever the Lord is preparing a larger blessing for my ministry; the cloud is black before it breaks, and overshadows before it yields its deluge of mercy. Depression has now become to me as a prophet in rough clothing, a John the Baptist, heralding the nearer coming of my Lord's richer benison"
As someone who at one time or another struggled through many of the same things as Spurgeon, I thought long and hard about this and could, by God's grace, really see a correlation. The times in my life where I was really, really "beat down" were definitely preparatory. This was enormously encouraging to me.
I specifically remember one occurrence, in early 2002. I was woken up in the middle of the night and felt very impressed by the Lord that this was going to be year of discipline and refining. I'm very skeptical of experience, even to a fault at times - where I will ignore or discount God's prophetic word. But this, honestly scared the life out of me. I remember praying that God would be merciful....I felt like an Old Testament prophet pleading for his people. Oddly though, God brought a huge amount of peace to my heart and made it clear that I was to trust him.
The next twelve months were indeed a time of enormous struggle where my faith in God was tested. Although this period of discipline was multi-faceted, one area where God worked in particular was regarding my employment.
My work location was shut down and felt that I was called to stay here in Florida, when I had the opportunity to relocate back to Pennsylvania to keep my job. God faithfully provided, after six months of rejections, a new job the week that my unemployment ran out. This job, while adequate for my provision, was a humbling one. I remember joking with friends that I, like King Nebuchadnezzar, was sent out to eat grass.
Seriously, though, I had been arrogant and proud in my previous position. I wasn't even that high up in the company...I was actually at the bottom of the food chain, but I would still walk around the roof of my palace, survey my kingdom and think very highly of myself. I was also very lazy and complained frequently. I also idolized my preferences in employment, where my career in aviation was going to happen and nothing was going to get in the way.
Through the new job, I learned that God was ultimately in charge of my provision. God cultivated a servant's heart in me. My selfish ambition was transformed into godly ambition. I became content in a situation where, just a year before, I would have been absolutely miserable. One year to the day after starting that new job, God blessed me with a job that I love. It was a job that I was turned down for a year before. However, the lessons I learned during that time of discipline have made me a much more Godly man and I wouldn't trade that experience for any in the world. I felt God's hand, saw his provision and regularly experienced his comfort in an almost outlandish fashion.
As Kierkegaard said, "Life can only be understood backward, but it must be lived forward." I don't think we can really understand everything that happened in the past, but we can certainly learn from it. God has kindly brought these previous times of faithfulness to mind and have encouraged my soul significantly.
The purpose of God's discipline in the life of a Christian is refinement. It is making us holy, also known as sanctification. God is committed to this cause and, like the gold being prepared for coinage, purify us to be useful and beautiful to him. As one of God's children, we should not equate his discipline with wrath. Christ took that wrath already on the cross and is has been dealt with, forever. Period. Now, we can embrace God's discipline, even if it is hard and painful, trusting that God has a purpose in mind and that the result will be purity in our lives and glory given to His name. It is a work of grace. A crucible perhaps, but still a work of grace.
What is the method of discipline that God uses? It can be very varied. God will use the appropriate tools and force to forge holiness in our lives.
The most obvious, is by bringing adversity into our lives. It can be almost anything - a sovereign God knows how to remove the tumors of sin. It could be death, physical pain, emotional trauma, injustice, persecution, etc. God will bring events into our lives to keep us on course, spiritually speaking.
For example, God promises that he will resist the proud because he is righteously jealous of his honor. To quote James, "Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.' " (James 4:5-6 (NIV).
How might he do that in your life? It depends where you are proud. If you are proud in the workplace, like I was, God may humble you there. If you are proud in your talk and prone to bragging, God might publicly humiliate you. If you think you are in control, God might take that from you.
Secondly, discipline may be the direct result of sin. In this fallen world, sin still has consequences, even for the redeemed. For example, the book of Proverbs gives much advice and warnings that are completely true for both the Christian and unchristian. Immorality and greed result in destruction. Laziness will result in poverty. Fools (i.e. the arrogant who refuse counsel) will be humiliated. If you live in disregard for God's law, there are consequences in this life, even if you are forgiven by God.
However, here is where the paradox mentioned early is absolutely critical. The sins committed and the results may be the same, but the outcome will be different. For the unbeliever, the consequences of sin are just the storm clouds of eternal wrath; but for the believer they are a means of grace.
This is the result of discipline. As Paul writes in
Romans 8:1-4
"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit."
The consequences of sin in the life of the unbeliever are condemning. A condemned man is one who has been marked for wrath by his deeds. Because Christ paid the price for our sin, "there is now no condemnation." This is so important for me to see and I hope you see it as well. When the stench of your sin drives you to frustration, remember that God's justice has been satisfied and Christians are no longer condemned people!
As Paul joyfully continues in Romans 8:
"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 likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: 'For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.' No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Praise God! To quote Spurgeon again,
"You may say, 'But I have sinned.' So you have, but sin cannot sever you from His love. He still loves you. Do not think that the scars of your old sins have marred your beauty or that he loves you less because of that blemish. He loved you when he foreknew your sin, and he does not love you any less now. Come to him in all boldness of faith, and tell him that you are sorry that you grieved [the Holy Spirit]."
In God's perfect wisdom, he will turn the sin that you committed around for his glory. This may occur through the consequences of that sin, but you can trust that he has your ultimate good in mind. The result, is sanctification and growth in godliness, not destruction.
Here is another point to remember. Discipline may not always be hurtful, though. Many Christians, including the author, have often equated discipline with a trip out to the proverbial woodshed. An athlete is also disciplined regularly by his coach. This can be a serious rebuke at times, it might be getting benched for a game - but it also can be encouragement, strength training and building endurance for the road ahead. You may be getting disciplined by God when a brother or sister encourages your faith or reminds you of God's truth. If you're reading your Bible or praying, you're encountering God's discipline daily. Every Sunday's sermon is experiencing God's discipline.
In summary, Christians should watch for God's discipline in their lives and pursue it eagerly. When adversity comes, the consequences of our sin are in front of our eyes or when we are weary from training; we press on. That is much easier said than done, I agree. But I'm in the same fight as you.
Paul says, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
"Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize." (
I Corinthians 9:24-27)
No one ever got to Olympics by watching ESPN. Let's get to work.
