THE PURPOSES OF TESTINGS, AFFLICTIONS AND THE CHASTENING OF GOD…..FOR HIS CHILDREN PART 3 

Nowadays the threatening Words of Christ to all His followers (Luke 12:45-47, 19:12-24, Matthew 25:30) or the frightening acts of the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:9, 1st Corinthians 11:29–30) have no meaning in modern day Christianity. Christians have been lulled to sleep by religious sirens….who mistake both God’s disciplines AND His afflictions, trials and testings as attacks of satan. All His judgment disciplines which were ignored while alive are not cancelled at death, as many suppose, but are deferred, in that judgments for disobedience are to be fully realized at the Judgment Seat of Christ. These regenerated believers, did not heed the words to give “diligence to make your calling and election sure.…” (2nd Peter 1:10) and were blind to the full understanding of the Atonement of Christ. The Atonement having 2 magnificently designed “righteousnesses”, that of the gracious free gift of eternal life based upon the Righteousness of Christ that is imputed to every believer, AND the righteousness of the Believer based upon his works in Christ with the reward of glory.  

And in their religious darkness, their perfecting/maturing faith with approved works has been shipwrecked, having crashed upon the rocks of cheap grace. They’ve been taught an all–inclusive false gospel that says that regardless of their moral state, having believed and confessed Christ and being merely born-again, (on that basis only) that upon appearing before the Judgment Seat of Christ, they will be welcomed by a “well done thou good and faithful servant” into the Millennial Kingdom of Jesus Christ.  

These Christian ministers, being ignorant of the high calling, are like Cain in that they present a Bloodless purging. Like Balaam, they are greedy for gain, and like Korah who presumed God’s holiness, they preach condemnable messages that exclude their followers from the Kingdom of Christ and bring upon many the fearful judgments that are to be passed upon unfaithful Christians in the afterlife. Scripture describes them (unfaithful believers) as in, “torment”, “outer darkness”, and with “weeping and gnashing of teeth…”  

And “…until you have paid the utmost farthing.” [Matthew 5:26] See Matthew 22:13, 24:45-51, and 25:30. (See also Matthew 8:11-12 which says, “And I say unto you, that many (Gentile Believers) shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heavens But the children of the kingdom (those who were first appointed unto that Kingdom) shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Yes, here it is specific to Jews but the implication is the same for those New Covenant believers who commit the same sins who are now called to be faithful ‘sons of the kingdom’. (Shown to be so in Matthew 22:13 and 25:30 where there is no such distinction between Servants.) The Father’s corrective and instructive Disciplines unto worthiness will have become the extracting purgings of punishment after the Judgement Seat of Christ. “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.” [Revelation 3:19] Recognizing and heeding His rebuke and chastening unto faithful fruitfulness with watching and praying while alive here on Earth gains believers the status of an Overcomer and removes the possibility of these judgments after death. 

THE CHASTENING OF THE FATHER 

See Hebrews 12:1-17. Verse 11…There is no question that discipline is distasteful. But it’s administration is lovingly instructive and corrective. If we allow it, it steers us in the direction of acceptable faith energized in love. It steers us away from the rocks of disobedience, and awakens us from lethargy and apathy. It forces us to revaluate the meaning of the Word and where we are spiritually. It awakens us to engage in the spiritual battle set before us, to crucify besetting sins, attitudes, actions, thoughts, and words. Though chastening is painful, its rewards are blessed. “Later on … it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” (v. 11b). Some Christians who have suffered a great deal have learned very little. Others, however, were “trained” by the Father’s discipline, and the “fruits of righteousness” are evident in this life and are measureable unto Christ in the next. 

The Name and Blood of Christ cannot do away with the Father’s disciplines. And if we are of that common Christian thinking that all that is “bad” is from the devil and all that is “good” is of the Father, then we will unwittingly resist His disciplines in the Name and power of the Blood and unknowingly are at odds with the Father. 

