The Discipline of Sonship

Hebrews 12:4-11

November 11, 2001

 

 

Modern views of God among professing Christians need some adjustments. Rather than depending upon Holy Scripture to shape our thinking about God (i.e., theology), we tend to look to the popular ideas in vogue. As it appears to many, God's favor and love means that life will be problem-free, without hassles, a perpetual feast upon all one desires, and an abundance of everything the world finds admirable (health, wealth, power, popularity, ease). God is not seen as a Heavenly Father with all the displays of fatherhood bound in that title faithfully exercised, but rather as an indulgent dispenser of creature comforts who exists for our every pleasure instead of us existing for Him. Is this an unfair caricature of popular Christianity?

Think for a moment about popular titles in the broad realm of Christian literature. Do they not fit in the category of entertainment more than biblical substance? A friend of mine attended the Christian Booksellers Convention this summer, and found what in the past had been wonderful times of worship to be nothing more than crass entertainment. Listen to the responses to the tragedies of September 11th by some notable Christian speakers. "God was as surprised as we were to what happened!" "God was shocked." And how does one explain what appears to be God's absence in light of the whole tragedy? One noted speaker and author explained that since we had expelled God from schools and government, consequently, "being the gentleman that He is, I believe that He has calmly backed out." And so we ask, did man render God, the Sovereign Lord of the universe, impotent to accomplish His eternal purposes? That is the common view. Consider as well that the bulk of so-called Christian programming on television centers on health and wealth, not holiness and righteousness.

The author of Hebrews jolts us back to biblical reality! He shows us a God who is Father not indulgent dispenser, who accomplishes His purposes in His people against every opposition. He explains that being a Christian involves fatherly discipline not carefree living and constant entertainment. The God who has redeemed us through Jesus Christ sanctifies us to partake of His character. Our Father accomplishes this through disciplining us as His children. What kind of God is this that disciplines His children? Is divine discipline something to dread or to savor? The answers are found in our text.

I. The case for discipline

We have seen the constant theme of endurance in the face of opposition, adversity, and trials throughout this epistle. Now the writer presents a clearer view. Though the opposition comes via the hands of sinful men, it is ultimately the wise, loving discipline of our heavenly Father. "What adversaries are doing to you out of sinful hostility, God is doing out of fatherly discipline," writes John Piper [www.soundofgrace.com/piper97/8-24-97.htm]. The opposition from Jewish neighbors and persecution from Roman authorities only deliver what God intends for good.

Let us be candid. We may struggle with this. And the reason is due to our view of God, and perhaps even a view of not needing discipline. But our text knows better. This pastoral writer upbraids his audience: "You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin." They were still alive! None had been martyred, "yet." They were "striving against sin," a boxing metaphor that points to the sinful actions directed toward them by their opponents. They were being boxed back and forth. So he exhorts them to have a right perspective on what was happening in their midst. Rather than drifting away or shrinking back or falling away or giving up they were to see the hand of God; and so must we.

Ev'ry joy or trial

Falleth from above,

Traced upon our dial

By the sun of love;

We may trust Him fully

All for us to do-

They who trust Him wholly

Find Him wholly true [Frances Ridley Havergal, "Like a River Glorious"].


1. Reflects Fatherly love

We must be convinced that God is not an absentee father. The trouble for us, just like the Hebrews, is that "you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons." We tend to forget whose sheep we are, and who our Shepherd is. We are not called "children of God" for no reason. God is our Father, and He treats us as sons even when disciplining us. "For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives... God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?"

There cannot be a clearer picture for our understanding the fatherly love of God for His children. Both Jewish and Roman cultures valued the discipline of fathers toward their children. In Roman circles the father was virtually a despot who could even dispose of a child if he so desired. Discipline in that setting often lacked love, but not so with God. Proverbs reminds us that the father who does not discipline his son does not love him, so that discipline is evidence of fatherly love: "He who withholds his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently" (13:24).

