In reading through what I had written though, I found the word “scourge” in Hebrews 12:6, and I wondered what it meant. In looking it up, I found the word means, “A multiple pronged instrument used to inflict severe pain.” This is also the definition of sickness and disease. Sickness and disease is a multifaceted attack against the flesh of mankind, causing severe pain.
The word scourge is both a verb and a noun. It is at once both a multi-pronged instrument of pain and the act of inflicting pain with that instrument. It is clear that it is the flesh that causes mankind to sin against God and any discipline the Lord would hand out would be against the flesh. There is no question sickness and disease is not God’s will but there should be no question that sickness and disease is the scourge in the Lord’s hand He uses to discipline.
The word, scourge, indicates something else though. This portion of scripture goes on to say, “Whom the Lord loves, He also chastens.” It should be clear we can substitute the word scourge for chastens. This indicates the God of love is willing to take drastic measures to steer His children in the right direction. His love is so great He will use a multi-pronged instrument to inflict severe pain to guide His children to the path of righteousness as long as it takes.
The problem is Christians have been willing to resist His instruction at all costs. Even when their bodies are ravaged by multiple diseases, they are still unwilling to embrace the truth and unwilling to repent. The phrase, “shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?” from Hebrews 12, indicates again for us the idea that to resist the chastening of the Lord is to fail to receive eternal life.
Again, let us be clear, although Ephesians 2:8 describes a salvation obtained by grace through faith without works, Hebrews 5:9 tells of eternal life obtained by obedience. Romans 10:10 tells us righteousness is obtained by a faith of the heart but salvation is realized by confession. Jesus told Nicodemus a man must be born again in order to enter the kingdom of God but there are two births involved. A man must be born of water and of the Spirit. The word, and, indicates a two pronged approach. Galatians 4:4 tells us we are redeemed from the law that we might become sons, indicating they are not the same and Hebrews 3 speaks of a people delivered who refuse to enter. Then here in Hebrews 12, we are told that to fail to yield to the Father of spirits is to fail to enter into life.
Furthermore, “Our natural fathers chastened us for a few days as seemed best to them, but He for our profit.” Again, the inference is that the Lord’s chastening goes on and on until we repent as 2Peter 3:9 indicates. “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” The promise is that of eternal life, promised to all who believe in Jesus but as we have just indicated, eternal life is a two step process. Peter said the Lord is longsuffering toward “us”, so we aren’t talking about the world. Moreover, the book was written to Christians. The Lord’s chastening falls on Christians, His children. He is not willing that any of His children fail to inherit eternal life and therefore is willing to suffer long with their suffering under His scourging.
Indeed, this is what we see in the Church today. Christians, those precious souls in Christ Jesus, suffer long with the multi-pronged instrument of God’s scourging as He tries to lead them to the path of righteousness, the correct behavior that leads to eternal life. The Lord does not relent His scourging, even when the pain becomes unbearable, in His attempts to have His children obtain life. For which is the more important, health and prosperity in this life, or life eternal and the purpose of the Lord’s scourging is repentance. If we repent, He turns all our sorrow into joy.
Moreover, consider again 1Corinthians 11. The book of Corinthians was written to Christians and chapter 11 holds instructions of the Lord’s Supper, a sacrament received by Christians as a means to judge their own worthiness of the body and blood of the Lord. He that eats and drinks while unworthy eats and drinks damnation to himself. It is the Lord they fail to discern and the damnation they receive is sickness, disease, and death. Paul says, “When we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world” (v.32), but “if we should judge ourselves, we should not be judged” (v.31). The judgment is against sin and it is the flesh that is judged. The punishment is sickness and disease, which brings on death and, it is entirely possible to become a Christian and still be condemned with the world, according to verse 32.
Is it reasonable to believe the God of love has placed sickness and disease on His children to instruct them? It is true and most Christians believe it to be true, however, they are clueless as to what instruction they are supposed to get. It doesn’t even enter into the heart of man what God has in store for His children.
Paul said, “As it is written, eye has not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for them that love Him” 1Corinthians 2:9, but who are them that love him? Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” So the keepers of Jesus’ commandments are those who love Jesus. In that the Father gave to Jesus the name above every other name, Jesus is the God of the new covenant, and in that Jesus used the personal pronoun “my,” Jesus’ commandments are not the commandments of the old covenant law. To keep Jesus’ commandments we must look past the crucifixion of Jesus to find them.
Most Christians die with some form of sickness and disease so whatever judgments they make are incorrect and whatever sins they repent of aren’t the ones they should repent of. It should be clear as soon as repentance is exercised and the correct behavior is engaged, the Lord will cease to chastise and the sickness and disease will be lifted.
The things that are beyond mankind’s ability to ask or think are the things prepared for those who keep Jesus’ commandments. The problem is; nobody has kept Jesus’ commandments for thousands of years now. The Church universally strives to keep the Ten Commandments of the old covenant law, but it does not even enter the heart of man that Jesus’ commandments are different from His Father’s, which is why we see so much suffering in the Church. Christians repent of the Ten Commandments but that repentance does not change the Lord’s chastisement. God is trying to correct behavior that has not even entered into the heart of man as wrong. The idea that Jesus’ commandments are the critical commandments to be kept is a totally foreign concept to Christians.
