The HARM OF THE SECOND DEATH -
Reflections on the Millennium
Read and pray: "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He removes; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit." (John 15:2)
God’s Discipline
The Bible says that the Lord disciplines us because He loves us (Heb 12:6). When man loves, he is tolerant. But when God loves, He disciplines. When man loves, he is negligent. But when God loves, He is serious. If God had not loved us, He would not have sent His Son to die for our sins on the cross. Likewise, if God did not love us, He would not discipline us.
God’s disciplining love is similar to His saving love, which caused Him to send His Son to die for us on the cross. It was His love that made His Son die on our behalf. In the same way, it is His love that disciplines us. Every Christian should know that there is no contradiction between God’s discipline and God’s grace. On the contrary, God’s discipline manifests God’s grace.
Although we have seen that a person cannot perish after being saved, we can never say that such a person will never suffer God’s discipline. Now the question is whether God’s discipline is restricted to this age or whether it also extends to the coming age. This is a question many have never considered. So let us examine it.
The Bible shows us that God’s discipline is not restricted only to this age. It can also be seen in the coming age. Many have confined God’s discipline to this age. However, you cannot find any basis for such teaching in the Bible. Concerning Christian experience, there certainly is the possibility of discipline in the coming age.
Many have not been disciplined in this age. Although they are children of God, they do not live a consecrated life in this age. They do whatever they want and in many things are disobedient throughout their whole life, until death. Although some are zealous and labor for the Lord, and outwardly even experience many miracles and works of power, all these things are done according to their personal will and are contrary to God’s purpose.
Some even have obvious sins and specific transgressions. We do not see much discipline in them. On the contrary, they live peacefully and depart from this world in peace. Yet, besides losing the reward, such people will be disciplined in the kingdom. They will experience a specific discipline from God.
Therefore, according to experience, if a Christian lives on earth today without controlling his passions, loving the world and walking in his own ways, he will be disciplined in the coming age. We have ample evidence of this in the Bible.
DISCIPLINE IS FOR PURIFICATION
According to the Word of God, discipline is for purification. Man is dirty, therefore he needs to be cleansed. In the Bible there is not only one kind of purification. The first purification is by the blood, that is, the purification by the blood of the Lord Jesus. The Bible mentions it more than three hundred times, but here we will quote only two verses from the book of Hebrews: "And according to the law, almost all things are purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness" (9:22).
This verse speaks of purification by the blood. And: "He, who is the radiance of His glory and the exact expression of His being, upholding all things by the word of His power, after making purification of sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high" (1:3). Here we may translate "after making purification of sins" as "after making cleansing of sins."
In the Bible we see that the purification of our sins is accomplished by the blood of the Lord Jesus. After having purified our sins, He ascended on high and sat at the right hand of the Majesty. This is the first kind of purification in the Bible. However, although many people have received purification by the blood of the Lord Jesus, they still have many unclean thoughts, are still very corrupted by the world, and have many carnal sins.
Since such things still exist, God uses other means to purify us. These means of purification are discipline and punishment, which we will now discuss. In John 15:2 the Lord says: "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He removes; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit." The pruning here is a purification. God cuts away unnecessary elements, superfluities, and obstacles so that the branches may produce more fruit.
This is God’s discipline. Therefore, the purpose of God’s discipline is not to destroy us, but to perfect us so that we may become more worthy of God’s glory, God’s holiness, and the righteousness that is set before us. Therefore, in the Word of God there are two types of purification: one is the purification by the blood of the Lord Jesus; the other is the purification that God carries out through our environment, family, health, or work.
If we are indulgent in what we should not be, or if we refuse to eliminate what must be removed, the disciplining hand of God will fall upon us in our environment.
PURIFICATION IN THE COMING AGE
Is such purifying discipline of God restricted only to this age, or is it also found in the coming age? From the Bible we know that death never changes anyone. No passage of the Bible shows a case of a person who was changed by death.
We know that in the future we will be with God eternally. In eternity we will be like the Lord; we will be holy, just as the Lord is holy. But can we say that today we are as holy as the Lord is? That we are worthy to be with the Lord for eternity?
It is true that the blood of the Lord Jesus has cleansed us and the record of our sins has been erased. This is a fact. But speaking subjectively, do we have Christ practically living in us? Have we allowed the resurrected Christ to express Himself in us? Our walk today is still very different from what it must be in eternity; the two are too far apart.
Today we fall far short of God’s holiness, righteousness, and glory. Many Christians are still full of sins and uncleanness. Thus, here we face a problem. If things today are so bad but will be so good in the future, if they are so imperfect today but will be so perfect in the future, when will the change occur? There must be a change somewhere along the way. If you are not perfect today but will be in the future, when will the change occur?
In eternity, when we are with God and the Lamb in the New Jerusalem, we will be in the light just as God is in the light. But when will we become such? The human concept is that we will change at death, but the Bible never states that physical death makes a person holy. This is a doctrine that was preached five or six hundred years ago, yet the Bible never says that death can change a person.
If death could change a Christian, then it could also change an unsaved person. However, death never changes anyone. The indolent servant will still be indolent when resurrected. The foolish virgins were still foolish when they awoke. When they awoke, their laziness and foolishness had not disappeared.
If a person does not change in this age, but will be different in the new heaven and new earth, and if death does not change people, then when will the change occur? The Bible clearly shows us that in the coming age there will be discipline, and that discipline will prune and purify us.
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