Companions Of The SON Will Go Into The Hard School

God does not see us in ourselves - He sees us in Christ. He does not see us, He sees Christ in us. We don't believe that! If we really did we would be delivered from ourselves and would indeed be triumphant Christians.

Of course, that does not mean that we can just behave anyhow. 

We may speak and act wrongly, but for every Christian there is a refuge - a mercy-seat. It has not to be made; it is there with the precious Blood. That has not to be shed; it is shed. 

There is a High Priest making intercession for us. There is everything that we need. The work is finished, completed. 

Oh, we Christians must believe our beliefs! We must take hold, with both hands, of the things which are of our Christian faith.

But I know you have problems when I say that: 'What about this old man?' Perhaps you are one of those people who believe that sin has been absolutely rooted out of you and that it is quite impossible for you to sin - well , if you believe that, the Lord bless you! 

I think you may be tripped up one day and find that there is an old man there after all. 

But leaving that aside, most of us do know that there are two things in us - there is the new and there is the old, there is the spiritual man and there is the natural man, and this natural man is a very troublesome fellow!

What about him over against the finished work? This Letter tells you all about that when it says: God dealeth with you as with sons (12:7), and God loves sons.

Are you a child of God? Has there been in your history that deep action of new birth? 

Have you received the Lord Jesus? The Word of God says: "John 1:12  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:"

If you have received the Lord Jesus you are a child of God. The spirit of sonship has come in and dwells in you.

This Letter says that God loves His sons, and therefore He chastens them:

He child-trains them, and 'no child-training', says the Letter, 'for the present is pleasant'. 

God's dealings with His own family are not always pleasant, and when they are unpleasant there is a little demon sitting on our shoulder who will whisper in our ear: 'You see, God does not love you. He would not deal with you like this if He loved you.' 

The devil is always out to turn the loving works of God into evil things.

Yes, God is dealing with us as with sons. It is discipline, and it goes against the flesh. 

The Letter says: 'It is not for the present pleasant.' Indeed, it might have said: 'It is very unpleasant!' 

What father is he, says this Letter, 'who does not chasten his son?'

What I am saying is not easy to say, because I may be exposing myself to the rod. 

We have enough experience to know that we have to say some things very carefully, because we are often tested on the things that we say. 

But here is the statement that it is a totally unkind father who never chastens his child. 

Have you seen children who are never chastened or corrected? Those children are going to have a bad time in this world, as people are not going to like them, and they will discover that. Their parents have spoilt them.

This Letter says that God's love is expressed in His using the rod to His children.

He does not always put His good things, His best things, into a nice form.

I heard the other day of a little boy who had to take some medicine, and it was not very nice. 

His father said: 'There are many vitamins in this medicine.' The little boy said: 'Daddy, why must all the good things be put into nasty things? Why can't they be put into ice-cream?' 

The Lord does not always put the good things into ice-cream. Sometimes the vitamins are in the nasty medicine.

Now that is exactly what this Letter says. God is not condemning us when He deals with us like that. He is working to deliver us. 

If you think that these talks here are going to save you, you are making a mistake! They are only to explain what God is doing. 

God never saves by theory. You can read everything that has ever been written on Christian doctrine and still be the same man or woman. 

God's ways are very practical, and He teaches us by experience. That experience is sometimes very difficult and is called here 'the training of sons'.

May the Lord Jesus just impress our hearts again with these things! God is still speaking in His Son, and His speaking is in order to get companions of His Son. 

Companions of this heavenly calling and of Christ will go into the hard school and have to learn many hard lessons, but in learning them they will come to understand how great is their inheritance in the Lord Jesus.

I may add this: My experience is that no one really has spiritual knowledge without suffering. I am not speaking about head knowledge. I am speaking about real knowledge of the Lord in the inner life. 

I do not know of anyone who has come into that knowledge apart from suffering.

Perhaps that is a depressing thing to say, but there it is - it is a law in God's Word. 

We have this treasure in earthen vessels  
(II Corinthians 4:7), and how poor this vessel is we learn through trial and affliction, but then we learn how wonderful the Lord is. 

The Letter to the Hebrews says: "Afterward" (that is, after the chastening) "the peaceable fruit of righteousness" (12:11). 

What a wonderful phrase! Those fruits come along the line of chastening and by way of suffering.

So let us ask for that grace which the Apostle had to rejoice in suffering.

~T. Austin Sparks~