Because of this we can truly say, “eye has not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for them that love Him,” because there have been none who understood what it means to love the Lord. Christians have busied themselves loving the Father according to the Father’s definition of love. They have failed to understand that Jesus is a unique individual or that He was given the name above every other name upon His resurrection or that with this new authority he established a new kingdom by drafting a new covenant or that He issued new commandments. In order to live in the new covenant, mankind must keep the new covenant commandments.
Keeping Jesus’ commandments is the correct behavior for Christians and those who fail are disciplined, chastised, and scourged for correction, but as Paul has said, it has not entered into the heart of man to keep the commandments Jesus issued just before His ascension back into heaven. The idea that all the Church should wait for a baptism with the Spirit of God, or that to be baptized is to be saturated, or that to keep is a daily discipline, is as foreign to Christians as life on the moon. It doesn’t enter into the heart. All God’s discipline has been in vain.
Still, God is not willing that any who have placed themselves in Christ Jesus should fail to receive eternal life so He does what He can. He first calls Christians to receive the baptism with the Spirit multiple times (Acts 2:39). He is patient and kind and gentle as He calls but Christians are taught the experience is not necessary and they reject the Lord’s calling and want nothing to do with the gift of tongues. He then chastises them for their lack of response to His love. As time goes by and there is still no response to the gentle call of the Lord, discipline is administered and then, not willing that any should perish, the Lord gets more aggressive and scourges. The scourging is heavier and heavier until at last the believer succumbs to a multi-pronged attack against the flesh, an attack designed to bring about repentance and obedience.
The harshness of this scourging must be tempered by the truth that except we follow the Lord, we will be condemned with the world; we cannot inherit eternal life. The Lord is very limited in this respect. If Christians will not heed God’s Word; if they do not take it at face value and believe; if they interpret it according to their sensibilities, then God is at a loss as to how to correct wrong behavior. As long as the Ten Commandments are deemed the most critical to keep; and the first commandment Jesus issued after being made Lord of All is interpreted to be a personal commandment to eleven men alone; as long as mankind gets to pick and choose which verses to emphasize and which to minimize, how then can the Lord correct His children? All conviction for wrongdoing is devoid of power.
In John 1:1, the relationship between Jesus and the Word of God is made quite plain. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And in verse 14 we further learn, “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” We have a saying, “A man is only as good as his word.” This speaks of integrity. There is nothing to suggest Christians should not keep the first commandment of the Lord, other than interpretation by men, but the interpretation by men is more highly esteemed than the Word of God. How can Jesus combat this thinking? How can Jesus overcome the wisdom of man?
Over the last two thousand years Jesus has thought outside the box. He has tried again and again and again to illustrate the importance of the gift of tongues in the life of the believer only to have the wisdom of man wipe away the wisdom of God. In Romans 9:30, the Father even warned Christians of a stumbling stone placed in the Church so Christians could be aware and negotiate it. Instead of a careful negotiation of the stumbling stone, Christians stumble right over it.
The Word states, “Behold I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, whoever believes on Him shall not be ashamed.” The word, behold, is like God saying “look! Pay attention!” The word Zion speaks of the Church. So God is saying, “Look! Be careful! I’m placing a stumbling stone in the life of Christians; it is a rock of offense; don’t stumble over it and be careful not to be offended by it.” This stumbling stone is the commandment to wait for a saturation of the Holy Spirit. This saturation occurs as the gift of tongues pours out of your heart.
The Christian stumbles over this commandment and rejects the idea that they are answerable to it. They are also offended that the gift of tongues has anything to do with salvation, but God warned Christians not to stumble over the commandment, He warned them not to take offense. Now, there is an interesting point here beyond God’s warning. I use the King James Version of the scripture to study and somehow the King James translators saw a difference between a belief in Jesus and a belief on Jesus.
In Romans 9:30 of the King James Version, the words believe on is used, while in John 3:16, the words believe in is used. The word, in, means to be immersed by but the word, on, means a place arrived. King James translators saw a difference between believing in the Christ and being immersed by His death thereby and arriving at His resurrection through that belief. It is quite a shock to go from knowing the Christ to knowing the Lord and most Christians do not recognize the Lord after getting to know the Christ. The Christ is the very picture of humility but the Lord is clothed with the glory and authority of All Mighty God. Most Christians stumble over the Lord and are offended that they are being commanded by Him because He first served in the capacity of humility.
This dual role played by Jesus is the stumbling stone described by Romans 9:30. Jesus fulfilled the old covenant law by living up to its standard for righteousness completely. Then by dying as one completely guilty of transgressing the whole law, that standard for righteousness can be imputed to believers in the Saviour as a free gift. It is a shock then to stand before the Lord of glory and have Him require obedience and Christians, for two thousand years, have failed to make the transition. To be totally set free from one law only to be put back under another law is offensive to Christians.