On some occasions when applying discipline to our children we might tell them, "I'm punishing you because I love you." Of course, immediately running through the mind of that child under the "rod" is what does discipline have to do with love! He becomes sullen against the rod of correction because of the pain inflicted, and the stymieing of his errant ways. He focuses on the temporal desire thwarted rather than seeing the long-term effect of a disciplined life. But maturity and reflection assures him that magnanimous love has been displayed in fatherly discipline.

"But," someone might ask, "If Jesus Christ has dealt with my sins, then why am I being punished (disciplined) by the Father for them?" Samuel Bolton, a London minister in the 17th century, in The True Bounds of Christian Freedom, explains this clearly.

It must always be remembered that, although Christ has borne the punishment of sin, and although God has forgiven the saints for their sins, yet God may God-fatherly correct His people for sin. Christ endured the great shower of wrath, the black and dismal hours of displeasure for sin. That which falls upon us is a sunshine shower, warmth with wet, wet with the warmth of His love to make us fruitful and humble. Christ drank the dregs of that bitter cup, so much of it as damn us, and left only so much for us to drink as would humble us for our sin. That which the believer suffers for sin is not penal, arising from vindictive justice, but medicinal, arising from a fatherly love. It is his medicine, not his punishment; his chastisement, not his sentence; his correction, not his condemnation [p. 122-123].

2. Reassures sonship

Notice the language: "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord... for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines and He scourges every son whom He receives [or "accepts"]... God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?" [Italics added]. But what is the common reaction when we undergo trials or hardships or loss or affliction? "God doesn't love me. God hates me. God doesn't care for me. If God really loved me, and if I really belonged to Him, then He would not have allowed this trial in my life." On the contrary, "but if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons." Without God's loving hand of discipline in our lives, it is certain that we are lost in our sin regardless of our loud profession of Christianity. Discipline reassures that the Father treats us as His children and not as those under His wrath.

I have known a lot of children in my life. I've spent time with hundreds of different children. Though I may have spoken a word of correction here or there to a child who was causing harm, there are only five children that I've been engaged in regularly disciplining. I am their father, and my love for them constrains me to discipline them for their good. My regular discipline in their lives-even when somewhat painful and unwanted-evidenced that they are my children. That assurance of relationship to me is demonstrated through discipline. So, too, with our Lord toward those who are His own.

3. Remedies sinful practices

But we must consider what purpose discipline serves. In a word, discipline serves to root out sin. "For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives. It is for discipline that you endure." The word used for "discipline" refers to both corrective and instructive discipline. Scourging refers to punishment inflicted, and in this case it is due to sin. The inference is that "God deals with you as with sons," so He is continually moving and working in your life to do all that is needed for you to be a reflection of His character. The Father wants His children to display His likeness. What does that involve? Kent Hughes divides discipline into corrective, preventative, and educational discipline [Hebrews: An Anchor for the Soul, vol. II, 170]. Discipline corrects sinful behavior, prevents us from getting into sinful practices, and educates us on the sinfulness of sin, as opposed to the delights of holiness. And so it is either dealing with sin that has already affected the believer's life or sin that might possibly affect the believer's life.

The rationale for divine discipline deals with even more. Samuel Bolton points out five reasons why God disciplines His people.

(1) God may do it for the terror of wicked men, that they may read their destiny in the saints' miseries.... If God deals thus with His friends, what shall become of His enemies? If judgment begins at the house of God, where shall the wicked appear? [Here we see that there is an evangelistic intention in discipline so that the wicked understand their sin, and the seriousness of it, and see the only remedy in Christ]....

(2) God may do it for the manifestation of His justice, that He may show the world that He is just. If He should punish others for sin, but spare His own, wicked men would say that He was partial, that He respected persons [Thus we see God's punishment of David, though David was a may after God's own heart]....

(3) God may do it to remove scandal. The sins of the saints bring scandal upon religion; their sins are the sins of public persons; every one stands for many....

(4) Again, He may do it for caution to others. Others' woes should be our warnings; others' sufferings our sermons, and standing sermons to us to beware of the like. God chastises lest sin should spread to others....

