The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed by Barbara Swanson of Batesville, Arkansas, from the tape, GC 1301-F, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 8." A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. ©1977. All Rights Reserved.
Question
If there is no more condemnation to those in Christ, does God still punish
believers?
Answer
That’s a good question: If there’s no more condemnation to those in Christ, does
God still punish believers? Let’s look at Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter
12, and let’s see what the Bible has to say, because here you have a great
statement relative to chastening. Now notice in verse 5, he says, “Have you
forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as unto sons, ‘My son, despise
not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when you are rebuked of Him.’” Now
you see the word chastening. The word chastening is an interesting word. In the
Bible you have some words associated with punishment and some words associated
with training; this word is associated with training. It is paideia and
paideia is a word very similar to paidia and paidia means
"child," and paideia has to do with the training of a child. So the term
here is not krino, krino is a term of judgment. It is not
katakrino, which is the term for damnation, but it is the term for training.
There will be in the life of a believer a certain amount of chastening or a
certain amount of difficulty brought on for the purpose of training him to
spiritual maturity.
In First Corinthians 11:29, it even uses the word krino, and krino
means punishment, but not katakrino, which is the very forceful kind of
condemnation and damnation that Paul speaks of in Romans 8 when he says there is
now no katakrino, no condemnation. There will never be katakrino
or damnation to the believer because Christ has already borne that, but there
will be krino, which is a lesser kind of punishment, and there will be
paideia, which is a training process, or a chastening with a view to
changing behavior.
Now I believe there are three reasons for which God responds in chastening.
1. Number one is retribution.
I do believe that in the life of a believer when he sins God will respond
with some chastening. People want to say today, “Well, we’re under grace and God
never chastens us, God never…for our sin. It’s all covered,” and I don’t believe
that. I believe though the sin is forgiven and set aside, God still chastens the
believer so he will remember not to do that again. As with David’s case, God
forgave David and then God made him pay a terrible penalty so he wouldn’t think
about doing it again. Your children are the same way. You spank your child and
forgive your child at the same time. Forgiving him because you’re gracious and
loving and spanking him so he doesn’t do it again, so he learns that there are
consequences to that kind of behavior. In David and Bathsheba’s case, it’s
pointed up. It’s also pointed up in First Corinthians 11, where it says because
of the sin of the Corinthians, many of them were weak and sickly, and some of
them were actually dead. So the Lord might even take your life ultimately as an
act of retribution against your sin. And when that happens you say well that’s
for sure you’d never do it again if He just took your life. Well there’s a
second purpose in that and that is so you won’t do it again and foul up the
fellowship, He will remove you.
2. The second reason that God chastens is not only retribution, consequence
of sin, but it is prevention.
There are some things that come into your life by way of trial and troubles
that are not a result of sin, but are to prevent you from sinning. I can think
of one good illustration and that would be in Second Corinthians 12—you don’t
need to look at it—where Paul says that, “because of the abundance of
revelations given unto me, the Lord gave me a thorn in the flesh, lest I should
become overly proud.” In other words, Paul’s thorn in the flesh, which
apparently was some kind of eye disease, which was a very ugly disease, and a
very painful one, and one that he never was relieved from, was given to him by
God as a preventative from Paul ever getting to the place where he became very
boastful and proud. The Lord just sort of kept him in a position of humility and
dependence, so that pride would not overrule his submission to the Lord. So read
Second Corinthians 12 and hear Paul say that the Lord gave me that thorn in the
flesh to prevent me from being proud about my many revelations and many visions.
3. And there is a third reason that God brings chastening along, and that is
not only retribution and prevention, but education—to teach us.
And you say, well what do we learn? Well what do you learn when you go
through trouble? I think the first thing you learn is you learn a lot more about
God, don’t you? Look at Job chapter 42; Job had some trouble. He had a lot of
trouble, he had physical disease and he lost his whole family to death, he lost
his fortune, he lost his land, he lost his crops, he lost everything in the
world that he owned, and his response was most wonderful, frankly. After all of
that was said and done, in chapter 42, verse one, Job answered the Lord and
said, Job 42:2, “I know Thou canst do everything, that no thought can be
withheld from Thee. Who is he who hideth counsel without knowledge? Therefore
have I uttered that which I understood not, things too wonderful for me, which I
knew not.” He says, “God through this whole thing, I have learned things and
said things that I never knew before.” “Hear, I beseech Thee, and I will speak:
I will demand of Thee, and declare Thou unto me. I have heard of Thee by the
hearing of the ear: but now my eye sees Thee.” You see? He says, “I have heard
about how you work. I have heard about the fact that you’re a God of all
comfort. I have heard about the fact that you’re a God who sustains in trouble,
but now I have seen it.” And that’s the best lesson there is, right? He doesn’t
just hear it anymore, he knows it, and he says, “Wherefore I abhor myself, and I
repent in dust and ashes.” He also says, “Having gotten to know you, I know
myself better, and the only place for me is in dust and ashes.” You see it was a
learning thing for him. Incidentally, the second thing you learn is not only a
lot about God, but it’s a lot about how to help other folks going through the
same thing.
“And the Lord,” verse 10 of 42, I love this, “turned the captivity of Job, when
he prayed for his friends.” You see Job began to care for those who were his
friends in need as well. So the Lord has a plan in discipline. His plan is both
retributive, preventative and educational. And for all of those reasons there
will be trouble in the life of a believer, because that’s how you learn about
Him. That’s how you prevent yourself from getting into areas which you will be
overly tempted. And that’s how the Lord makes sure you know the consequence of
sin and forces you back into the path of righteousness.
Now in verse five (Hebrews 12:5), He says there are two perils in discipline,
two things you have to watch out for. Look at verse five. “My son, despise not…”
The first thing that can happen if you don’t take God’s chastening right is that
you can despise. Now that simply means you treat it lightly—you just pass it
off. You look with disdain upon it, “Aw, it’s insignificant.” You don’t think
about what’s going on. That’s foolish. The second thing at the end of verse
five, “nor faint.” Now there are two perils in discipline. The first one is that
you treat it lightly. The second one is that you collapse under it. “Oh,
despair!” and you faint. Now neither one of those is necessary. When you treat
discipline lightly, you fail to learn the lesson. When you crack up under it,
you fail to see the purpose, which isn’t to make you crack up, but to make you
shape up. There’s a big difference. And it’s all because of His love, verse six
says, “for whom the Lord loves He chastens.” And the purpose of it all is clear
down in verse 10 and 11. “For they verily for a few days chastened us after
their own pleasure; but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His,”
what? “holiness.” No chastening for the present seems joyous, but grievous;
nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them
who are exercised by it.” So the Lord wants to make us holy, He wants to make us
righteous, and chastening is part of that.
Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and
Answers" by:
Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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