Uses of Affliction 05 031814

Uses of Affliction 05

4.  Correction and punishment for sin.

For those who do not think God punishes our sin here perhaps a re-reading of the OT would be appropriate.  We like to avoid that word punishment by using words like correct or discipline but changing the word does not change God's purpose.  Nor is it any better to talk of God allowing us to suffer the consequences of our sin as opposed to saying He punishes them.  Allowing us to face the consequences of our sin is in and of itself a form of punishment.

Sorry folks, but God not only forgives but He punishes as well.  Afflictions are His means of conveying His displeasure, correcting, applying discipline - punishing sin.  It is His mercy and grace that limits the intensity of the affliction for we all know quite clearly what we actuallly deserve for our sin.

I know few believers for who a simple note concerning some sin they are trapped in would suffice.  It seems the bigger and deeper the sin the bigger and deeper the punishment.  Wow - aren't we distressed by the idea of God punishing us for our sin?

Now many of you will have a hard time with this idea and I can sympathise.  For many of us punishment means an excessinve act of arbitrary anger on the part of someone in authority.  It does not seem so much like correction as revenge for some wrong we have committed hence we have a terrible time thinking of God's punishment.

But, at least for me, the important thing is that God's punishment has a point, a purpose and it is done in love.  God's punishment is intended for our sanctification - our being conformed to the likeness of Christ - which should be a point and purpose for us as well.

Grace is NOT a free pass, a get out of jail free card.  Grace is the turning away of the eternal punishment we deserve onto Christ so that we may never never need fear it.  But in our daiy lives, in our daily sanctification God will punish us for sins especially those sins which are deeply set in our hearts.

You love temporal tiing too much, they are little gods in your life?  That is sin and god may well see the need to punish you for your idolatry.  He may well see that only exile will bring you back from the edge.  Perhaps He may allow or impose some physical issue or impairment.  Perhaps you will suffer the loss place or position.  Perhaps, as seems more and more likely, you will suffer imprinsoment, a loss of freedom for your sin.

But punshment is a mean God uses to correct and discipline His children in love and a deep unknowlable desire that they be comformed to Christ's likeness.  Punishment always has a point - a purpose.

I struggle with this as Patti and I pass through the affliction we are facing.  I used all the soft words (correction, discipline, refining, etc) for what is taking place but as time passes and my sin was made clearer.  I ceased to be shocked by the idea that God might be punishing me - I certainly deserved it and I don't know that anything less would have made the impact this punishment did.

I struggled with the idea that God was mad at me and was rejecting me even that I had never believed in the first place.  But the more I prayed and read the Word the more I came to see that God was never closer to me than when He found it necessary to punish me to bring me out of sin.

Not all afflcition must be seen as punishment.  It may very well be simple correction or common discipline but we can not afford to refuse the idea that God does and will punish His erring children for His glory for their good.

Punishment is not the absense of grace or mercy.  Indeed I've come to think that, for the believer, God's punishment for sin is an act of mercy and a great reminder of grace.  There is a certain sweetness to the rod when we see it as an act of mercy.  He loves us that much.

When my father used to punish me he would always tell me "This hurts me more that it does you."  I neve believed him - don't believe it even today - but what I feel about that is not what I feel about God's punishment.  His love is so mighty, so intense that I do believe that when He punishes one of His, it does hurt Him more than it does us.

One of the uses of afflcition is indeed to punish - to show us in a very up close and personal way if not the wages of sin then the pocket change.