CHASTENING BY THE FATHER  is a necessary means by which He will bring out of the Body of regenerate Believers in Christ, a Bride who would  “be partakers of his holiness” and share in His glory. This is that which is referred to in Scripture as the saving of the soul (see more on the saving of the soul), the fullness of the salvation plan for man.  

The “flesh” (as defined as the carnal mind, that is the mind controlled by the soul, with the sensual body, without the influence of the spirit/Spirit Romans 8) is the inherent and dominant nature of every human child born into the earth since the Garden fall and God’s pronounced death sentence upon Adam and Eve (Romans 5:12). Flesh is selfish, prideful, lustful, self-loving and self-gratifying. This answers to the condition of the earth and all mankind being born under the curse of God, being therefore subject to the law of sin and death. We all, being sons of Adam and Eve, born into the Earth, are under the curse of the law of sin and death. Our spirit was affected by the fall, in that it had become thereby greatly limited in its animating power to both soul and body. Upon accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior from that Curse, we are Born-Again. Our spirit is regenerated, and may now be even more enlivened by the Holy Spirit through increasing, loving faith in Jesus Christ, now not seen as just the Lamb of God but the Overcoming and future King of kings who calls His servants to faithful service. The regeneration of the spirit levels the playing field, in that God determined the flesh to yet remain after regeneration. But the flesh should no longer be dominant. It may be overcome by the renewing of the mind to the Word of God in the power of the Spirit/spirit.  

Now the Christian was first made aware of his contrary nature of the flesh and its state of eternal curse primarily by Moses, which first sets before man a standard of God’s holiness and condemns the flesh. And we know that no man can be justified by the law of Moses for two reasons. One being the impossibility of doing and continuing to do all that is written in the book of the law. And the second being the fact that “the just shall live by faith”. And Scripture bears out that the law is not of faith. (Galatians 3:10-12) 

And by the further enlightenment of the New Testament Gospel, we have understood that Christ’s self sacrificing offering for all mankind grants us a means by which we may receive God’s redeeming forgiveness. And that He has given us the gift of reanimating “life” into our death–filled spirit, an eternal lasting Re-Birth, and are now a child of God (Romans 5:14-21). It should be understood that the Re-Birth experience by faith in Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit brings a love for God with it. (Romans 5:5) It is even more natural than a baby’s love for its mother. It is a love that may increase and abound (1st Thessalonians 3:12) or it may not necessarily be a continuing love:  “…thou hast left thy first love…”  [Revelation 2:4] “…the love of many shall wax cold…” [Matthew 24:12] It is a love for God without which our faith is weakened or annulled. (See Galatians 5:6, 1st Corinthians 13:3) 

This regeneration (one time event) is to be followed by an ongoing process unto faithfulness and worthiness. That is to say holiness, the means being afforded, not by a marriage into the Covenant under Mosaic Law keeping, but by the New Covenant privilege described by Paul in Galatians 3:3 with Romans 8:2 as “..the law of the Spirit (Spirit/spirit) of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”  

NOW THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS IS BASED UPON LOVING/LIVING FAITH IN HIS WORD in knowing, reckoning, yielding, and presenting. (These are functions of the regenerated spirit in communion with the Holy Spirit). “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin….Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.” [Romans 6:6,9] Knowing (as a function of the renewed mind through the Spirit/spirit) that justification in Jesus Christ and that rebirth of the spirit is a onetime event, in that it is likened unto Christ’s one time death (Romans 6:10). It is the one time, never to be lost, eternal reception of the gift of redemption life out from under the law of sin and condemnation of eternal death wherein we found ourselves as sons of Adam. And it is the redemption from the condemning curse of the law of Moses. (Romans 5:15-21) That is to also say that we are redeemed subjects from satan’s kingdom who has/had the power of death (See Hebrews 2:14).  

