How would you evaluate the current state of your life? It may seem pretty good right now, or it may seem like a total mess, or anywhere in between. Often times what we tend to do is take stock of our life and then use what we perceive as good or bad circumstances as a barometer for the love of God towards us. When things are good, we feel as though God is happy with us and loves us and we are on cloud nine; but when things are not going our way, we feel as though God is angry with us or that we have some kind of test to pass or a lesson to learn.
The truth though is that today God is not angry or wroth with you anymore. He exhausted all of His righteous and holy wrath on the body of Jesus Christ in your place. He suffered and died as you so that today you can receive all fullness of blessing and life as Him.
Does this sound too good to be true? Let’s read Isaiah 53:4-6:
“Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was on him; and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Verse 4 begins with an affirmation… Surely! This is not uncertain wishful thinking or worldly hoping here. The verse does not say maybe He has borne our griefs… but surely He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. Now real quick, the words “griefs” and “sorrows” in this verse are actually very poor English substitutes, as the original Hebrew words actually mean “physical maladies (diseases / infirmities of the body)” and “pains (physical or mental)”, this is confirmed in Matthew 8:17. The verse says surely He has carried these things in our place!
We esteemed Him to be stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. We did not understand at one time that He was doing these things for us, but we saw Him just like any other condemned sinner; but now we know that these were not His own sins He was being punished for, but our sins.
Continuing on to verse 5, but He was wounded for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities. The Jewish people of the day perfectly understood this reference, just as grain is crushed to make bread, or as the manna was crushed in the mill (Exodus 16:14, Numbers 11:8). In the same manner, Jesus our Heavenly Bread and Manna (John 6:35, 6:58) was crushed by our sins so that today we can feed on Him and be satisfied. (Psalms 37:4)
Now look at the second-half of verse 5: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him. That word “chastisement” in Hebrew is mûsār which means discipline, chastening and correction. This verse is literally telling you that the chastisement, the discipline and the correction of Almighty God was laid upon Jesus so that today we can have peace with God. Your sin was punished in the body of Jesus, and there is no more separation between you and the Father anymore. The things that offended God in you have all been judged, and your standing with Him has been eternally corrected and secured.
Now, do you believe it? That’s the only correction that God is interested in. Verse 6 makes it even more clear.. we all like sheep have gone astray. There is not a single one of us that has kept the righteous perfect requirements of the Law perfectly. However, the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
So, there is a question: If this is really true, what then is left for God to punish you for? You see my friend, if you truly believe what the Bible says, then you must also conclude that the punishment of God for your sins has already been completely fulfilled in Jesus on the cross. The moment that you begin to think that God will punish you based on your own sin and shortcoming, then you are failing to recognize the finished work of Jesus Christ for you. It really is that simple, and Jesus really is that good. This is how very much God the Father loves you, because He willingly chose to sacrifice Jesus in your place so that you would not come under the punishment and wrath of judgment. Yet today we have people today going around thinking that they are being punished still. They have a wrong belief about the character of God, as well as a wrong belief about the reality of what Jesus has done for them.
Now this idea offends a lot of people – or I should say rather that it offends their flesh; it offends their carnal sin nature that still desires to have some good within itself. They say things like “Well, if God never disciplines us, how are we ever going to get better?”. And that question right there exposes the error. You see, what so many people are really still seeking is not the righteousness of God, but they are trying to please Him with their behavior and performance. They have missed the point of it all. God is not interested in mere behavior modification… instead He is interested in belief transformation – from the inside-out. Once you begin believing right, your entire life will be right, and behavior will come naturally.
So let’s settle this whole discipline business. Because many people stumble over Hebrews 12, the chapter about God’s correction; and let me just say that God does correct His children, but not the way that many people think that He does! So let’s read Hebrews 12:5-6 first, and then I will explain further:
“And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to children, My son, despise not you the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked of him:
For whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives.”
Verse 5 begins by saying something wonderful, that God not only sees us as His sons, but speaks to us in the same manner. Always remember that you are not just some nobody in the Kingdom of God, you are family, and God loves you dearly. The rest of verses 5 and 6 are a quotation of Proverbs 3:11-12:
“My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction:
For whom the LORD loves he corrects; even as a father the son in whom he delights.”
Now you will notice some interesting things here. First, that the word chastise is there (again it is mûsār, correction). Now wait a minute… if the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, what correction is this? We will get to that in a few moments… Because there is a second thing that we must address first: specifically that the word “scourge” is not mentioned in this text. So what is going on here? Let me tell you right now that God never scourges you His beloved children. If you have seen the movie The Passion of the Christ, then you have seen a fairly decent portrayal of a Roman scourging. The reason why God will never scourge you, is because He has already scourged Jesus in your place! Furthermore the idea of God torturing His own children with scourging does not even line up with the nature and character of God that Jesus revealed. In Mk 5:34, the woman with the blood disease, Jesus said to her “Go in Peace and be healed of your plague.” And that word for plague, is the same Greek word for scourge, used in Hebrews 12:6 – it is also the same word for when Pilate had Jesus scourged in John 19:1. So God the Father would not scourge Jesus in your place and then turn around and scourge you also – there would be no point to it. God will not afflict you with diseases and infirmities in your body when Jesus clearly went around healing all to demonstrate both His love, and His forgiveness of sins. Please keep in mind that sickness and disease is a curse of sin (Deuteronomy 28:59-61), curses which as we heave already read today that Jesus came to free us from.
