Discipline is one of the ways how God transforms His children into the image of Jesus Christ

ByPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 5 minutes
I thank God for you and believe that this day will bring you blessings as you meditate upon the word God is giving us today. Yesterday we talked about how through discipline God desires to protect His children from difficulties and problems that come into their lives as a result of sin and rebellion. God knows what stubbornness and rebellious life can do to a person, because Jesus had paid the price for that as already. Jesus has taken upon Himself the punishment for our sins. He suffered, shed His blood and died for us on the Cross. He wasn’t guilty, yet He willingly took the place of the guilty and took upon himself the torture of the mortal. The Bible says that: 
“… the wages of sin is death” (Romans, 6:23).
 Death as retribution for sin isn’t just painful; it is also eternal. Jesus described hell as the place where “their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” (Mark, 9:48). Jesus died for the salvation of the humanity, – for all of us, sinners. Jesus did that because He loves us! That is why today God disciplines His children! God disciplines us so that we would not have to experience again the death that Jesus has already suffered and tasted for us. Through discipline and love God desires to protect us from the chief effect of sin, which is death. So we see that God sometimes chooses to use pain and suffering in the lives of His disobedient children as a way to punish and discipline them. Now let’s see what the main purpose of God’s discipline is in more detail. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF GOD’S DISCIPLINE? We can miss many important and useful opportunities in life if we underestimate what is going on in our lives. God’s discipline is one of these opportunities. Believers have a tendency to despise the discipline of their Heavenly Father. Yet in the Epistle to Hebrews The Lord is calling us to resist the wrong attitude of some believers towards God’s discipline. It says in the Bible: 
 « My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him» (Hebrews, 12:5).
 The believers that are focused on comfort usually are indifferent towards the truth of God disciplining them. Some of them aren’t even bothered by their sins or irresponsibility. People like that want to be blessed by God, yet they despise God’s discipline. The Bible also tells us that punishment is profitable for us and not God. Discipline is one of the ways how God transforms His children into the image of Jesus Christ. Discipline might be painful today, but it is not meant to destroy our lives, but to perfect it and bring out of us our best qualities. That is what Apostle Paul talks about in Hebrews: 
«You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the LORD loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.” If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For the indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it» (Hebrews, 12:4-11).
 We see that God’s chastening is not a sign of His displeasure towards us, but a sign of His acceptance. We can see that in many verses of the Scripture. The verses above tell us that God’s punishment is a sign of acceptance and sonship: 
 «If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons» (Hebrews, 12:7-8).
 If God cannot discipline you, then you are not His legitimate child. Whomever God accepts as His children, He disciplines and chastises. Tomorrow we will discuss in more detail the purposes of God has in disciplining His children. May God bless you and your loved ones! Pastor Rufus Ajiboye

Support us so we can do more

We’ll get right to the point: we’re asking you to help us support our Church online minisry. We’re a nonprofit that relies on support from people like you. If everyone reading this gives €12 monthly, Spirit and Truth city Church can continue to thrive for years.

Similar Posts

  • Dedication precedes provision

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 4 minutes
    God is always good, and He will never change in this sense. God is always powerful. God changes His strength for my weakness. God always has blessings for every one of us. The unchanging God can change you. You can always come to God – in any situation – and He will change you and your circumstances.All of us need provision, because we all have needs in different areas of our life: finances, health, wisdom for making decisions etc.

  • КАК МЫ МОЖЕМ ЕЖЕДНЕВНО ПРИБЛИЖАТЬСЯ К БОГУ?

    AutorsПастор Руфус Аджибойе Reading Time: 1 minute
    1) Входите через дверь и оставайтесь в Божьем присутствии.Мы должны приходить перед Отцом посредством Крови Иисуса Христа.«Итак, братия, имея дерзновение входить во святилище посредством Крови Иисуса Христа, путем новым и живым, который Он вновь открыл нам через завесу, то есть плоть Свою, и имея великого Священника над домом Божиим, да приступаем с искренним сердцем, с полною верою, кроплением очистив сердца от порочной совести, и омыв тело водою чистою». (Евреям 10:19-22).

  • Faith is obedience to the Lord! II

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 4 minutes
    «Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.» (Hebrew 11:6). As we mentioned earlier, faith means acting in accordance to the word of God. Quite often God calls us to do impossible things, those only God Himself can accomplish. God is not inviting us to demonstrate our own capabilities, but what He is able to do through us. That´s why God often gives us the tasks we cannot accomplish without Him.

  • It is the content of your heart that determines where your life is heading! II

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 2 minutes
    The Word of God that you keep in your heart will save you! In hard times, when people rise against you with slander and when all the circumstances seem to be against you, only the Word of God that you have in your heart will save you. That is why we say that God’s Word is our support system. It is like a bearing wall in a building. If you take it down, the building will collapse. A bearing wall carries the weight.

  • You have been created, redeemed and restored! You were born twice!

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 5 minutes
    We are not only created by God, we are also reworked or recreated by Jesus Christ. We are talking about the opportunity available to sinful people because Christ has come into this world. This is exactly what the letter to Ephesians says:«You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience; among whom we also all once lived in the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus; for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.» (Ephesians 2:1-10).

  • We need to constantly renew in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, who in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 4 minutes
    If we never stop following Jesus, He will change us making those changes more and more obvious in our lives and for the people around us.The fact that we have become believers yet doesn´t mean we have become perfect. That´s why we should not represent ourselves as such in front of other people. Surely we are not perfect. We are still undergoing improvement process. We are still under process of changes as we follow Jesus and submit ourselves to His Spirit. God changes us as we renew our mind and put aside our old man, as we deny ourselves and carry the cross. All these things have an impact on us helping us to behold the glory of the Lord.