Disciplined by the Father

​Hebrews 12:10-11 ~ “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. 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.”
 
Will you submit to the work of the Father to bring your life to holiness?
 
Years ago, I was with a group of men in a situation unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. There were forty of us in a room, from all across the country and all bunked together. The man in charge clearly didn’t care if we disagreed with his efforts to disrupt our sleep early in the morning. He didn’t seem to listen if we ever complained that we were pressed beyond our limits in the activities he directed. He was our drill instructor and this was military basic training.  It took a while for me to realize that his task was to take the raw potential of undisciplined young men and break them away from their former selves in order to reshape them into someone who could endure the rigors and challenges of being a member of the armed forces of the United States. Those who submitted to his discipline were equipped to face the tasks that were waiting for them. Those who didn’t... they washed out.
 
Which brings us to our text today, and the opening question laid before us. God the Father takes all who are in Christ and moves us through times of testing and difficulty in order to transform us into the shining display of His righteousness. Just as our earthly fathers are supposed to train us up through our adolescent years, so God Almighty will do so—and do it in perfection. We read this in the opening statement of our text today, “For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good.” Our earthly fathers only had what “seemed best” to them, and like all of mankind, the effort would always fall short of perfection. No father in this world could ever look back and say with certainty that they did it perfect—only that they tried their best. But our Father in heaven has no limitations of infirmity or lack of wisdom in His effort to discipline His children. And He does it “for our good.” We read in Psalm 119:71, “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.” We have been freed from God’s wrath through Jesus Christ our LORD, but God’s heavy hand of discipline still acts upon us as a faithful Father upon His children.
 
And in the next portion of our text today we see what is the end-goal of the LORD, “that we may share his holiness.” To share in the holiness of God is to live a life of sanctified separation from all that is wicked and sinful in this world. It is to be set apart unto Christ that we might become like Him. The LORD Jesus gave His life that He might have a people unto Himself. We read in Titus 2:14 that Jesus, “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” Holiness, beloved, is not a sanctified smugness that looks down upon all those who walk in this world. To be holy is to be so deeply in the care of and under the authority of the LORD that your life becomes like His. This process is not always pleasant, for our text reminds us, “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant.” Even as the rigorous discipline received in basic training shaped the men who endured, so the work of God in our lives by His Spirit is not a pleasant experience but painful. Yet, that pain provides the means by which the LORD will transform our lives—for those who will submit to His discipline.
 
And that brings us to the final issue: we must submit ourselves to Christ and be transformed in the way that He sees best. Our text today concludes, “but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” In the military I could step into the tasks that were set before me because I was initially given the needed discipline to endure. Let us also embrace God’s work in our lives to discipline us that we might have the necessary endurance to face the work that is before us. Psalm 94:12 declares, “Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O Lord, and whom you teach out of your law.”
 
Let us submit to the work of God to bring us to holiness. God the Father will discipline us in order to shape us and make us like His Son. It will bear forth the fruit of peace, but only for those who are trained by it.
 
In His Grace,
Pastor Michael

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