Additionally, “…knowing…” and now “…reckoning…” that the moment of justification in Christ is the inauguration moment into a process, discovered in oneness with Christ’s Resurrection power, unto holiness, now reckoning ourselves  “… alive (or living now) unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” [Romans 6:1-11] Knowing and reckoning in loving faith brings power from the Spirit/spirit to defeat the reign of sin in the flesh. The flesh being that nature which was purposely left by God within the redeemed soul to be overcome unto certain worthiness.“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.” [Romans 6:12] 

Now “….yielding…” is an act of our will in accord with our spirit. We yield our members, as servants, habitually unto works of God by grace by partaking in the divine nature’s influence upon the soul by the spirit/Spirit. (Romans 6:13-23 with 2nd Peter 1:1-12). Now being “…delivered from the law, being dead to that we were held, that we should (Present ourselves to be wed to Christ as a grateful bride and) …serve in the newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.” [Romans 7:1-6]   

Now if we were left without the further deliverance power, and remained in that merely born-again state, we would suffer the state and pang of conscience of those Believers married to the law of Moses. “Oh wretched man that I am!” [Romans 7:2a] Those believers indeed have had the enlightenment of the heart in the holy correctness of the Law of Moses, and the experience of regeneration, but are now determined to follow and keep the marriage unto Moses’ law. Before long though, they discover that the Husband which is Good and Holy, and willing to forgive them, has no provision to help purge them of their unfaithfulness. That which corrupts them is the powerful old nature (Hebrews 9:13–14) which holds them captive to the law of sin and disqualifying death/separation. Not disqualification from redemption from Egypt as they have applied the blood of Passover and have passed through the baptism from eternal death through the Red Sea, but this sin and death/separation is from the promised inheritance of the faithful in the Promised Land! A spiritual state of disqualifying corruption that will always be relegated to the saved from eternal death but without salvation of soul. Then comes the helpless questioning of “….who shall deliver me from the this body of (disqualifying) death? 

I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord…..There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus….” This becomes, to the merely regenerated, satan’s (“…it is Written…”) temptation and where satan assures us these Words of Romans are meant to convey unto every regenerate Believer a present imputed salvation of the soul.  Satan confounds Paul’s Words of the demands of the laws of Moses as the same as the laws of the spirit of life in Christ, in that both lead you to that same place of “…Oh wretched man that I am!” Here satan declares that it is being said that the flesh’s/old man’s nature’s will is stronger than the spirit’s will in New Covenant Believers.  And thus the further reasoning that then, thankfully God has granted us inheritance of all things promised and that through imputation, (not just limited to justification by His Righteousness) that we have been imputed righteousness of our own. He deceives saying that both righteousnesses were based upon Christ’s work on Calvary! This of course is the lie believed that steals the crown of the Overcomer’s inheritance from the believer and safeguards his (satan’s) heavenly realm. 

Paul contrasts the helpless condition of the Old Covenant believer married to the law of Moses as it relates to overcoming the flesh nature with being formed into the likeness of Christ. He makes the declaration that Jesus Christ shall certainly deliver us from this overwhelming “body of death” nature, not by the Law of Moses (for to be justified by it I must not fail in it in any way), but by continued New Covenant privilege of accessing the throne of mercy and grace. The throne being accessed in spite of regretted sin that may occur much more often than we desire, yet we are not disqualified from the race for the prize. As long as we live and pursue it legally, then we may approach that throne again and again. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus that hath made me free from the law of sin and death (that which delivers me from the disqualifying condemnation of the First Husband). For what that (Husband) could not do, in that it was weak (limited) through the (my) flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned (in context of the entire discourse; disqualifying) sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law (the holy and just, and good Husband) might be fulfilled in us, WHO WALK NOT AFTER THE FLESH, BUT AFTER THE SPIRIT.”      