(5) God also chastens His people for their own good here, and for the furtherance of their salvation hereafter. As for the former, it is to humble them the more for their sin.... Afflictions draw men's thoughts inward. It is with the godly as it is with the wicked; sometimes they have a careless heart that can hear indictments against sin, and yet not lay sin to heart. Therefore, God opens their ear by discipline.... God's house of correction is His school of instruction. When an affliction comes upon us, then we are ready to listen to the indictments of sin, the checks of conscience, and the reproofs of God and become ready to abase ourselves and humble ourselves under them.... Another end is to draw the heart further from sin. Another is to prevent the like. Our sufferings will be our warnings. Men who have felt the sting of the serpent, in affliction for sin, will beware of the spawn of the serpent in the pollution of sin [123-124].

Divine discipline affects our desire or taste buds for sin. Many years ago parents would punish their children by making them drink castor oil, a foul, bitter tasting medicine. The thought of having to drink a big gulp of castor oil would put the skids on many a foray into sin! Discipline makes sin bitter to us, so that we might turn from it and enjoy walking in obedience to the Lord.

II. The consideration of discipline

How are we to respond to discipline? If we accept that, "God is not a passive observer in our lives while sinners and Satan beat us up. He rules over sinners and Satan, and they unwittingly, and with no less fault or guilt, fulfill his wise and loving purposes of discipline in our lives," then we must make sure that we learn to respond rightly to our Father's hand of discipline [Piper, p. 3]. Our ancient pastor explains both the reactions to discipline and the right response.

1. Reactions against discipline

Our writer gives two extremes. "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord," that's the first one, a nonchalant, apathetic, unconcerned reaction to God's discipline. The second is, "nor faint when you are reproved by Him," which is more one of being overwhelmed, frustrated, weary due to God's discipline. Let's briefly consider these.

Think about your own life under the hand of divine discipline. Through afflictions, trials, and even suffering, the Father lovingly applies just the needed remedy to uproot sin in your life, to steer you away from sin, and to build barriers against sin in your life. But how do you respond? Do you face such times, and simply roll your eyes, or wave your hand, or cover your ears from hearing the gentle voice of God speaking through affliction? Do you investigate what God might be doing in your life through afflictions? Do you ask Him to reveal any sin that might be rooted in your life? Do you ask Him to reveal where your "flanks" are exposed to the enemy's assaults? Do you ask the Lord to build greater personal discipline and determination against sin?

On the other hand, when the affliction of discipline occurs, do you shut your eyes and ears to what God might be showing you through His loving discipline, and instead, react in dismay that He would dare to discipline you? Do you "faint" or get weak-kneed or frustrated with God? Do you view discipline in disbelief, thinking that of all people you are one who does not need it?

We must remember that we are all sinners, and whether a particular sin brought on divine discipline or not, we all have the tendency toward sin, and need correction, protection, and instruction through discipline. So when under discipline, seek to deal with any known sin in your life. Ask the Lord to reveal it, and to root it out. If no sin is apparent, then ask the Lord to use the discipline to teach you, to build your resolve to walk in holiness, to protect you from getting into additional sin. Give thanks to the Lord for loving you enough to discipline you for your good.

2. Responses to discipline

Since discipline will be part of any believer's life, then we must know how to rightly respond. Two particular words found in verses 7 and 9 help us to know the right response. First, "It is for discipline that you endure," or "regard and bear your trials as part of the moral training which God has purposed for you" [Thomas Hewitt, TNTC, 193]. In other words, discipline teaches you endurance, the very thing that this pastor told his first century audience they needed (10:36). Because endurance keeps us walking in the will of God, and endurance focuses upon the big picture of what God in Christ is doing in our lives instead of the temporal moment of comfort. James tells us, "And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing" (1:4). Endurance always aims toward spiritual maturity. So the first response to discipline is to see it as a God-appointed means of bringing you into spiritual maturity, so that you will not be battered about by every emotion and whim and intimidation the world, flesh, or devil puts in your way. You will learn to stand firmly in the Lord, trusting in Him, and finding Him to be infinitely satisfying for everything in your life.