So why is the word “scourge” there in Hebrews 12:6? There are many differing ideas regarding this, from a purely Hebrew standpoint it is a mistranslation from our quote in Proverbs above — a mistranslation based on a sequence of letters that can be read two different ways and produce the two entirely different sentences we have read above. Now the scripture does not just leave us wondering about this, it goes on to tell us exactly what and how God does correct us. Read with me now verses 9 and 10:
“Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?
For they truly for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.”
Verses 9 and 10 are comparing and contrasting they way our earthly fathers correct us versus the way our Heavenly Father corrects us. Notice in verse 9 it says that we have had fathers of our flesh, (in Greek patēr sarx) and this flesh here is speaking of your earthly body. These fathers of our flesh corrected our flesh, they corrected us in our flesh, through fleshly discipline (spanking and what-not). They are fathers of (or according to) our flesh; and that is the part of us they discipline.
Now look at the second-half of verse 9: Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live. You see, God is the Father of spirits, the real you, the part of you that will live forever is not your flesh, but your spirit. This is how God will correct you, in your spirit. So whenever you read your Bible, and perhaps even now as you are reading this article, your belief is changing – God is training you up as His child. He is correcting your spirit, training you from the inside-out. This is how God works. The same way that the priests would clean the inside of the temple first (2nd Chronicles 29:16). Jesus Himself also taught the Pharisees saying “Clean the inside of the cup, and then the outside will also be clean.” (Matthew 23:26). Do you see what God is saying? He is concerned with inner belief transformation, not mere behavior modification. And He does so, in your spirit.
So God does not put disease on your flesh, nor does He mangle or mar your flesh with accidents or disasters. Some people look on natural disasters and become self-righteous claiming that it is God’s judgment upon a sinful world. My friend, you do not know what spirit you are of. Yes God will come as a judge one day, but that day is not today! Now is the time of Grace, now is the time of mercy, now is the time of longsuffering because God wishes that none would perish and that all would come to saving knowledge of the truth. (2nd Peter 3:9)
So, one more time… Fathers of our flesh, correct us according to our flesh, and Our Heavenly Father, the Father of spirits corrects us according to our spirit. Now look at verse 10 of our text:
“For they truly for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.”
The Fathers of our flesh, chastened (or trained us as a child) after their own pleasure. Whenever they thought it was right to chasten us, they did so. It may not always have been right. Earthly fathers can make mistakes – earthly fathers can sometimes discipline for the wrong reasons or even the wrong motives. However look at the next part of the verse: not our Heavenly Father: He trains our spirit, for our profit. Not even for His profit, but ours! And what profit is this that we enjoy? That we might be partakers of His holiness!
Now take notice of the detail here, remember that there are no insignificant details in the Bible. This is not saying that God trains us so that we become more Holy by our works or performance! It is saying that He trains us to become partakers of His holiness! You are not trying to be holy, you are partaking of His holiness. This is what He corrects us regarding, because our natural tendency is to take our eyes off of Jesus, and then we start looking to other things, people, and devices. We start trusting in men or women, or government or whatever. We start looking to the works of our hands and our own strength to save and satisfy us rather than Jesus… then the training comes: Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt? Or Martha, Martha, you are careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful.
His words are always perfect, and He corrects your spirit, and refocuses your eyes onto Him, so that you can receive from Him and be partakers of His holiness. Isn’t that beautiful? Isn’t He wonderful?
Now there is a warning here which we read in Hebrews 12:5, which said “Don’t despise the training of the LORD.” The reason that is there is because our fleshly human nature hates this message. Our natural inclination to find some good and merit in ourselves, hates the fact that God simply wants us to rely on Jesus. Our carnal instinct screams at us that we have to be better, stronger, and more worthy, not realizing that we have no good within ourselves and it all is by Jesus Christ alone. So I want to close this study today by showing you one more bit of scripture, Leviticus 13:12-13:
“And if a leprosy break out abroad in the skin, and the leprosy cover all the skin of him that has the plague from his head even to his foot, wherever the priest looks;
Then the priest shall consider: and, behold, if the leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean that has the plague: it is all turned white: he is clean.”
Now this may seem like an odd and unrelated passage of scripture here, but always remember that the entire Bible is ultimately about Jesus and is designed to show you your Savior.
Notice what these verses are saying – because they are saying something that you may not expect on closer inspection. They are saying that if a man with leprosy shows himself to the priest, and if the priest looks and sees that the leprosy covers his entire body from head to toe, then he is clean! Doesn’t that seem strange? You would think that the priest should pronounce him unclean! Yet, the priest is to pronounce such a man clean! Here’s how this fits…
Often times – as mentioned – we tend to think that we still have some good in us. We try to improve ourselves, strive for holiness, work for righteousness and clean ourselves up in a misguided attempt to please God or earn His favor through our performance and behavior. The truth however is if you only see yourself as partially unclean — if you only see yourself as somewhat infected or a little bit dirty, then you are unclean. If however, you see that you are totally unclean and there is no hope in yourself and that you are totally helpless with no recourse and you come to God with no merit or virtue in yourself, then God says you are clean. Most of the time we still expect to find some good in ourselves; we condemn the bad flesh, but we still maintain the false-pretense that there is some good flesh in us. That is why the Law exists, to show us our total bankruptcy apart from Christ and our need for a Savior. (Galatians 2:16, Galatians 3:24, Romans 3:20) Also why the scriptures say to put no confidence in the flesh (Philippians 3:3).
However there is one that we can put confidence in… One who is always faithful, and who allows us to partake of His holiness and righteousness every second of every day and night. He is not waiting to beat you down, but He is desiring to lift you up. Receive from Him, and be clean!
No responses yet