Hebrews Chapter Twelve, What Chastening Reveals

 

Hebrews 12:7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? [8] But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.

 

These verses, taken together, provide a stark and succinct answer to Easy Believism. Easy Believism, or license, can be explained thus: if you have made Jesus your Savior, you are safe from sin and are now free (or have license) to do anything you like. Being saved becomes a “get out of Hell free” card.

Yet Scripture abounds with contradictory evidence so manifold that it makes one blush to think someone champions this ideology. And this belief is legion. I have met many professing Christians who fit into this camp very naturally because they do not believe that conformity to God’s will matters. They are saved, end of story. They are free (have license) to disagree about the nature of marriage, sex, chemical abuse, abortion, homosexuality, et al. because God is their Savior, and He has set them free. Apparently the freedom such advocates propound means freedom to think, speak, and behave identically to when they were unsaved and antithetically toward God’s own thoughts on the matters.

 

Do we as Christians still sin? The answer is an unequivocal and grievous yes. 1 John 1:8, 10 attest to this. Being saved makes Jesus Christ both Savior and Lord to the Christian. Lordship is synonymous with ownership, as though we were (and really are) purchased from the slave market of sin, to be adopted into God’s household. Being a member of said household, adopted or otherwise, puts the believer into a different moral and spiritual position than when we were unsaved, without hope and without God in the world. Our Master’s purpose is our purpose; His will is our will. He holds authority, and we, His adopted children, are subservient to it. This same Lord opined, “But why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?” Luke 6:46.

 

Paul, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, asks this question: “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” Romans 6:1. His answer, of course, was, “God forbid,” Romans 6:2, KJV. Easy Believism is countered in Scripture as a false belief, nurtured by the flesh, so we may think that we have our cake and may eat it, too. Yes, salvation is not by works but by faith. Yes, a man can contribute nothing to his salvation in either its reception or retention. But this does not mean that since the work of salvation is all of grace and all of God that we, His children, are free to do as we please. Think of it. Just referring to ourselves (as Scripture does) as His children intimates our inability to do as we please when sinful choices are considered. We are the sons of a holy God; would God wantonly embrace sin? Did Jesus, while on Earth, disavow obedience to the Father in favor of pursuing carnality?

 

One may say that using Jesus is unfair, since He is God, incapable of sin, even while in the flesh. True; Jesus our Lord cannot sin, because He does not possess a sin nature like we do. Rather, He possessed (and still possesses) a divine nature. But His devout conduct, serving the Father’s will during the entire course of His life should be our indicator as to where our loyalty, inspiration, and motivation lie. One may choose the world, but James assures us that we then make ourselves God’s enemies, James 4:4. John contrasts the world and its offerings to he who does the will of God, stating that whoever loves the world and its offerings will perish with it; but he who does God’s will abides (endures, remains) forever, 1 John 2:16, 17.

 

Return to verse 8 and it states, “But if you are without chastening, of which we all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.” When someone is legitimate, they are, “born by parents who are lawfully married to each other,” according to Oxford. Illegitimacy infers a child born out of wedlock. In short, you are not the lawfully recognized son or heir of the man that sired you, because you are, as the saying goes, “born in sin.” If you are a true child of God, this passage assures us that we WILL be partakers of the chastening described. It is universal, and every son God accepts He chastens, without exception. Even Jesus was chastened while on earth, and learned obedience through it, the writer informs us, Hebrews 5:8.

 

To the Kenneth Copelands and Joel Osteens of the world, this is a shocking revelation to be sure. The prosperity gospel, which goes hand in hand with Easy Believism, is only tenable in countries like the United States, where persecution for the cross has not reached fever pitch. But any believer can see that the day is coming. One need only to look north at what Canada is doing to silence Christian voices in the public forum and we may see shadows of that unjust tyranny creeping into our own backyard. Human vindictiveness is a cruel thing to behold; even King David pled for his chastening to be directly by God’s hands, because, “His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man,” 2 Samuel 24:14. God says of human instrumentality when employed against Israel, “I am exceedingly angry with the nations at ease; for I was a little angry, and they helped—but with evil intent,” Zechariah 1:15.

 

God may employ human agency as the tool of our chastisement, but said instrument possesses their free will nonetheless, and thus has their own motivations for their actions. Israel’s history is wrought with the actions of pagan nations punishing them as God’s instruments, 2 Kings 17:23, Habakkuk 1:6, etc. Even if the chastening comes from the hands of men as God’s chosen instrument, we may say as Joseph did to his brothers, “you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good,” Genesis 50:20. Furthermore, Hebrews 12:4 reminds believers that they have not striven against sin to the point of bloodshed yet. In the New Testament there are several records of saints being divinely chastened to death for their sin, Acts 5:1-11 or 1 Corinthians 11:30 for examples. A stern warning is issued to the Corinthian church in regard to the Lord’s Supper, “For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged,” continuing by stating, “But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world,” 1 Corinthians 11:31, 32. Verse 32 addresses the topic of correction and its function. We are chastened so that we are not condemned with the world. The idea here is not so there is a chance we may be saved. The phrase, “we may not be condemned,” is not referring to the idea of possibility, but rather providing the comfort that condemnation is not our fate, but chastisement is. The NASB renders the phrase thus, “so that we will not be condemned.” This passage agrees with Hebrews 12:7, 8, affirming that chastisement equates into acceptance; it does not mean rejection and condemnation. Rather, the absence of chastisement (which produces faith as we lean on our Father) is an indication of illegitimacy. In short, such people were never saved, and thus will not receive chastisement. But they do receive condemnation. The choice is ours to make.