The Cost of Discipleship - "Coming to Grips" - (Part 3)

Erwin Lutzer - Part 3 We’ve all been able to identify a child because he resembled his father. In fact, if there was no likeness we might be tempted to suppose that the child was illegitimate. There are Christians whose family pedigree is suspect because they are so unlike our Heavenly Father. When we do step out of line, God corrects us so that we will be brought to repentance. The Father wants us to grow into the perfect image of His Son. What is His image? How does He look? Jesus was humble, submissive, obedient, and loving. The Holy Spirit living within will teach us and enable us to do and be all these things, as we yield to Him and let Him do His perfect work within us. Part of this work is His disciplining us. How does God discipline His children? We’ve learned that He does much more than correct us for specific sins. Sometimes He disciplines us to educate us, sometimes to prevent us from greater sins. But yes, He does also discipline us for disobedience. Sin has its natural consequences which may actually be intensified by God to bring us to repentance. Let us not fight God’s discipline. David wrote, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Thy Word” (Psalm 119:67). Discipline should lead us to a greater degree of family resemblance. When we were disciplined by our parents the intention (hopefully b) was that we would have the same character traits of honesty and obedience that they had. We should live up to the family name. When there has been an offense, discipline always includes restoration. A good father will not only spank His children, but also comfort them once they have yielded to His authority. Though it hurts for a time, later it yields the “peaceable fruit of righteousness.” When we pray, “O Father, make me godly,” we mean, “make me godlike.” Christ taught that the reason we should love our enemies is so that your reward will be great and “you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:35b, 36). The author of Hebrews says that we are to “share His holiness.” God deals with His children in a variety of ways, depending on what is needed to bring about repentance and restoration. All sin has built-in consequences of some kind. Since God has set the moral system of the universe, it is unthinkable that any sin could be intrinsically free from detrimental effects. To these, God adds His own incentives to bring us to our senses and respond to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. First, there is the continuing consequence of sin. The familiar illustration of nails that leave holes even after being pulled out of a barn door is to the point when we discuss discipline for sin. The thief, if discovered must go to prison; the child, killed by an alcoholic driver, can never be brought back to life, and the man who contracts AIDS through homosexuality cannot be cured. There are, of course, less obvious ways in which the effect of sin continue. There is regret for a wasted life; there is the unhappiness caused by an unequal marriage (Christian and non-Christian); there is the rebellion of children caused by an adulterous relationship. These consequences continue even after there is repentance and restoration of fellowship with God. These results of sin teach us that sin can never be profitable. In the end it must always bear bitter fruit. The death of Christ shields us (His children) from God’s wrath (both now and in the hereafter), but it does not erase all of the natural effects of sin experienced in this life. Also, these results teach us that sin is so serious that it can have effects even throughout eternity even for Christians. Think of the implications of a poor performance at the judgment seat of Christ. Later we’ll focus on how God works in the life of an individual believer to point out the destructiveness of sin and the value of remaining in fellowship with the Almighty. A second method that God uses to bring a wayward child to repentance is guilt. When we grieve the Holy Spirit by sinning, we are immediately aware of it. If not, we have grown hardhearted in our relationship with God. Guilt that awakens the conscience is usually the first indication that we are out of moral agreement with God. This should lead to confession and the claiming of the cleansing of Christ. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9). However, it is crucial to realize that after we have confessed our sin, guilt has done its work. No longer is guilt used by God as a means to discipline; that would call into question the sufficiency of Christ to forgive and restore us. Many Christians are in spiritual bondage because they are unable to distinguish the prompting of the Holy Spirit from the accusation of the devil. The Holy Spirit convicts (convinces) us of sins that we have not brought to God in honest confession. Satan brings accusations to us for these sins even after they have been put away by God. Sins that are “under the blood,” as the saying goes, no longer need weigh on our consciences. Many Christians assume that they must bear the guilt for past sins (though these sins are confessed), as a kind of payment for their misdeeds. They simply do not feel free to enjoy their cleansing, thinking that they do not deserve it! Of course, we do not deserve it, but that is precisely the meaning of grace! Grace means that it is God’s gift to us that we do not deserve. God wipes the slate clean, and “remembers our sins no more.” For us to remember them, to be controlled by the guilt and power of our memories, is a discredit to the completeness of Christ’s work on the cross. Guilt is God’s discipline only until the sin is confessed; any continuation of guilt is the work of Satan. These accusations must be renounced in the name of Christ. And what if we do not respond to the immediate prompting of the Holy Spirit? Let’s consider those disciplines that are brought into our lives if we persist in deliberate sin. God will put us under pressure designed to bring us to repentance. Many believers who are enslaved by sin do not realize that their spiritual bondage is designed by God to bring them to repentance. There is a principle seen both in the Old and New Testaments, namely, that we will always be ensnared with the sin we tolerate. God warned Israel that if the nation would serve foreign gods, it would come under the subjection of those foreign powers: “For if you ever go back and cling to the rest of these nations, these which remain among you, and intermarry with them, so that you associate with them and they with you, know with certainty that the Lord your God will not continue to drive these nations out from before you; but they shall be a snare and a trap to you, and a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good land which the Lord your God has given” (Joshua 23:12,13). Read the history of the nation Israel and you will find that they were constantly being subje4cdted and even sold as slaves to various nations, all because they made alliances with these pagan countries. The compromises we make lead to chains of entrapment and servanthood. Paul wrote, “Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obe3dience resulting in righteousness?” (Romans 6:16). The sin to which we give ourselves is the one that eventually ensnares us. Every time we deliberately sin we degrade ourselves to the role of servants and exalt sin as our master. Many Christians may confess their sin, but are unwilling to make a clean break with the cycle of failure. They are too fearful to seek counsel, and keep their secrets to themselves. This incomplete repentance results in further spiritual bondage. One price of disobedience is slavery. This explains why we should fear both God and sin. The child who has been to God’s woodshed and felt the pain of his disobedience is in no mood for a repeat performance. Remember that when there has been an offense, discipline always includes restoration. As we said at the outset, a good father will not only spank his children but will also comfort them once they have yielded to his authority. Though it hurts for a time, discipline later yields the “peaceable fruit of righteousness.” We have learned that God uses both guild and spiritual enslavement to help us realize the seriousness of our sin. Quite frankly, God’s plan is to make us so miserable that we will be willing to submit wholly to His Authority. Dear friend, if you are desperate today, turn to God with all of your heart for God is using your misery to bring you to repentance. 3.