Disciplined to Obedience

26 MARCH

Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept Thy word. Psalm 119:67

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Hebrews 12:5-11

Experience demonstrates that when God deals gently with us, we often break into rebellion. Since even a prophet of God who strays needs to be corrected by forcible means, discipline is assuredly needful for us when we rebel.

The first step in obedience is the mortification of the flesh, which does not come naturally to people. So, not surprisingly, God brings us to a resistant, even when it seems to be tamed, it is no wonder to find God repeatedly subjecting us anew to the rod.

This is done in different ways. He humbles some by poverty, some by shame, some by disease, some by domestic distress, and some by hard and painful labors. He applies the appropriate remedy to the diversity of vices to which we are prone. It is now obvious how profitable is the truth of David's confession. The prophet speaks of himself even as Jeremiah (31:8) says of himself that he was "as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke," setting before us an image of the rebellion that is natural to us all. 

We are very ungrateful indeed if the fruit that we reap from chastisements does not assuage or mitigate their bitterness. So long as we are rebellious against God, we are in a state of the deepest wretchedness. The means He chooses to bend and tame us to obedience is His chastisements.

The prophet teaches us by His own example that God gives evidence of His willingness that we should become His disciples by the pains he takes to subdue our hardness. We should then at least strive to become gentle, and, laying aside all stubbornness, willingly bear the yoke that He imposes upon us.

John Calvin

FOR MEDITATION: If the afflictions we experience have a blessed end - our sanctification (Heb. 12:11) - shouldn't we learn to become thankful for them? Rather than simply enduring them with a stiff upper lip, we should be praising God that He did not leave us to ourselves. Are you facing afflictions today? If so, how can you shift your perception of them to offer thanks to the Lord for them?

365 Days With Calvin

Selected and Edited by Joel R. Beeke