Posted on 04/15/2020 6:58:02 AM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“The way of the wicked is an abomination unto the LORD: but he loveth him that followeth after righteousness. Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way: and he that hateth reproof shall die” (Proverbs 15:9-10).
In this life, you follow after righteousness. You just keep following it, you’ll not attain it in this life, but one day in the future you will, and you will be rewarded for it. We have no righteousness of our own, it is all of God through Jesus Christ. Now, just because we have no righteousness doesn’t mean that we are not quite saved. We are saved 100% by the righteousness of another. One day we will be like Jesus, and we’ll have His righteousness.
Paul said, “And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead” (Philippians 3:9-11). He also said, “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14).
“Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way: and he that hateth reproof shall die.”
“Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way,” this is chastening. The writer said in Hebrews, “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (Hebrews 12:11). No one likes to be punished. No kid likes to get a whipping. No child of God looks forward to being chastised.
I’m glad that God corrects me when I step out of the way. For the first place, it shows that I am His child. “And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons” (Hebrews 12:5-8).
God doesn’t punish the Devil’s kids. If a man is not saved, he is none of God’s family. I never spanked the neighbor’s kids (though I wish I could have at times), my authority was limited, rightly so, to my own children. So, when God spanks me, I know that I am His.
“. . . and he that hateth reproof shall die,” God knows it won’t do any good to correct them. He won’t accept it, he’ll hate it, so God will just let them go on their way and die. God even says that to a Christian in First Corinthians 11 through Paul: “For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep” (11:29-30).
We are God’s children when we are saved, but we still have our free will. We can reject God’s Lordship in our lives and live just the way we want to—and quite often it will result in an early grave. God won’t force anyone to do anything against their wills. In clarification, we do not accept the Lordship of Jesus Christ to be saved, and we don’t accept it to stay saved; but we do accept it and abide in it because we are saved and want to please Him.
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