Appreciating God's Discipline

B) God and Man's Sin

God catches all of our moral weaknesses. Not one innocently passes by. Even if we are God's people, God judges our sins. Unfortunately, some believers have reasoned that since they are believers and are forgiven, the Lord does not judge their sins. Because they are ignorant of how thoroughly God deals with His people's sins, they make costly mistakes in their Christian walk.

Perhaps you have met such a Christian—or you yourself have held such false notions. The way God deals with His people and with those who are not His people is quite different.

God, Judgment, and the Unbeliever

Unbelievers will perish in their sin. They will be fully judged for all their wrongdoings. Esau serves as a case example of this (Genesis 36). His genealogy is one of ten genealogies in Genesis, but his line is not traced as the people of God.

Esau's own heart is clearly seen in his rejection of God and of God's inheritance for the world (as seen in Genesis 25–27).

Genesis 28:6 – “Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram, to take to himself a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he charged him, saying, ‘You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,’ …”

Genesis 28:8–9 – “So Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan displeased his father Isaac; and Esau went to Ishmael, and married, besides the wives that he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth.”

Genesis 37 holds Esau’s genealogical account that is no longer going to be traced. His generations would go on before a final judgment, but they are no longer traced as part of the covenant line, even though he was a son of Isaac.

The term “unbeliever” is not used in Genesis, but Esau is clearly described as a person who loved the world rather than pursued God. The following verses highlight God’s rejection of him:

Malachi 1:2–3 – “I have loved you,” says the LORD. But you say, “How hast Thou loved us?” “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the LORD. “Yet I have loved Jacob; but I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation, and appointed his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness.”

Romans 9:13 – “Just as it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’”

Hebrews 11:20 – “By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regarding things to come.”

Hebrews 12:16 – “…that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal.”

Remember, Jacob was no saint either. But trace God's pursuit of him and his growing pursuit of God. The Scriptures are painting both the sinfulness of humanity and the abounding grace of God.

God, Judgment, and the Believer

Believers, however, are a different case. Yahweh deals with them quite differently. God “begins with us first.” Judgment begins with the household of God (cf. 1 Peter 4:17). Jacob serves as a clear example of this (Genesis 37 begins his genealogy).

A Christian is not judged in regard to salvation or whether he is accepted by God as His child. Justification by faith teaches us that His children are saved by faith in Christ. Every believer is on the path of sanctification.

God says that He scourges every child of His. This is a mark of belonging, that we might be holy like our Father (cf. Hebrews 12:6).

In Deuteronomy 28 we see a whole list of things that God will bring upon His people if they do not do all that He says. God cannot allow His people to live normal lives in their sins. He is compelled to interfere and judge them so that they might repent.