God Loves Us, Yet Chastens Us

"How do you explain the facts that god does not remember the sins of his people and that he yet chastens us because of sin?"

As soon as one of our men asked me that question the other day, I thought, "There must be many who wonder about that." God's non-remembrance of sin is not a non-awareness of sin. When the scriptures speak of God putting away and never remembering our sins against us, they are describing OUR LEGAL STANDING IN CHRIST. Christ paid our debt to God's offended law and justice by his death at Calvary. By his blood he legally purged away our sins from the ledgers of heaven, so that God cannot in justice impute sin to us. But GOD IS AWARE OF OUR SINS as a Father who is aware of the sicknesses and infirmities of his child. Therefore, in love, wisdom, and grace he disciplines his erring child to drive the sin he hates from the soul he loves. He does not chasten us in wrath. There is no penal aspect to God's rod of correction. It is a rod of love, necessarily used for the wholeness (holiness and spiritual health) of his children.

Don Fortner