What If You Were Unpunishable?

Religion loves to wield the big stick of punishment to compel proper behavior, but the gospel truth is that in Christ you are eternally unpunishable! “The punishment that brought us peace was on him…” (Isa 53:5). As Spurgeon said: “How shall the Lord punish twice for one offense? If Christ took my sins and stood as my substitute, then there is no wrath of God left for me.” Scandalous I know, but that’s what the Bible says:

Romans 8:1-3 (NKJV)

1  There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. (no longer ruled by rules, but by the spirit)

3  For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,

Condemnation is the Greek word katakrima, which is from a root word which means to condemn or to punish.  What if you were unpunishable?  I know that question may poke you or it may even provoke you, but before you stone me, let me explain what I am talking about.  Nothing about “punishment” is part of our relationship with God.  Jesus took that all away when He was Punished for us on the cross (Isa 53:5).  We are always forgiven. Continuously. Perpetually.   Eternally forgiven and accepted by Him.  His death has rendered us un-punishable! (Not un-discipline-able.  My next blog will be about how God disciplines us.)  I’m not encouraging you to sin.  Sin has consequences.  Sin hurts, it brings pain, but what I’m saying is that God is not paying you back or punishing you. 

Many Christians think that when they are going through hard and difficult circumstances that they’re being punished by God for their past sins. This way of thinking is so pervasive in the church.  No wonder most of the world looks at Christians as guilt ridden, pathetic people who judge and are offended by other people.  Especially by people who break the rules.  The fact that the world views us like this is proof that the devil would want us to believe these things. 

Let me give you an example of how grace works instead of punishment:  What if your child comes home with an ‘F’ or several ‘F’s on his report card. What happens next?  What do we automatically do when confronted with the failure of our children?  Do we yell and pound our fist on the table?  Do we spank or threaten them?  Do we tell them how disappointed we are with them?  Most parents when confronted with something like this are filled with anger and fear.  They start coming up with a plan of action, some method or program to fix this; to GET THIS KID UNDER CONTROL!  That’s the key word, control, this reveals a broken principle of Love: That which we love, we try to control.

How does that look with the influence of Grace? 

What if your response was this: ‘Son, first thing that we want you to know is that we love you no matter what and that we don’t you to worry. We want you to know that we will love you and be here for you no matter how many years it takes you to finish the 5th grade.  In fact, in two more years your little sister will be in your class, and she can help you, y’all can study together, and go to class functions together, with all of her little friends. It’ll be just great.’  “Your son will look you in the eye and say, ‘Years! Years! It’s not going to take me years to finish the 5th grade?’ “And lo and behold, ownership of that problem lands squarely in the heart of the one who needs to own that problem.”  You see, you can’t control another person no matter how hard you try, even if it’s your child.

We make this mistake of trying to control, because we first make two other mistakes in our mind. First, we make the mistake of fearing that our loved-one’s sin is more powerful than the grace of God to fix it.  Instead of our first thought being what has Christ done to fix this, we think, what can I do to fix this?  Second, we make the mistake of believing that God is just as afraid of sin and failures as we are.  We lose our perspective on Grace, and we lose our truth about God. God is not afraid. He is not fearful about our sins or failures. He is quite confident of His ability to deliver us, and to transform us.

We quickly and easily fall into the culture of punishment.  It’s our default.  We think that if we inflict enough pain, then I can get the person to do what I want them to do.  You can obey what you do not love.  Someone can put a gun in your face and get you to obey, but that does not mean that you love or respect them.  When I love the person, my obedience is not based out of fear, but out of love for the person and I keep the rules because I don’t want to hurt the person. I do things to protect what is precious and that’s my relationship.

When someone fails to perform to your expectations, is it possible that instead of reacting with punishment, we respond with the love and forgiveness of God in that moment?  Could it be that what God wants from us is to experience His love and grace as people that are unpunishable— and then manifest that love and grace toward one another, and not punish one another for our failures.  God is not afraid. And He lives in you. Believe with Him, that He is confident in his transforming, wonder-working grace to change anyone.