After our son Jack David died, and we had the funeral in Florida, we flew his body to Hammond to be buried in the Memory Lane Memorial Park Mausoleum, in Crown Point. We arrived with heavy hearts. We went to the cemetery to have a small memorial service. A “preacher” and someone who at the time was close to us, walked over to me privately and whispered in my ear, “God took your son to judge you for your sins” and then walked away smugly. I was devastated by the hateful words as well as the awful thought. I knew better, but there was still something deeply disturbing in his words. For one thing, I thought this was one who would be far more sensitive and would have more wisdom than this. Satan sought to use his words to get an advantage over me. At the time, I told no one about it, including my dad, and only recently did I share it with mom.
There is such a temptation to feel God is judging us and to assume that bad things that happen to us are because of our sins. It is even worse when Christians use it as ammunition to inflict their personal punishment on us, by invoking God’s judgment. They like to guilt us into believing that this is God, “taking out” His anger on us. Believing this satanic lie, often leads to one becoming angry with God. DO NOT BELIEVE IT! It is a lie that is straight from hell. God is my Father even when I sin, and if this was retribution for sin,then we would all be living in total fear of a God who is getting back at us. Would you kill the child of your son or daughter if they disobeyed you? Would you strike them with cancer? Would you burn their house down or put them into a terrible car accident? Are you so cruel a parent, that you would inflict awful pain and misery upon your own children if they disobeyed you? Absolutely not. AND NEITHER WOULD GOD! God allows these things for our good, not for our punishment. Tragedies happen in all our lives and they are allowed by God because he loves us, and wants the best for us, not because he is dispensing cruel punishment on us for our failures. Go to Psalm 103 and read it in its entirety but take special note to verses 10 and 11 which say, “He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear him.”
The word used for discipline in the Bible means “restraint and instruction.” It does not mean wrath and retribution. Yes, sin brings consequences but not judgment from God. If God is judging you, His own child, for your sins then the cross of Christ was in vain. My sins were judged on the cross and I can bear them no more. The consequences are the built in price we pay for sins. I have people who hate me, and who will, until the day I die. That is a consequence for my sins. God does not require that of them for judgment for my sin. He does not make them hate me. In fac, He instructs them to forgive m, but He will not force them to. God allows them to hate me, but He does not use it as my judgment. I do not believe that a Christian in prison, for his sins, is there because God is judging him. He is there as a consequence of his crime. God allows it, but it is not for the bad of the man, but for his good. The sin that put him in prison was judged on Calvary, and there is no double jeopardy with God.
My friend, do not buy into this false notion that God is judging you for your sins. The things that happened to the Apostle Paul were not God’s judgment for killing and persecuting Christians. Even when Nathan told David that the Sword would not depart from his house, it was not a declaration of God’s punishment, but a warning of the consequences David would face because of his sins. David and Bathsheba’s baby did not die as a punishment, but because God in his mercy allowed it. It was from David and Bathsheba’s lineage that our Savior would come. If Satan or another Christian is getting into your head with these accusations, know the truth and you will be set free. Do not doubt the goodness of God or the finished work of Calvary. You are not being judged by God. So there. (DH)