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I still celebrate the forgiveness of God that ushered in my salvation like it was yesterday! The very thought that as wretched, evil and sinful as I was, God showed amazing love and grace to forgive me is incredible beyond words. Hallelujah! God Almighty forgives our sins! No matter what you have done, no matter how bad even society says you are, God stands ready to forgive you if you will draw near with a repentant heart and confess the truth: "Lord, I am a sinner, please save me!" It sounds too good to be true, doesn´t it? But I am a living witness among millions it is true, real, free and there is no catch!
However, there is one thing I am compelled to warn prospective and new Christians about. God forgives our sins, but He does not remove all of their consequences. His forgiveness has to do with our sin guilt that leads ultimately to His long ago announced consequence, death. He says in Ezekiel 18:4, "Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine; the soul that sins shall die," (NKJV). In His forgiveness of the sinner, He removes the consequence of eternal, but leaves physical death intact. When God forgives the guilty, He is not dealing with us as our sins deserve (Psalm 103:8-14).
Though our sins deserve physical death, God does not regularly kill sinners on the spot. Adam died 930 years after he sinned and God kicked him out of the garden so he would not eternally perish by eating from the tree of life. The fact He permits most sinners to live for a time is of His love, grace (unmerited favor) and mercy (pity). In this regard, God is more merciful than momma was when I was a boy. When she said “don´t do such and such or I will tear your behind up," she did so right then as I painfully learned on more than one occasion.
Let no man believe from this that God is some old softy grandfather in the sky that only threatens, but does not carry out His sentence. I am trying to warn and help especially babes in the faith understand God does not kill us on the spot because Christ paid our penalty on the cross! Therefore, God at the expense of His Son´s sacrifice is longsuffering, patient and forbearing toward us, not soft or permissive. He wills to save not destroy sinners. Too, He is a Father and disciplines us who become His sons by faith in accord with His will that we be holy and righteous like Him--spiritual chips off of the old block as it were (Hebrews 12:5-11).
Sonship is one sure reason God may not sweep in at salvation and remove all of the natural and very often painful consequences of our previous sinful choices. As a wise Father He uses those consequences as part of His discipline plan to teach and form the character of Christ in us. Did you have children out of wedlock, a non-biblically sanctioned divorce or commit a crime and serve time in prison before you came to Christ? Then understand God forgave you but allows the natural consequences of your choices to follow you and adopts them for use in His discipline and spiritual growth plan for you (Acts 9:10-16, 9:26, 21:17-22:22).
Again, whatever you and I suffer as the natural consequences of our sinful choices before coming to Christ, we have not received what our sins deserved which was instant death! Also, God extends His grace and mercy to us as we go through the painful natural consequences of our sins. Our experiences are not nearly as bad as they could have been without His grace and mercy. In the same way the thorns of a sweet smelling rose still give a painful prick, so is God’s grace and mercy in the mix with the painful natural consequences of some of our past sinful choices.
If you are going to willfully practice sin as a Christian, you may as well prepare yourself to endure the certain natural and supernatural consequences if you will not repent. Once more I am a witness. Though every situation is different, in general, the Lord will warn and give us some time to repent. However, if you will not stop after He warns you to do so, get ready; He is coming with the chastisement. Why? "For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives," (Proverbs 3:12; Hebrews 12:6). God´s chastisement is supernatural though it may involve natural elements because it is direct and purposeful from Him. As a result, you can count on it being very painful and potentially lifelong (2 Samuel 12:1-23)!
The Christian is to understand that if we make sinful choices our heavenly Father is under no obligation to deliver us out of the natural or purposeful consequences He might put on us as discipline. His intent is that we think twice before we willfully choose to sin against Him. This advance thinking is called "the fear of Lord" and will save our souls as well as these all too short natural lives from much grief (Job 28:28; Psalm 111:10).
Now, in fairness, you do not have to do anything to have pain in God´s discipline plan. He treats us as sons and painfully disciplines us for our benefit just as our human parents did their best to do, stumbling as they went being imperfect. But He is perfect and knows exactly what He is doing! Who though among us can say, "I am innocent and do not deserve any pain God might allow in my life?" Unless you are more innocent than Christ, you have no complaint since even He endured the Father’s chastening (Isaiah 50:4-6; Hebrews 5:8).
The truth is we are sinners by nature. In humility, we are to accept whatever the Lord´s discipline plan is into our lives as the prophet Jeremiah counsels in Lamentations 3:27-42. We are to also be wise, fear the Lord and obey His Word to avoid sin´s painful consequences.
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