The Glorious Government of God's Sons Text: Hebrews 12:4-11
Introduction: The Father's Loving Rod
We live in a soft and sentimental age. Our therapeutic culture has come to despise the very idea of discipline. We have exchanged fathers for therapists, and correction for affirmation. We want a god who is a celestial guidance counselor, one who pats us on the head and tells us to follow our hearts, a god who would never dream of crossing us. We want a velvet-lined deity, a god without a rod. But a father who never disciplines his children is a father who hates them. And a god who only affirms, who never corrects, is not the God of the Bible. He is an idol carved out of the soft wood of our own self-centered desires.
The Scriptures, in stark contrast, present discipline not as a sign of rejection, but as the premier sign of sonship. The absence of God's correcting hand is not a mark of His approval, but rather the terrifying sign that you are not one of His. It is the mark of the bastard, not the beloved son. If God lets you get away with your sin, if He lets you wander off into the pigpen without sending the dogs of affliction to nip at your heels and drive you back home, it is the most fearful sign that you do not belong to Him at all.
The original audience of this letter to the Hebrews was weary. They were in a hard striving against sin, and they were tempted to grow faint, to lose heart. The author writes to them not to offer them a soft pillow, but to give them a stiff spine. He tells them to re-frame their entire understanding of hardship. Their trials are not random cosmic accidents. They are not the vindictive punishments of an angry tyrant. No, their sufferings are the careful, loving, paternal discipline of a Father who is training them for glory. This is not punishment, but pedagogy. It is not wrath, but wrestling. God is making men out of them, and that is never a painless process.
The Text
You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, "MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE FLOGS EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES." It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our benefit, so that we may share His holiness. And all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful, but to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
(Hebrews 12:4-11 LSB)
A Call to Perspective (v. 4)
The writer begins with a bracing dose of reality.
"You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin." (Hebrews 12:4)
Just before this, in chapter 11, he paraded before them the great hall of faith, a catalog of saints who were tortured, stoned, sawn in two, and put to death with the sword. Now he turns to his readers and says, in effect, "Your striving is hard, yes. But let's have some perspective. You're not dead yet." This is not a dismissive comment; it is a call to courage. The Christian life is a fight. It is a "striving against sin." Sin is not a minor character flaw; it is a mortal enemy that must be resisted, fought, and killed. And in this great war, others have paid the ultimate price. So don't you dare faint now. Stand up and fight like a man.
The Forgotten Exhortation (v. 5-6)
The central problem, he says, is that they have forgotten their Bibles.
"And you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, 'MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE FLOGS EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.'" (Hebrews 12:5-6)
Spiritual amnesia is the Christian's great liability. We forget who God is, and we forget who we are. The author reminds them of what the Scriptures say, quoting from Proverbs 3. And notice the address: "as sons." This is the key that unlocks the whole passage. The entire framework for understanding your suffering is paternal. This is a family matter.
He quotes the Proverb, which gives two wrong ways to respond to God's discipline. First, do not "regard it lightly." Don't shrug it off. Don't be cavalier about your sin or the affliction God sends to correct it. Pay attention. God is speaking. The second error is to "faint when you are reproved." Don't collapse in despair. Don't conclude that God has rejected you. That is the very opposite of the truth.
Why? "FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES." Discipline is not the opposite of love; it is the evidence of it. It is the proof of His paternal affection. And this is a robust, muscular love. He not only "disciplines" (which has the sense of training and instruction), but He "flogs every son whom He receives." The word is "scourges." This is not a gentle tap. This is a severe, painful, attention-getting action. And it is the mark of acceptance. It is the sign that God has received you, welcomed you into His family, and put His name on you. God doesn't spank the neighbor's kids. He spanks His own. The sting of the rod is the assurance of your adoption.
The Mark of Sonship (v. 7-8)
He then drives the point home with inescapable logic.