To those who exercise this doctrine from the heart,“THERE is therefore now no (eternal) condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus…..” This is that condemnation previously referred to by Paul in Romans 5:16,18 that relates to the economy and gift of redemption. That condemnation of eternal death, that certain complete corruption that binds him to the fate of satan, in the Lake of Fire, the second death of man. This eternal corruption or condemnation that no man born-again, having received the gift of eternal life, is to be subject to (at least for eternity Revelation 2:11). That eternal condemnation to which he was bound to from Adam in the Garden. Continuing with Romans 8:1 about how there is no condemnation (disqualifying) them which are in Christ Jesus, it goes on to say, “….who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit/spirit.” So the complete verse does not say that the one in Christ Jesus is clear from any judgment or from corruption, because if he walks according to the flesh and receives no recompense, this would make a joke of the Judgment Seat of Christ. For the New Covenant Word declares to the eternally saved Believer/servant that he might be disqualified and excluded from the Millennial Kingdom of Jesus Christ. (See Galatians 5:13 through 6:10) “Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” [Galatians 5:21] With….“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” [Galatians 6:7-8] 

In that having once and forever received life eternal and water baptism, and having been granted the Law of the Spirit/spirit of life in Christ Jesus, I yet am warned, in the loss of heirship, not to walk in the flesh but to walk in newness of life. That is in resurrection life, a selfless life lived that holds promise of the reward of the First Resurrection and of being a co-ruler in the Millennial Kingdom of Christ. And how will I overcome with this flesh desiring to dominate? By the minding of the things of the Spirit/spirit in that newness of life further provided in the Atonement of Christ. Therein is the Power for the process of Overcoming the flesh for which the everlasting glorious life of Christ has in view that greater form of or degree of life than mere eternal life, that accompanied redemptive faith, that is discovered in the Holy Spirit. (See Romans 8:5-39)  It is this process that Paul is explaining in Romans chapters 6-8, the inheritance of the resurrection of incorruptibility in glorification. This process of holiness following redemption being the means unto glory; the purpose of the chastening of the Father.  

That same law of the Spirit/spirit of life in Christ Jesus that was accessed and activated in loving faith and imparted eternal life in Re-Birth whereby we became a child of God, must now also be accessed and activated by our personal, loving faith in prayerful watchfulness, humbly and continually approaching the Throne of Mercy and Grace. For that law of the Spirit/spirit of life’s ongoing application for spiritual covering in the purifying process is the means by which we might also be worthy recipients of His Glory. In that although there is no condemnation/judgment as it relates to the justifying gift of eternal life, it is clear in the rest of the Chapter that there is condemnation/judgment as it relates to the inheritance of His Glory. So it is seen that on the one Hand God has shown His Loving Mercy and on the other Hand His Holy Justice. If we are to share the greater intimacy with Him in Eternal Glory, we must exercise our free wills in pursuit of His Holiness through the Law of the Spirit/spirit of life in Christ Jesus. “I am come that they might have life (eternal), and that they might have it more abundantly (glorious life). 

That we have this dichotomy within is self-evident. That it is more or less acute in conscience is according to where we set our minds. “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit (Spirit/spirit) the things of the Spirit (Spirit/spirit).” [Romans 8:5] God’s answer to this enmity, having our spirit restored to life, and now having prompted conscience to walk in the newness of that life, and seeing our need for the power of the Holy Spirit, it is the Father’s intent for us to be willingly led by the Holy Spirit in overcoming power unto holiness/wholeness through minding the revealed Words of Jesus Christ in loving and faithful obedience. 

CHASTENINGS’ PURPOSE then is this. After having received the gift of a certain life eternal, we are to take on the responsibilities of Kingdom Covenant living, in that we may choose to cleanse ourselves, as children, stewards, servants or backsliders from besetting sins and to then be established as faithful servants before we come before the Judgment Seat of Jesus Christ. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” [2nd Corinthians 5:10]  (The Judgment Seat is to be examined more closely in another chapter.) 

