What’s the difference between God’s wrath and God’s discipline?

Hey, thanks again for sending in questions related to our recent sermons. We’ve been continuing our series in Jeremiah. In this last week, we studied, um, the difficult subject of God’s judgment, God’s wrath. We looked at God’s wrath, um, in Jeremiah, um, and also in other places in scripture, you know, most poignantly in, uh, hell.

But we said that, um, God’s wrath and judgment, while it is deserved, um, for all of us who have strayed from him, participated in evil, contributed to the chaos, um, and the breaking of God’s perfect world, even though we all deserve it, Christ stands in our place, takes the judgment for us. This is what happens on the cross.

You could say he endured hell for us. He absorbed all of the wrath that we deserve. So really, then, when we read of these accounts of God’s wrath in scripture, we we can see it, uh, one message we can take from it is that’s how much Christ loves us, because that’s what he, uh, took on himself in our place so that we are free from it forever. Um, we said there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, Romans 8:1.

It’s really all gone. We will as Christians in Christ never, uh, experience God’s wrath, either in this life or the next, because Jesus swallowed every single last drop of it. Uh, which is fantastic news. Um, so, so the question, uh, this week is, what then is really the difference between God’s wrath and God’s, we could say, discipline? Uh, you know, Hebrews 12, that God, um, uh, punishes, uh, all those he loves, disciplines those he accepts as sons, you know, his children.

What’s what’s the difference? You know, we could be through in painful circumstances either way. You know, we’re not in Christ, we endure, um, you know, kind of say consequences of our actions. We’re in Christ, we endure consequences of our actions. Um, God is doing something, Hebrews 12 is talking about discipline, even using the word punishment, um, against us.

So isn’t that wrath? Isn’t that just a little bit of wrath? Isn’t it just a little bit of condemnation? Um, and the answer is no. It’s not a little bit of wrath, it’s not a little bit of condemnation. It is all done, um, in the context of our, of love for us, renewal for us, for our good. He’s building us up.

He’s, uh, making us more, you know, conforming us to the image of his son. Um, and you could think about it, you know, in our, uh, how our, how our justice system is supposed to work, um, is that somebody commits a crime, they go to jail. Part of what’s happens in jail is we say punitive. There is a penalty, uh, that they owe, uh, society for what they have done, right?

That is part of the justice system. But another part of the justice system is supposed to be, at least, rehabilitation, um, get you up and running, um, as a constructive member of society again, maybe give you some skills, teach you something, um, you know, minister to your soul even would be great, right? Um, your your redemption as a as a human. Um, and so there are two different aspects of the justice system, punitive and rehabilitation. Um, and then what Christ does, um, is you is he takes the

punitive part for us. So there’s no penalty. There’s no we owe anything anymore. Uh, all of that is, um, dealt with on the cross. But God still wants to rehabilitate us. And so, because he loves us, uh, he disciplines us. There is really no condemnation. God’s involvement in our lives, even those times that it’s painful, is for our good. It’s not for our harm. Um, another, uh, illustration that people use, you know, is, um, is you could think, if if if somebody cuts you open, that’s normally a bad

thing, right? Um, that would be anger towards you. If somebody slices you with a knife, that’s anger, that’s for your destruction, right? But in Christ, um, there’s none of that from God. Instead of if God cuts us open, it’s much more like how a surgeon cuts us open. Um, yes, it’s the same cut even, but its purpose is for something entirely for our good.

He’s actually cutting us in order to heal us. Um, as as we hope doctors do, right? We want them to cut us so that we will be healed. Um, so in Christ, no wrath, no condemnation, no destruction for us whatsoever, ever. But yes, God will discipline, God will rehabilitate, God will cut us, um, in order to heal us.

It’s for our good, it’s out of love for us. So that’s the difference between wrath and discipline. We hope that’s helpful, and we’ll see you next time.