At present, we are working with the light of truth presented by Dr. Francis Schaeffer from his book True Spirituality where we are discussing the basic considerations of the Christian life, or true Christianity.

As we finish the study in this chapter….One thing more needs to be said on this subject: (read this carefully)  But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.  But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. 1 Corinthians 11:31-32 ESV. 

This teaches us that we do not need to wait to be chastened before our fellowship with God can be restored.  God’s chastening is not a punishment.  The punishment is altogether dealt with on Calvary’s cross.  It is a correction to bring us back to fellowship with himself, and we do not need to wait to be chastened before our fellowship can be restored.  The chastening of a child of God does not have a penal aspect.  That was finished on the cross.  There is no double jeopardy when the holy God is the Judge.  Our guilt is gone, once and forever.  Therefore if we judge ourselves, we are not chastened.   

Consequently we may read these two verse backwards.  And that is, God is not going to have us condemned with the world, so he will chasten us.  But if we judge ourselves, and call the sin sin, and bring it under the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, then he will not have to chasten us.  This is what Paul was urging upon us.  It is overwhelmingly better not to sin.  But is it not wonderful that when we do sin, we can hurry to the place of restoration? 

So God means us to have, as one of his gifts in this life, freedom from a false tyranny of the conscience.  Most, if not all, Christians find that the first step in the substantial healing that they can have in the present life is the substantial healing of the separation from themselves that is a result of the Fall and of sin.  (We are never fully all we were created to be prior to new birth ‘in’ Christ…the full realization of ‘self’ is understanding that we were created, wired, designed, purposed, intended to be in fellowship with God, to have God through the Spirit live inside us..to make us whole man, to complete us).  Man is first of all separated from God, then from himself, and finally from his fellow men and from nature.  The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ will give an absolute and perfect restoration of all these things when Jesus comes.  But in the present life there is to be a substantial healing, including the results of the separation between a man and himself.  This is the first step towards freedom in the present life from the results of the bonds of sin.   

(I will be away from the computer until Monday, Jan 10^th😊) 

Thoughts developed or used directly from the work of Schaeffer, Francis. True Spirituality . Tyndale House Publishers, Inc