Read Hebrews 12:1-17. Now Scripture reveals the Heart of our Loving Father. “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?….Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? 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 holiness.” [Hebrews 12:6,7,9,10] 

Now this chastening is not the Wrath of God, for that is upon all men born into this World, to which some, having felt the weight of, yield their wills. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” [John 3:36] Now having understood God’s just sentence upon us as fallen men, subject to His eternal Wrath, we then have embraced His merciful substitutional sacrifice of His only begotten Son in order to propitiate that Holy Wrath; and we received the justifying gift. “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” [Romans 5:9] So it is that the chastening of the Father has nothing to do with escaping His Wrath, as that was obtained in justifying faith. But the chastening Hand of a loving Father on HIS CHILDREN is so that they might then be found worthy to be partakers of His Holiness, which speaks of intimacy. It speaks of that “…. holiness without which no man shall see the Lord: looking diligently lest any fail/fall from the grace (divine influence of the nature) of God.” 

His chastening brings our attention back on minding the things of the Spirit/spirit (Romans 8:1-5) and the adding to our justifying faith (2nd Peter 1:4-11) while we are in the race to win the prize/reward. (1st Corinthians 9:24-27) That is the fullness of the possibilities of the Father’s saving grace; the salvation of the soul. (Hebrews 10:39, James 1:21, 1st Peter 1:9) Philippians 2:12b tells us, “….(you) work out your own salvation in fear and trembling….” The soul work charged to you, is that worthiness preparation for glory that holds promise beyond the promise of mere Re-Birth, the promise of the First Resurrection. Our work being from our spirit/Spirit–led soul, we are led to the task of crucifying the flesh… and faithfully watching and praying. “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” [Matthew 26:41] That is to say a conscience–led soul in yielded obedience to the Word, in the spirit of the New Covenant and its exhortations, in the continued application of the power of the law of the Spirit/spirit of life in Christ Jesus, unto the maturing overcoming of our testimony and loving not our lives unto death. (Revelation 12:11) 

“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” [Philippians 2:13] God continually worketh by the Spirit/spirit that we might exercise our will unto action against our flesh/fallen nature. “..let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us…” [Hebrews 12:1] God worketh by strengthening us within our spirit, (Ephesians 3:16) leading the yielded into all the Truth, comforting, encouraging (John 16:7-13), helping us intercede (Romans 8:26–27), rebuking and chastening. Chastening includes sickness and death (as seen in Acts 5 with Ananias and Sapphira and in 1st Corinthians 11:30). Consider also Paul’s thorn in the flesh (2nd Corinthians 12) or Job’s troubles, or Exodus 4:11.  

We as Christians are yet subject to the consequences of the Curse of God in this World in that we all die physically of some disease or infirmity. Why should we assume that suffering sickness and pain and sufferings of any kind are excluded from our lives? If perfect health were a guaranteed promise of the Atonement, billions of people would be flocking to get “saved”, but it would be for the wrong reason and counter to the fullness of God’s Salvation Plan. It would be but a solution for our physical and temporal ills and not for that great Atonement Work for the purging of the flesh from the soul. So it is that the Father will discipline the body that the soul might conform to Christ–likeness. This is not to take away from the Scriptural fact that upon repentance (the turning away from) besetting sins He may heal.  

Some Christians claim that it is the right of all Christians by the Atonement of Christ that they be healed and/or free from sufferings and are thereby misrepresent and trivialize the Father’s Love at the expense of His Disciplines or refinings. That being said, it may be equally assured that God has promised that He does heal. He does not promise that He will always heal, but the Christian has the right of Scripture to look to Him for healing. (James 5:16) This is not to say that some sickness can not come from satan. (Luke 13:16) This is also not to say that He does not miraculously heal today, as it is also His revealed pattern and purpose in the confirming of His Word in signs and wonders including healing. “That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.” (See Matthew 8:17, the Words of Isaiah, 1st Peter 2:24) This is that rebuking and chastening process of the Father working with those children who are merely justified, unto worthy sons (that is to say a faithful Bride for His First–Born from the Dead) typed in Jacob and Esau and Abraham’s search for a bride for his son. (See also Acts 14:22…“Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.”)