“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 one He
loves, and He chastens everyone He accepts as his son.” ~ Hebrews
12:5-6.
Endure
hardship as discipline; God is treating you as His children. For what
children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined
and everyone undergoes discipline then you are not legitimate, not true
sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we
have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for
it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live!
They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God
disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness ~
Hebrews 12:7-10.
In
Hebrews God's Love is clear in His role as Father. His discipline is love in that we
are His children and in His discipline we re given strength to overcome this world, this flesh, and thus we are to
endure hardship as His discipline in order to live a different way and
not to live in the flesh as we think and want to be loved in it as it is
- fallen. "God made this way and He loves me this way" i.e. Today, however, too many
Christians think like this... and sadly they are deceiving themselves. In
His love, His discipline, we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be
shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence
and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.” ~ Hebrews 12:28-29.
In hearing this, many cry out - "What
about God's love for us... doesn't He love the sinner?" Yes, He does
without a doubt but the sinner must realize his/her fallen condition and see that in him/herself as we are yet still in sin but rejoice because of God's Love and His Mercy and Grace toward the sinner. In this way, we are no longer seen in our sin -
though it is still there on the 'surface'. For some, this is not easy to
comprehend. We want to think that God loves us as we are for the sinners we are in this fallen world its ok to be sinners and in
that kind of love our sin just goes away. If that were true, why did God send His only Son to redeem us from sin so that when God looks at us, He does not see our sin but His Son Jesus Christ?
God does not want us to be sinners nor to see our sin or us in our sin. He wants to see us redeemed. When He looks upon us He wants to see us redeemed 'resurrected from sin and death; and does when we receive Christ His Son; and we in humility of such Great Love, His Love, His Great Almighty Love, Mercy and
Grace we are made new and thus able to pursue a holiness we could not have pursued before.
There is no condemnation put upon us accepting His Love, and in that love His discipline for us in our fallen condition. God's love is boundless, because we are His creation even though in a fallen
condition. Because of His boundless love (it has to be) we are unbound
in Jesus Christ to live as a new creation in Christ in this fallen state. In accepting such love for our sin, our fallen condition, we are by obedience through discipline bound to Jesus Christ - God sent His only Son because God so loved
the world - His creation and God wants to save the world.
Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in
Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. For He
chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and
blameless in His presence. In love He predestined us for adoption as His
sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will ~
Ephesians 1:3-5.
You see, the Spirit of God is the Spirit of love. He that does not love the image of God in his people, has no saving knowledge of God. How could one love the image of God and still accept their sin as if this is how God sees/wants to see them. He does not want to see our sin, He wants to see His Son in us Jesus Christ. God does not want to see our sin and that means He does Not Accept our sin as our true identity. For it is God's nature to be kind, and to give happiness. The law of God is love; and all would have been perfectly happy, had All Obeyed it. The provision of the gospel, for the forgiveness of sin, and the salvation of sinners, consistently with God's glory and justice, shows that God is love. Mystery and darkness rest upon many things yet. God has so shown himself to be love, that we cannot come short of eternal happiness, unless through unbelief and impenitence, although strict justice would condemn us to hopeless misery, because we break our Creator's laws. None of our words or thoughts can do justice to the free, astonishing love of a holy God towards sinners, who could not profit or harm him, whom he might justly crush in a moment, and whose deserving of his vengeance was shown in the method by which they were saved, though he could by his almighty Word have created other worlds, with more perfect beings, if he had seen fit. Search we the whole universe for love in its most glorious displays? It is to be found in the person and the cross of Christ. Does love exist between God and sinners? Here was the origin, not that we loved God, but that he freely loved us. His love could not be designed to be fruitless upon us, and when its proper end and issue are gained and produced, it may be said to be perfected. So faith is perfected by its works - His love. Thus it will appear that God dwells in us by his new-creating Spirit. A man that goes about a business with ill will, always does it badly. That God dwells in us and we in him, were words too high for mortals to use, had not God put them before us. But how may it be known whether the testimony to this does proceed from the Holy Ghost? Those who are truly persuaded that they are the sons of God, cannot but call him Abba, Father. From love to him, they hate sin, and whatever disagrees with his will, and they have a sound and hearty desire to do his will. Such testimony is the testimony of the Holy Ghost/Spirit. Commentary by Matthew Henry
ReplyDelete