Journey Outside the Camp

When we suffer, is God punishing us?

A good friend asked me, "When we suffer, is God punishing us?" and my friend asked specifically about several verses in Hebrews.

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.” (Hebrews 12:5,6)

First of all, does God punish by making people suffer? Answer: it depends on who is in question. There is no doubt that God judges the world. The Bible has numerous passages that talk about how God will judge the world. Several verses:

But the Lord sits enthroned forever;
he has established his throne for justice,
and he judges the world with righteousness;
he judges the peoples with uprightness. (Psalm 9:7,8)

Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!
Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved;
he will judge the peoples with equity.” (Psalm 96:10)

Be assured, an evil person will not go unpunished (Proverbs 11:21a)

I will punish the world for its evil,
and the wicked for their iniquity... (Isaiah 13:11a)

For behold, the Lord is coming out from his place
to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. (Isaiah 26:21a)

God has every right to judge the world, since he is the creator and owner of the world. He established his moral law which he will uphold and that means he will judge everyone in the world fairly and he metes out his punishment accordingly.

But for those who trust in Jesus and are rescued by his blood and are now called children of God, there is no punishment. But wait a minute, Christians suffer all the time. Christians suffer a lot. What's that about?

We need to make a distinction between punishment and discipline. Yes, Christians suffer, but not because God is punishing us. Listen to Paul's words in Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Paul is saying that as Christians we no longer stand guilty of being sinners. Christ paid the punishment for our sins. God no longer requires us to "serve time" for what we have done wrong. Jesus has paid the death penalty that all our sins deserve. When we stand before God, we stand as free men, we stand as adopted sons, not criminals before the judge. We are no longer condemned. Listen to more from Romans.

"For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." (Romans 8:2-4).

As you can see, Jesus dying on the cross for us fulfills what the law requires as punishment. Now let's look at In 1 Cor. 11:29-32. Here, Paul writes about something unusual happening in the church at Corinth. It appears that members of the church at Corinth are falling ill and some have even died after taking part in the Lord's Supper. Paul attributes it to the fact that they are abusing the Lord's Supper. He says, "For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world." (1 Cor 11:29-32).

Paul seems to be saying here that the sickness and even death of some Christians for their unworthy manner in which they approached the Lord's Supper is a disciplining that the Lord is meting out among them. It was a gracious chastening that was intended to keep the church from being condemned. Imagine! The Lord is using sickness to discipline. It just goes to show how limited our perspective can be when we view fellow believers who have been stricken with illness. We often claim they are being punished for some sin in their life where in reality, it may be that God in his graciousness is rescuing that person from condemnation by his chastening through illness.

So do not dread the disaster that befalls us. For those of us who love the Lord, he is showing his love to us through his discipline. God disciplines those whom he loves. It is the same thing I tell my children. "I discipline because I love you. If I did not love you, I would not bother with you." Rejoice therefore, at the Lord's discipline.

Everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning

1 John 5:18 says, "We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him." (ESV)

What is this verse saying? At first glance, one would think that John was saying that believers do not sin any longer. That's not entirely accurate and to get a better understanding of the verse, it's helpful to get a handle on the whole epistle itself. The apostle John doesn't write this epistle in a linear style where arguments and explanations build upon each other. 1 John has been described more like a symphony, wherein he returns in a circular fashion to topics he has touched on earlier in the epistle. In fact, John doesn't sustain his arguments for more than a few sentences but he returns to the same topics several times in the letter.

One of the themes that he touches upon several times is how the believer no longer belongs to Satan but belongs to God. The believer abides in God, his Word abides in the believer and God has put his Holy Spirit within the heart of the believer. Therefore, the believer in his core, is protected and cannot be touched by Satan any longer.

The verses that link together to help us get an understanding of 1 John 5:18 are as follows: 1 John 2:1, 1 John 3:6,7 and 1 John 3:9,10.

"My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." 1 John 2:1

It's pretty clear that believers still do sin. We are after all, still in our sinful bodies. But God promises us an advocate, Jesus Christ, who will continually work in us to overcome our sin nature. So we will sin, but we have forgiveness through Jesus Christ and he is working to break sin's hold on us.

"No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous." 1 John 3:6,7

True followers of Christ do not keep going down the path of sin. The Holy Spirit works in us to turn our lives around. If we continue sinning, especially if it is habitual sin, then there is no way we can claim that we are believers. John says if we are no different after we claim to believe, then we do not know Christ at all! But true followers run after Christ and fill their lives with him. They replace sin with Jesus and they tear themselves away from the influence of the evil one.

"No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother." 1 John 3:9,10

Here again, John returns to the theme of true believers not continuing to sin. It's clear that John is saying that when a believer has the Holy Spirit in him, he breaks the bonds of sin. Our old sinful habits should weaken and fade the closer we are to God. We no longer belong to Satan but to God and so by the power of the Holy Spirit (and not with our own strength), we practice righteousness. One evidence that we are transformed by God is that we begin to love others. Thus our hearts are transformed and we will not  keep on sinning. Will we make new mistakes? Definitely. Will we repeat some old sins? Occasionally. But we no longer live like we did: stuck in an endless cycle of sin after sin. We make progress towards righteousness.

And the cumulation of this point is made in 1 John 5:18.

"We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him."

By the time we reach this refrain of the theme, we understand from John that true believers are protected by Holy Spirit. In our core, we are a new creation. The evil one cannot touch us in the sense of causing permanent spiritual loss, for we belong to Jesus and no one can snatch us out of his hand (John 10:28).

Ultimately, God will transform us to the point where we are like Jesus. Romans 8:29 declares that, "For those whom he foreknew [i.e., true believers] he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers." Christ is the firstborn of the new creation. We will be his brother, bearing his likeness.

The reference to "he who was born of God" is a reference to Jesus Christ. In his physical birth, Jesus was "born of God" in that God the Father through the Holy Spirit put him into Mary (Luke 1:35). Also, in his resurrection, he was "born of God" because he was brought back to life (Col 1:18). Jesus is referred to as the firstborn. It fits in with the previous verses from 1 John that Jesus ("he who was born of God") is the one who protects our new life in him and Satan can never get a hold on us any longer.

If we look at the New Living Translation, what I've discussed above becomes absolutely crystal-clear: "We know that God's children do not make a practice of sinning, for God's Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them." (1 John 5:18, NLT).

This is a message of such great joy. We are no longer Satan's. We belong to Christ. And he works in us to transform us into his likeness. It's not that we are instantly sinless. Christ will make sure that we will not continue to get stuck in a cycle of sin and more sin. We will break the shackles of sin and be able to walk down the path towards righteousness. All by God's power and not our own effort. "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day." 2 Cor 4:16.