"It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons." (Hebrews 12:7-8)
You must interpret your hardships correctly. The reason you are called to endure is because this is your training. This is how "God deals with you as with sons." He then uses a common-sense argument from the lesser to the greater. In that culture, it was a given that a good father disciplined his son. A father who refused to correct his child was a negligent fool who hated his own offspring. So, if even earthly fathers know this, how can you expect anything less from a perfect heavenly Father?
The alternative is terrifying. "But if you are without discipline... then you are illegitimate children and not sons." The word is "bastards." If you can live in sin with impunity, if God's hand of correction is never felt in your life, you have every reason to question whether you are a Christian at all. A life of easy, comfortable, uncorrected sin is not a sign of God's favor, but of His abandonment. The absence of the Father's rod is the awful reality of being outside the covenant family, with no claim to the Father's name, protection, or inheritance.
The Superior Father (v. 9-10)
The author continues his argument from the lesser to the greater, contrasting our earthly fathers with our heavenly one.
"Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our benefit, so that we may share His holiness." (Hebrews 12:9-10)
We submitted to our earthly fathers, who were imperfect men, and we gave them respect. How much more, then, should we submit to the "Father of spirits"? Our earthly fathers disciplined our flesh for a short time on earth. But God is the Father of our eternal selves, our spirits, and His discipline is for our eternal life. Notice the result of this submission: "and live." Rebellion against God's discipline is the way of death. Submission is the path to true, abundant, everlasting life.
He sharpens the contrast. Our earthly fathers disciplined us "for a short time" and "as seemed best to them." Their wisdom was limited, their motives were sometimes mixed, and their methods were flawed. But our heavenly Father's discipline is perfect in every respect. He acts "for our benefit," always. His wisdom is perfect, His love is perfect, and His goal is breathtaking: "so that we may share His holiness." The point of God's discipline is not merely behavior modification. It is transformation. God is making us like Himself. He is conforming us to the image of His Son. He is chipping away all the unholy granite from the block of our lives to reveal the image of Christ within. This is a glorious purpose, and it is worth the temporary pain of the chisel.
The Fruit of the Training (v. 11)
Finally, the author acknowledges the pain, but points to the ultimate outcome.
"And all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful, but to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness." (Hebrews 12:11)
Here is the pastoral realism. The Bible never pretends that suffering is fun. "For the moment," it is "sorrowful." God is not a Stoic, and He does not expect us to be. It is right to grieve. It is right to feel the sting. Jesus wept. But we must not get stuck on "the moment." We must look to the "afterwards."
And the fruit is not automatic. It comes "to those who have been trained by it." The word for trained gives us our word gymnasium. We are in God's gym. We must submit to the training regimen. If we endure it resentfully, or fight against it bitterly, we will not receive the benefit. We must ask, "Father, what are you teaching me? What sin are you mortifying? What virtue are you cultivating?"
For those who submit to the training, the result is certain: "it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness." After the sorrow of the workout comes the peace of the harvest. The chaos and turmoil of sin are replaced by the shalom, the wholeness, the peaceful order of righteousness. The pain is an investment that yields an eternal dividend of peace and holiness.
Conclusion: The Discipline of the Son
How then should we live? We must remember that the ultimate discipline of God was poured out not on us, but on His only true Son. At the cross, Jesus Christ was not disciplined as a son, but punished as a substitute. He was flogged. He shed His blood. He endured the ultimate sorrow. He took upon Himself the full, unmitigated wrath of God against our sin, so that we might be received as sons. He was treated as a bastard, so that we might be adopted into the family.
Because of the cross of Jesus Christ, God's rod toward us is never again an instrument of wrath. It is always and only a tool of fatherly love. Every trial, every hardship, every sorrow is now filtered through the tender, loving, sovereign hands of our Father. He is training you, His beloved child, for glory. He is making you fit to rule with Him forever.
So do not despise His discipline. Do not faint under it. Look to Jesus, who endured the cross for the joy that was set before Him. See your momentary, light affliction as the Father's loving hand, shaping you into the image of the Son, for the sake of an eternal weight of glory. Thank Him for the rod, for it is the proof that you are His.