CHASTENING
In the reading we spoke about the inward side of “the washing of water by the word” (Eph.5:26), and I wanted now to speak about the outward side, the side of chastening. It is a divine service just as much as “the washing of water by the word”; and I was particularly thinking of the end of verse 10, “but he for profit, in order to the partaking of his holiness”. God has in mind that we might be partakers of His holiness, and you might ask me to explain that. I am not sure how well I can, but the history of the earth is of two orders of man, Adam and Christ. Adam will not do for God, but Christ is everything; and I wonder if that is what is meant by “partaking of his holiness”, that God does not regard us as in Adam but in Christ. He brings us through chastening in order that this might be accomplished. Chastening, it says here, is not a matter of joy, but of grief, but nevertheless the hand and the heart and the wisdom of God is in it, and while we might wish to escape chastening, we should embrace it, accept it; it says, “he for profit”.
We look around and it is probable that every household has some chastening, and if we thought that it was God being angry with us, we would lose the benefit of it. He knows what He has in mind, and everything that He puts us through has a purpose. That purpose is not only to correct us, but to develop His work in us. And so the various trials that we could think of, and we observe them upon each one – health and family, fellowship, all these things that bring challenges – He does that for profit. So we should not regard chastening lightly but seek to be with God in relation to it. It links with what we had in the reading; it speaks of holiness and sanctification. These two services have that in mind and we need chastening. Think of the apostle Paul. He had a thorn for the flesh (2 Cor.12:7), and he suffered persecution, but it was with the purpose in God’s mind to chasten in order that Paul might be lifted up. As chastening like that comes in, it would keep us humble. Everything is in God’s hands and He is chastening for profit.
Then we might look at Job. We speak of man’s common lot, and Job had suffered most of it. He lost all his belongings and his family, and then through all those chapters of Job we see how God was working with Job. But he did not really get the benefit of the chastening until he got into the presence of God, and that is what God would have in mind, that we might seek His presence. Job came to a point where he said, “I abhor myself” (Job.42:6), and he said of God, “I know that thou canst do everything, and that thou canst be hindered in no thought of thine”, Job.42:2. Job came to that and he prayed for his friends. I was impressed recently to realise that he prayed for his friends when he was still poor and in ill health. God said that Job would pray for them, and after he had prayed for his friends, then blessing came in. Job experienced the profit of being in the presence of God, and he learned that his, Job’s, assumed holiness, was no good, but God’s holiness was everything. That is something that God would have us to learn in chastening, that His holiness is the only thing that is suitable to Him. We see in the law that was given to Israel that they had to do things that related to the holiness of God, and we see that Israel, and ourselves also, are unable to do that, but God is giving it as a gift, “the partaking of his holiness”. It is not through anything that we can do to bring merit on ourselves, but God works with us that we might be given it as a gift. It involves the removal of one kind of man. We know that the old man has been removed in the death and burial of Christ; indeed “our old man has been crucified with him” (Rom.6:6), and it is essential that we all believe in Jesus, and in the full meaning of His death. All our sins were dealt with, and the man who offended God has been removed out of God’s sight and will remain out of God’s sight for ever. So we have Christ as the Object for the believer. Partaking of God’s holiness would be related to that, that we have a place in Christ, we have His nature, we have a link with Him on the other side of death: that is a pure and holy place. We sometimes sing,
‘Where nought of sin can enter’ (Hymn 259).
God brings us to a holy place. So we should not be discouraged by chastening. It is a major subject in the school of God; we learn chastening, and God uses it for our profit. It goes on to say at the end of verse 11, “but afterwards yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those exercised by it”. We are not to despise chastening. It is very challenging for me, that the hand and the heart of God is in it.
I thought too of King David in 2 Samuel 22, it says, “And David spoke to Jehovah the words of this song in the day that Jehovah had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul. And he said,
Jehovah is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer”
(vv.1,2).
That whole psalm is a wonderful psalm of triumph and of joy. But then in the next chapter 23 we have another song, and it came forty years after the first one. After forty years of experience and chastening, David came to it; he says in verse 5,
“Although my house be not so before ˑGod,
Yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant”.
There speaks the voice of experience; David had benefited from chastening. There was nothing wrong with the song in the previous chapter but David had had to learn what he was himself, and we all have to do that. A lot of that was not a matter of joy but of grief, but he learned his lesson, and so his praise is all towards Jehovah and not about himself. That is what God has in mind to bring us into, through all the chastening, that we might have an increased appreciation of Christ; how all that we are naturally has gone in His death and the man that can only sin is gone in Christ’s death and burial. Although we are still here in these bodies, chastening still continues, and we learn that to our sorrow, yet there is great profit in learning that it is “he for profit”, and God has in mind our blessing. He has in mind that we should partake of His holiness, and in parallel with the “the washing of water by the word”, His chastening goes on until the moment we are taken home: it is in order that we might be made suitable to be in His presence. How we need to accept it. It is difficult and sorrowful, but it has in mind our eternal benefit. It is not that we should be downcast and made depressed by all the chastening. We might look around and think that things are much easier elsewhere. No, that is not right. God has ordered our circumstances, each one of us, for the very best, so that we receive from Him what we need for our blessing. King David received what he needed for his correction, and we can read of what happened in his house and in his kingdom. You might wonder that this was the man that God called, “a man after my heart”, Acts 13:22. But it says, “whom the Lord loves he chastens”, Heb.12:6. I think that is the key to it, to understand that God loves you, and in His love He puts us all through things in order that we might profit by it and be partakers of His holiness.
So the writer says, “we have had the fathers of our flesh as chasteners, and we reverenced them; shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?”. God is dealing with us for our blessing, but also for His own glory, and He has in view a universe where there are persons who are the subjects of His work, like the pearl that has developed through suffering. There will be a day when God can display the wonder of what He has done, and how we should appreciate it, that God is securing something for Himself. It involves each one of us, and the chastening is as much needed as the washing of water. As we have said already, it yields “the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those exercised by it”. So my exercise for myself, and for all of us, would be to be “exercised by it”. Nothing that God passes us through is by chance, everything has a purpose.
May we be encouraged by this, to see that God has our blessing and our profit in mind, and He is securing that which is to partake of His holiness. There will be Christ there in eternity and with Him those that are like Him, hearts that have been worked on by God whilst we are here in this life. It is the only opportunity, we might say, that God has to work with us, so that He might secure His eternal blessing and His eternal purpose. May we be encouraged not to despise the chastening but to seek His presence and to get the blessing, “the partaking of his holiness”, for the Lord’s name’s sake.
Address at Bad Endbach, Germany
3 October 2015
R.W. McClean