Disciplined Sons – The Stamp of Legitimacy – Part 1

Hebrews 12:8, “If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

The writer of the book of Hebrews admonishes the professing Christians in Hebs 12:1-3 to remember that they are on the winning team and that each individual had a particular assignment or race to run on the course of life. Then in Hebs 12:4-13, he assures them that severe discipline was not punishment for transgressions, but preparation for the assigned task. They are being reminded that the very fact that Father God was treating them in such a disciplined manner was proof positive of their authenticity and legitimacy as sons in the Father’s Family.

There is a whole family of words connected with discipleship: disciples, discipler, discipling, and disciplines. The reality it is impossible to make mature disciples without discipline. In fact the word in Hebs 12:5-11 the word translated chasten and chastening in the KJV and discipline in other translations, is the Greek word paideia, which conveys the idea of training a child by whatever methods are necessary for correction in order to bring them to maturity. Father God’s desire and design is that we be fruitful reproducers and multipliers. His maturing disciplines are applied for the purpose of bringing us from children, to sons, to reproducing Fathers. In order to do this He disciplines us! Fruitful disciples are produced by their faithful response to Father’s disciplines.

Our Heavenly Father Disciplines Us According to His Infinite Wisdom

A. His Disciplines Reassure Us

Initially almost all discipline is unpleasant. Heb 12:11, “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” Saintly Samuel Rutherford wrote from the horrible prison he was confined to for his love for Christ, “Let Him plow, He purposes a crop!”

Discipline is primarily God’s proactive commitment to mature us, and not His reactive response to punish us! In divine punishment God acts as a Judge; in divine chastisement God acts as a parent. Divine punishment is received by God’s enemies; divine chastisement is received by God’s children. Divine punishment is judicial; divine chastisement is parental. Divine punishment is retributive, and expresses the anger of God: divine chastisement is remedial, and expresses the love of God. So we may conclude that the word “chasten” means “to train by correcting.”

Discipline is not and evidence of sin that needs punishment, but of a son who is being matured to become a reproducing spiritual father. There is no growing in grace without a groaning in grace. The grace of discipline should be welcomed as a family friend by every disciple of Jesus Christ. Heb 12:8, “But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.”

The Father deals with His sons in a child-training manner, ordering or permitting whatever is necessary to come into their lives in order to develop and mature them. Just as earthly parents do not pamper and shield their children from every unpleasant thing or protect and prosper them by giving them everything they want or ask for, neither does the Heavenly Father. Why then do we try and use God like a magical genie, attempting to get everything we want, while at the same time circumventing all the unpleasant trials and tribulations of life?

Our Heavenly Father has committed Himself to purge away our sins, to brighten and increase our graces, to wean us from the world, and to prepare and preserve us for His heavenly kingdom. Thus discipline is a choice covenant mercy. Even in the midst of the most severe disciplines, we can rest assured that God is for us. Being for us means that He has committed Himself, in covenant mercy, to develop in us the inner essence of the image of His Son, and to mature the outward expressions of Jesus’ likeness so that we do what He did – make disciples. Having made such a covenant commitment, we may rest assured that He will not spare any means necessary in order to accomplish His design, even if it is extremely painful. So there is reason and rhyme behind the deep plowing God is doing in your life.

How should we approach Father’s disciplines that are intended to be a training work that will mature us? We should do so Prayerfully, Inquiringly (not why” but what?), Humbly, Patiently, Believingly, Hopefully, and Thankfully!

(Read Part 2 · Part 3 · Part 4)