Heb 12:7-11 Children of God
Notes
Transcript
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”
7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
In this story, we see both definitions or connotations that come with the word discipline. The veteran, at the time, viewed this as unjust suffering and humiliation but now in the retelling understands that the drill Sargent was trying to instill a change of character … turning the boys into disciplined soldiers that would last in battle and not be self-centered and distracted by the pleasures of an easier life.
In fact, the first part of verse 7 has only three words in Greek, discipline endure for. Translating this is a challenge. Some of translations say “It is for discipline you have to endure (ESV/NASB) which seems to imply something other than what the context of this section would mean. It is not that we endure discipline … in fact that is not what this verse says, rather it says it is for discipline that you endure. The Holman and the NIV translation says we must endure suffering as discipline. So if you think back to this story … the soldier initially thought of this as suffering but as a veteran realizes that the result was a change in his character … he was able to be disciplined in his tasks and orders.
In the same way as we look back at the previous verses that we studied last week we see that's what the author was really saying. We saw that we must not disdain, or make light of, God's discipline nor should we dismay, or be overwhelmed by God's discipline. Instead, we need to stay focused; focused on the race set before us by not losing sight of Jesus and remembering what he says in his word. So if we look again at verse 7 we really can better understand this transition.
The author of Hebrews continues his gentle chastisement of the readers.
As God’s children:
1. We must endure suffering
Just as this veteran was able to reflect back on his experience to see how this “punishment” or “discipline” was actually positive, the author of Hebrews is asking his readers to view their suffering as a positive act of love from their Father. He wants them to realize they must endure suffering. And today as we read this as God's children, we too must recognize that we must endure suffering. Not with a negative view, but rather, of the positive. Remembering and recognizing that God uses ALL things for good.
Rom 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
And one of the best “good” is the refining of our character and our hearts. Our hearts are prone to wandering and easily distracted by the pleasures or ease of this world.
We cannot take God’s discipline with disdain (by making light of it) or dismay (by fainting or being overwhelmed by it all) because God is not like us.
CS Lewis quote
“We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
We must endure suffering because of God’s love:
“God the Father loves us better than any earthly mother or father loves their children. Jesus says the Father is infinite, eternal, all powerful, and a faithful provider. And when God’s children get lost in life, Jesus says the Father searches for them, runs to his wayward children, embraces them, and throws a party every time even one of them comes home to him. Do you need to be reminded that God is all powerful? Do you need reassurance that he is sustaining the universe and you’re safe in his perfect plans, free to run into his arms to find comfort, protection, and love? That’s the Father—the one true God.[1]” Burke, John
Furthermore, we must endure bc God’s Discipline is not God’s Wrath
We need to remember that God’s discipline of His children has nothing to do with God’s wrath. Every reference in the New Testament regarding God’s wrath is a reference to the unbelieving and rebelling people, not to God’s children.
Theodore Laetsh explains this well when he says:
“God’s plans concerning his people are always thoughts of good, of blessing. Even if he is obliged to use the rod, it is the rod not of wrath, but the Father’s rod of chastisement for their temporal and eternal welfare. There is not a single item of evil in his plans for his people, neither in their motive, nor in their conception, nor in their revelation, nor in their consummation.”
This is why we can endure God’s discipline because it comes from a loving Heavenly Father, and the result is our spiritual growth. There are many different reasons for God’s discipline.
We actually see this play out in scripture many times. But one time that comes to mind is in 1 Chronicles 21. This tells of when King David sinned by taking a census against God’s will. Then God sends a prophet to David to tell him of his options as the consequence of his sin. Option 1; 3 years of famine, option 2; 3 months of devastation by the sword of his enemies, and the last option was 3 days of pestilence on the land.
We see in David’s response the fact that he elected to see how God was using this to refine his character rather than viewing it as a punishment. 1 Chronicles 21:13 says “Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is very great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man.”
The suffering that occurred because of David’s sin was great and serious, 70.000 men died from the pestilence, this number did not include women and children, thus there were at least 140.000 people that died because of David’s sin.
I don’t know all the suffering that you have been through, I’m sure that each of you has faced at one time or another great suffering. But, as far as I know, none of you is responsible for the death of 140000 people, the entire population of a city like Dayton, OH.
Can you imagine enduring the guilt and shame of being responsible for the death of so many? But with even such great suffering David chooses to fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercy is very great.
This brings me back to the rest of verse 7 and 8 here in Hebrews. The second part of this verse states:
7b God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
As God’s children:
2. We must be disciplined
Bc God is our Father.
The ancient world found it incomprehensible that a father could possibly love his child and not discipline him. In fact, a real son would draw more discipline than, say, an illegitimate child for the precise reason that greater honor and responsibility were to be his.