Just consider John’s relationship with Jesus. Early in His life, Jesus was John’s closest friend. He even leaned back against Jesus’ breast at the last supper. This is the very picture of love, humility, friendship, and intimacy. However, when Jesus reappeared to John at the end of his life, Jesus was unapproachable and His visage was so terrible, Jesus’ best friend fell to the ground as a dead man. This is an opportunity to be offended. Jesus raised John up but there were no hugs and pats on the back. The Jesus who appeared on the Isle of Patmos was a completely different person from the Jesus that ate with the disciples.
This is the exact reason we find the words, “Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever,” in our Bibles (Heb.13:8). The roles Jesus has played, first as creator, then as the lamb before the slaughter, and now as Almighty Lord and Judge are so drastically different, many people struggle to grasp they are the same person. The writer of Hebrews wanted to tie these three personas together such that there would be no question they are the same person.
You can understand then why there would be shame involved. Those who believe in Jesus are then called Christians and they have received of the body and blood of the Lord but to stand before Him and realize you have no obedience to offer your Lord is a shaming experience. Thus, those who believe on Jesus shall not be ashamed while the obvious inference is that those who do not will.
It seems that God has done all He can to make sure believers make it to eternity. Our Bibles are divided into the New and Old Testament. The word testament is the same as the word covenant, which is a synonym of the word, contract. There was an old contract God had drawn up with the Jews and a new contract Jesus drew up with the whole human race. The new contract could not be drawn up with the whole human race until the old contract was fulfilled. Jesus fulfilled the old contract by coming to earth as a man, living up to the standard His Father had set for righteousness, and then dying as one guilty of transgressing every old covenant law. This allowed the new covenant to be drafted and ratified.
Every contract has bylaws that govern it. In that we are now under a new contract, it stands to reason there are new laws that define the correct behavior under that contract. It makes no sense to try to keep the laws of the old covenant in the new covenant age. The old covenant has gone out of authority. Moreover, to try to access the old covenant’s definition of salvation is foolishness; it is a defunct salvation.
Furthermore, there would be no reason to establish a new covenant if no fault was found with the old covenant. Therefore, the new covenant is a better covenant. It stands to reason that Christians would search the words of Jesus from His resurrection to His ascension to find the instructions concerning life in the new covenant but they don’t. They look to the old covenant law to find their instructions on how to live in the new covenant age.
It is clear to me however, the only thing required of Christians in the new covenant age is to keep one’s self saturated with the Holy Spirit. This is what Jesus said to those first Christians. “Go into Jerusalem and wait for a baptism with the Holy Spirit.” The word, baptism, means saturation, and when the gift of tongues came pouring out of their mouths, they were certainly saturated with the Holy Spirit.
In John 7:38, Jesus said, “He that believes on me, out of His belly will flow rivers of Living Water.” The scriptures go on to define Living Water as the Holy Spirit and when the Holy Spirit pours out of your heart, He manifests Himself as the gift of tongues. Therefore, he that believes Jesus is Lord, has rivers of the gift of tongues pouring out of his heart. He that believes not does not.
It should be abundantly clear that belief in the Christ does not cause rivers of the Holy Spirit to pour out of the heart. There was no provision of the Holy Spirit under the old covenant law, though He did visit believers at times and it should be clear Jesus died under the law to fulfill the law but was raised from the dead, and established a better covenant which has better promises. In order to receive those better promises one must first enter the new covenant through obedience.
Jesus spoke a parable in which a man had two sons. The man said to the one son, “Go work in the vineyard,” and the son said, “Yes sir,” but he didn’t go. The man then came to the other son and said, “Go work in the vineyard,” and this son said, “No sir, not today,” but he later changed his mind and went out to the vineyard to work. Jesus then asked the question, “Which boy proved he was the man’s son?” I might ask you a similar question, “Whose son are you?”
If you consider yourself a son of the old covenant and you try to keep old covenant law and your faith is in righteousness, there is no work required of you but if you consider yourself a son of the new covenant and Jesus as your Lord, there is work required. “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments” 1John 5:3. Some people asked Jesus, “What are the works of God that we might work them,” and Jesus said, “The work of God is to believe on the Son.” The word, on, indicates it is a belief on the risen Lord that is indicated here. Though there are no works associated with the belief of the heart for righteousness, there are works associated with the confession unto salvation, Romans 10:10.
You see, Jesus died as the Christ. In order to receive His righteousness you must believe Jesus died for you. Jesus was raised from the dead with all power and authority in heaven and earth however. If you believe this to be true, you will faithfully keep His commandments. This means there are two parts to eternal life. Jesus’ use of sickness and disease is meant to move Christians from righteousness to eternal life but because of interpretation and disdain for the gift of tongues, the knowledge of how to move from righteousness to eternal life has been wiped from the conscious of the Church.
Still, Jesus has not given up hope and He tirelessly works to get Christians to embrace the truth.