Second, he uses an argument of the lesser to the greater, from earthly fathers to the heavenly Father or "Father of spirits," as he puts it. "Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?" "Father of spirits" shows the contrast with mere "earthly fathers." They disciplined us, and we respected their discipline, knowing that it came because of a deep sense of love for us. Imagine where you would be without parental discipline! Without that restraining and transforming hand of discipline, all manner of rebellion would have fomented in your life and headed toward disaster. If you doubt this, just take a look at the prison rolls; they are evidence of men and women who for the most part lacked parental discipline. So what are we to do when the Father disciplines us? He tells us to "be subject to the Father of spirits, and live," yield yourself to the wise hand of God. Stop your rebellion-be subject to the Father. Hear what He is saying through discipline. Thoughtfully submit yourself in obedience to Him.

III. The cause for discipline

Why does God discipline His children? We have all heard of over-indulgent parents, who give their children everything they desire, and who do nothing to curb the natural rebellion of the heart. Some of them end up committing great crimes; others never know how to properly lead their own families or contribute to society. They end up being selfish and greedy, and often unruly. I can think of some whose adult lives have been tragically marred because their parents failed to discipline. But not so with our heavenly Father! Every trial has purpose; every adversity purifies; every opposition and affliction affirms His love and desire to shape us in the image of His Son. Our writer has already explained of Christ, "Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered" (5:8). As Hewitt expresses it, "No matter how painful the experience may be, God will use it. In his sovereignty nothing is wasted or useless" [234]. Two primary purposes are stated for Fatherly discipline.

1. Participation in holiness

"For they [earthly fathers] disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness." Will you look at that word "good"? Believe what God says to us, "He disciplines us for our good." There is never one whit of bitterness, rancor, or hatred in divine discipline. There is never any ill intent. We may not have a clear picture of it, so we must trust what God has spoken in His Word. "The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower," wrote William Cowper [God Moves in a Mysterious Way]. There is a mystery to divine discipline; we cannot deny this. So we must learn to trust the goodness of God toward His children.

It is not that opposition and adversity coming via men or the devil has other intentions. William Bates wrote, "The devil usually tempts men in a paradise of delights, to precipitate them into hell; God tries them in the furnace of afflictions, to purify and prepare them for heaven" [Puritan Sermons, vol. II, 597]. Later this writer tells us that without sanctification or holiness, we will not see the Lord. But here we are assured that through discipline God so works "so that we may share His holiness." The word for "holiness" is an uncommon one, and refers to God's holy character, that is, the aim of divine discipline is to produce a character like God's in His children [Leon Morris, EBC, 138]. Would you see God? Then you must be holy. And without discipline there is no holiness. Through discipline the Lord detaches us from an overweening love of the world, so that we learn to love Him, to love His holiness more than all the world offers.

2. Production of fruitfulness

"All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful." We all agree with that! "Yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness." Using an athletic term, he reminds us that discipline is God's means of training us so that we might be fruitful believers. Think of what an athlete endures at his sport. He runs, lifts weights, follows a rigorous diet while others are enjoying goofing off. It is discipline! It is painful! But it is training that produces success in his endeavor. How much more does the discipline of the Lord train His children so that we might experience "the peaceful fruit of righteousness." In contrast to the trials and adversity, there is "peaceful fruit," which is a metaphor that refers to the rest and satisfaction the athlete experiences when he trains and completes his contest. What our writer tells us is that there is deep, abiding satisfaction in being trained by God, and the result of it is the practical outworking of righteousness in your life.

With holiness and righteousness, whom do you look like? None other than Jesus Christ our Redeemer and Lord!

Conclusion

How are we to respond to divine discipline in our lives? Let me close with a poignant quotation from John Piper regarding this text.

In other words, in your pain, you are not being treated as a slave or as an enemy. You are being treated as a loved child of God. The issue is: will you believe this? Will you let the Word of God settle the issue for you, so that when the suffering comes, you don't turn on God and put him in the dock and prosecute him with accusations? He probably will not tell you why it is your turn, or why it is happening now, or why there is this much pain, or why it lasts this long. But he has told you what you need to know: it is the love of an all-wise Father to a child. Will you trust him? [Ibid. p. 4].

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