Does God Punish Us?

Jeremiah 6:16-21 16
This is what the LORD says: Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, 'We will not walk in it.' 17 I appointed watchmen over you and said,'Listen to the sound of the trumpet!' But you said, 'We will not listen.' 18 Therefore hear, O nations; observe, O witnesses, what will happen to them. 19 Hear, O earth: I am bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their schemes, because they have not listened to my words and have rejected my law. 20 What do I care about incense from Sheba or sweet calamus from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable; your sacrifices do not please me. 21Therefore this is what the LORD says: I will put obstacles before this people. Fathers and sons alike will stumble over them; neighbors and friends will perish.

This was today’s QT. It’s interesting to me because we were having a discussion about this at Bible Study. The question being, does God punish us? Or does God cause people to get cancer because they sin? Does God cause people’s children to die because they disobey him?

My answer to all of these questions would be a strong NO! This is not the God that I know and believe. I’m not saying that we can all form our own version of God, because we can’t. God is a particular God and he is a certain way in very much the same way we are. But as people we can draw closer to God and get to know him better by reading the Bible, praying, and just experiencing him in our lives. But he never changes, he is still the same God.

So then why does it seem that the Old Testament God was so vindictive and the New Testament God was so forgiving? Though it may seem like that on the surface, as you read through the Old Testament, you still see that God was and is a God of mercy. He does not take pleasure in hurting his children. He always warns them and gives them so many ways out. Only when they don’t listen do they bring destruction upon themselves.

What we do know about God is that he HATES sin. When people sinned in the Old Testament, there had to be an atonement for their sin, and that is why they made sacrifices while asking for God’s forgiveness. He wanted them to see the grotesqueness of their sin through the shedding of blood. That’s where Jesus comes in. I think that God realized that we couldn’t do it on our own and so he gave us a way out. Jesus was the final atonement and last sacrifice that had to be made for our sin. I found this online and I think it explains it well.

As Christians, we will never be punished for sin. That was done once for all. “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Because of the sacrifice of Christ, God sees only the righteousness of Christ when He looks at us. Our sin has been nailed to the cross with Jesus, and we will never be punished for it. The sin that remains in our lives, however, does sometimes require God’s discipline. If we continue to act in sinful ways and we do not repent and turn from that sin, God brings His divine discipline to bear upon us. If He did not, He would not be a loving and concerned Father. Just as we discipline our own children for their welfare, so does our heavenly Father lovingly correct His children for their benefit. Hebrews 12:7-13 tells us, "As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children.

Discipline presents us with the opportunity to learn and to conform ourselves to the image of Christ (Romans 12:1-2). Discipline is a good thing!We need to remember that sin is a constant in our lives while we are yet on this earth (Romans 3:10, 23). And as such, we not only have to deal with God's discipline for our disobedience, but we also have to deal with the natural consequences resulting from sin. If a believer steals something, God will forgive him and cleanse him from the sin of theft, restoring fellowship between Himself and the repentant thief. However, the societal consequences of theft can be severe, resulting in fines or even jail time. These are natural consequences of sin and must be endured. But God works even through those to increase our faith and glorify Himself.

I’m a strong believer in the consequences of sin, because I have experienced them personally. An easy example of this would be smoking cigarettes. I do think smoking is a sin because your body is a temple and if you defile it, you are sinning. Anyways I don’t want to debate about whether or not smoking is a sinful. What I’m saying is that when you smoke you hurt your body, and some people hurt it enough to where they get cancer. So did God punish you for smoking and give you cancer? NO! You did it to yourself! Your decision to smoke has a natural consequence, you get sick. As with many other decisions in life, some are good and some are bad. When you make bad decisions, you have to live with the consequences of that decision.