Are God's Corrections Punishment?
by Bob Francis
To All, Whom I Love,
I do have these thoughts in this regard. Should I need correcting, please do so in Love.
When judged by God during our walk through life, we are not being blamed for anything, we are being corrected and created anew. Like a doctor judging the condition of a patient, identifying to the patient the broken physical bones, crushing them, then resetting with spiritual bones, or removing diseased physical organs, and replacing them with spiritual transplants till we reach spiritual completeness upon losing this fleshly body. The resetting of bones is painful, but the action of resetting is not just punishment for punishment and revenge’s sake, it is what is needed for correction. The correction of things not right with us will be painful, some corrections more painful than others, but these are corrections, not just punishments, and we receive them as we can bear, in increments.
We will give an account, but it is like a Store Manager getting an accounting of His store. No blame is placed on the inventory for being spoiled and rotten, the accounting is done and the appropriate corrections are made to the inventory. When all is said and done, the entire physical inventory will be replaced with the correct spiritual stock.
God has created us as we were, are now, and is creating us as we will be, He is not only the Author of our existence, He is the Page it is written on, the Pen used to scribe, and the Ink on the Page. All in existence is Of and Through Him, All Physical, All Spiritual, All Thoughts, All Everything. So can you or I be blamed for anything? I do not think so. While we give an account of ourselves, our accounting is not to accept blame, that would be "us" doing something, and I know our lowly perspective causes us to see it that way, but God is not blaming for blame’s sake, He is completing His Children.
God created us marred, causes all that is to be, drags whom He sees fit through the maturation process to Jesus, blinds and hardens the hearts of Whom He sees fit, and purifies all of His children in the end. God is truly everything, responsible, accountable, causing, guiding, we are merely clay in the process of becoming completed children.
Scripture states the goats on the left will be going to age-long punishment. I ask however, what other way would a babe in Christ see it? How does a child see it when being taught lessons to better them? It is punishment to them, but the punishment is corrective actions to the Parent. I believe this scripture and others like it are written from man’s perspective as children, not God’s Perspective as the Parent, or the Potter.
When the Souls under the Altar were asking God when He would take vengeance on those that shed their blood, He did not tell them that vengeance was coming, He had white robes given to them, and told them to rest till the fulfilling of the killing of the rest of their brethren.
That vengeance is God’s is no doubt. Vengeance of course means punishment, retribution. Who is it that God takes vengeance upon if not His Son Jesus Christ? Is it not written in scripture that Jesus Christ suffered for our sins? That Jesus Himself is, was, and will be the Final Sacrifice for those sins? Was this punishment, if you will, not for the whole world? As we mature into Christ Jesus, we mature into all that He Is, Was and Will Be. As Members of His Body, should we not expect to suffer as the Sacrificial Lamb? As we mature into the Body of Christ, we accept the suffering joyfully, Loving our existence, for we are becoming One with Jesus.
As we are maturing, what we experience are corrective actions that may seem like punishments performed on and for us by God. As we are being completed, what we experience is the partaking of the suffering of vengeance for the rest of the world as the Body of Christ. After our resurrection, we rule and reign as the Body of Christ. After the rest of the world are resurrected, judged and severely corrected in even more painful punishment than we had to endure, they will join us in the awareness of the Oneness of God and become aware of the corrective action behind the wrath, vengeance and punishment they experience in the lake of fire.
Our growth in awareness and changing closer to God’s perspective of Reality (and what this brings with it) is spiritual maturity.
Before the Beginning, there was God, nothing else. All that exists is made (out) of, by and through Him, We are of One; everything that is in existence is part of this Oneness. Our ability to communicate this and have an awareness of it was prevented from creation just by virtue of being flesh.
Scientists today recognize there is at the basest level, energy particles that are common to everything. What differs is how they are put together. Some have referred to it as “universal glue” that they cannot explain. Jesus is this scientifically unexplainable, unseen, spiritual substance or energy, if you will.
Jesus prayed for us to be One as He and the Father are One, I believe this was a prayer for us to become aware of our developed Oneness in Him, with Him and the Father in Heaven.
I pray you benefit from these thoughts.
God is with you.
Love,
Bob