Chastisement

From D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones' Spiritual Depression, a collection of sermons on Psalm 42:  "Why are you cast down, O my soul?  Why are you disquieted within me?  Hope in God!" 

In Chapter 17, he says one reason we can come into this condition of unhappiness as a Christian, is because we fail to realize that God uses varied methods, including chastisement, to bring about our sanctification.  If we recognize and submit to it, we will not be utterly cast down because of it.

The whole of salvation is God's work from beginning to end, and God has His ways of producing it. Once God starts working He goes on with that work.  He has an ultimate purpose and objective...much that happens to us in this world is to be understood and explained in light of that fact.  God will bring us to that condition, and nothing shall prevent our coming into that condition.

Now God has several ways of doing this.  One is to give us instruction through His Word.  But if we become recalcitrant, if we will not learn the lessons that are presented to us postively in the Word, then God, as our Father, with the great end and object in view of perfecting us, will adopt other methods.  One of the other methods He uses is this method of chastisement.  Far from being annoyed by this process, we ought to thank God for it, for He is giving us proof that we are His children.

What is chastisement?  It means to train.  It includes correction...instruction...rebuke...and may include punishment, but the essential object of chastisement is to train and develop a mature person.

Why does God chastise?  Because He loves us.  Let us look at some of the particular reson which He has for doing so.  One is that there are certain faults in us, certain faults in all of us, which need to be corrected.  What are they? 

Spiritual pride...being exalted over-much.  Spiritual pride is a terrible danger and it is a danger that persists.

Self-confidence...the danger is for man to rely upon himself and his gifts and to feel in a sense that he does not need God. 

Being attracted to the world...it is not that a man deliberately sits down and decides that he is going back into the world.  It happens almost imperceptibly...a man slips into them almost without knowing it...he comes to love the things of the world.

Self-satisfaction...the danger of resting on our oars, being satisfied with the position we have reached in the Christian life.   We become smug...and we do not grow.

The chastisement God sends for these sins produces certain qualities in us: 

Humility...God knows, we all have to be humbled in order to arrive at humility.  Failure can be very good for us there.  It is very difficult to be humble when you are always successful.

Heavenly-mindedness...We so cling to the world that God has to do something which shows us very clearly that the things that bind us to this world are fragile and can be snapped in a second.  So we are suddenly awakened to keep our affections on things above, not on things of the earth.

Meekness...it is almost impossible to be sympathetic in our relationships with others unless we know something of the same experience.  God sometimes has to deal with us in order to remind us of our need for patience.  He says in effect:  "You know I am patient with you, now go and be patient with that other person."

Blessed be God Who has undertaken our salvation and our perfection and Who, having started the work, will go on with it, and Who so loves us that if we will not learn the lessons voluntarily, will chastise us in order to bring us into conformity with the image of His dear Son.