The ultimate example of this is, of course, Jesus who as the supreme Son “learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (5:8, 9). There is no doubt about it—the hardships and disciplines we endure are signs of our legitimacy and ought to be embraced as revealing signs of grace.
The two Bible verses that might come to mind in those moments might be Provers 13:24 and Proverbs 29:15 which say: “He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him” (Proverbs 13:24). And, “The rod of correction imparts wisdom, but a child left to itself disgraces his mother” (Proverbs 29:15).
That is exactly what the author of Hebrews is saying here in v9
9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?
Respect and submission characterized these first readers regarding their earthly fathers—and it developed a disciplined productive life in the child. The attitude of respect and submission towards parents was the norm.
If we should submit to and respect our earthly fathers, how much more should we submit to our Heavenly Father? When we submit to and respect our earthly fathers it brings good consequences (which we refer to as rewards or blessings these days) for us, how much more so will it be with our Heavenly Father.
Therefore, we must consciously submit to our Heavenly Father if we are truly adopted sons and daughters of the King of the Universe, we must be like Jesus, and we must follow Jesus’ example of submission to the Father.
Therefore we must endure. We must be disciplined. Why? because
As God’s children:
3. We must be Holy
In verse 10, the author argues for our continued endurance of affliction by giving us a sanctifying reason for suffering: 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.
Every earthly father, if being honest will admit that we have failed so many times in parenting and disciplining our children. Sometimes we were too severe, and other times too soft. We might have shown favoritism. You might have punished the wrong child. You might not have heard the whole story before disciplining. We might have disciplined a child for selfish reasons. For us, it is so easy to discipline out of anger and not have the right attitude and motives when disciplining. At our best discipline, we are imperfect.
However, God is not like us. He will never punish the wrong child, He will never make a mistake or be imperfect. God will never be too harsh or too soft. God will never discipline us in anger. He will never be misinformed; He knows everything not to mention He knows our hearts. He knows what is in our hearts and all of our motivations. Every time He disciplines us, He disciplines us with the right attitudes and motives.
Moreover, every discipline from our Heavenly Father has one goal, which is nothing less than to make His people like Him, holy. Lev 19:2 says “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” Jesus said in Matt 5:48 “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect”
In Christ, we have been made partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), and as partakers, God disciplines us so that we will partake even more. The most holy of us are those who have properly endured the most discipline or suffering. What a gift, then, discipline is!
Therefore; As God’s children:
1. We must endure
2. We must be disciplined
3. We must be holy
Why should we endure all this? What is the result? V11 says
11 For [in] the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
This verse tells us that as God’s Children
As God’s children:
4. We receive righteousness and peace
The writer concludes his train of thought by giving the results of enduring the pains of God’s discipline.
First, concerning pain: “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful” (v. 11a). That is certainly true whatever the level of discipline—a spanking, a privilege suspended, a possession removed, an injury, an illness, persecution or a box full of homemade cookies being shoved in your mouth in front of your peers.
If we enjoyed the pain we would be going contrary to reason and logic, it is insane to enjoy pain. But eventually, there comes the fruit of the labor … you become a disciplined soldier, able to persevere in battle and stand strong with those fighting beside you.
A “harvest of righteousness” comes to believers who endure under discipline or suffering — not just the objective, imputed righteousness of God that we receive at the moment of conversion where God sees us as righteous because of Jesus’ blood.
What we receive as we endure suffering in our daily walks with God is a righteousness of changed character. It is the perfection of faith that the author of Corinthians states or the working out of your salvation in fear and trembling as stated in Phil 2:12. Our lives should be evidence to the world of righteousness and character that reflects God’s righteousness and character.
But that is just half of the reward or blessing, the other half being the peaceful fruit or the harvest of peace—shalom. As Isaiah wrote, “The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever” (32:17).
Peace—shalom—means not only quietness of soul but wholeness. As Richard John Neuhaus says: “It means the bringing together of what was separated, the picking up of the pieces, the healing of wounds, the fulfillment of the incomplete, the overcoming of the forces of fragmentation.…” It is Heaven’s peace experienced now in an unpeaceful world. What a reward that we receive as Children of God.
This only comes through enduring hardship as discipline. It does not come through fighting the hard things in life. but from accepting them as character refining discipline from God.
No one ever comes out of the unexpected, the unwanted, the difficult, and the discouraging unchanged. What you suffer will change you. You will not rise out of tragedy the way you were before it overtook you.
Hardships will do one of two things to us. They will distract our focus from Christ, forcing us into a spiritual stumbling—so that we are slowed down, or even drop out of the race. Or they will intensify our focus on Christ, so that we “run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of faith”.