Yesterday, I shared that all sin comes with a price on two levels:
The spiritual and the physical.
Yeshua’s death paid the spiritual price for us…
So we don’t have to face eternal punishment.
But here’s the hard truth…
Even if the heavenly consequences are wiped away…
The earthly ones remain…
And that’s the part that hurts.
To prove my point…
Let me share two memorable stories from the New Testament.
The first one is about Ananias and Sapphira.
I’m sure you know this story.
They were a married couple in the early church.
They sold a piece of land and acted like they were donating all the money to the apostles…
But they secretly kept part of it for themselves.
This resulted in their deaths.
Now here’s what most people get wrong.
The real issue wasn’t that they lied.
The real issue was that they violated God’s holy property.
Once they purposed in their hearts to give the full amount to the congregation…
That money was no longer theirs…
It belonged to God.
So yeah, they lied…
But that wasn’t the core problem.
The core issue was that they tried to steal from God.
Period.
Anyway, back to the point.
The point is they were punished…
Directly and immediately…
By the Lord Himself.
Ananias dropped dead on the spot.
And a few hours later, the same thing happened to Sapphira.
This event shook the whole Messianic community.
Why?
Because I think some of them believed…
Like some folks do today…
That once you’re saved…
God’s grace covers everything.
Both the eternal consequences and even the earthly ones.
But as I’ve been saying…
That’s not how it works, homies.
Paul even called this false thinking out in his letter to the Romans.
Some believers thought they could keep sinning and get away with it because they were already saved.
Paul corrected that thinking real quick by telling them:
“So then, are we to say,
‘Let’s keep on sinning,
so that there can be more grace’?
Heaven forbid!”
-Romans 6:1
Let’s move on to the next incident.
Consider the two criminals who were crucified along with Yeshua that horrible day at Golgotha.
One of the criminals hanging next to Yeshua admitted he had done wrong and deserved to die.
But he also believed Yeshua was exactly who He said He was.
And Yeshua forgave him.
But here’s the thing
He was still put to death.
God forgave him spiritually,
But that didn’t stop his punishment on earth.
Yeshua never said, “You don’t deserve to die anymore.”
He didn’t take him down from the cross.
And the Bible never says that God’s forgiveness erased the earthly justice he had coming.
Spiritual mercy?
Yes.
Earthly consequences?
Still there.
Ya feeling me?
So the takeaway is…
I cannot accept the doctrine that says God will not punish believers…
That they are instead just disciplined.
Some fornicating pastor might say…
“I had an affair with the church’s secretary…
As a result…
The Lord disciplined me…
By causing me to lose my wife and my ministry.”
Get outta my face with that nonsense.
You were PUNISHED, homie.
NOT disciplined.
That’s just a bunch of semantic twisting hogwash in a ridiculous attempt to uphold a manmade doctrine.
And why?
Because the Christian church prefers its nice little sentimental comfortable doctrines to the difficult hard truths contained in the Scriptures.
Make no bones about it.
God loved David…
But He PUNISHED him.
God also loved Ananias and Sapphira.
They were believers.
But God had to PUNISH them for violating His holy property.
Done.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“Then he said,
‘Yeshua, remember me when
you come into your kingdom.’
Yeshua answered him,
‘Truly I tell you, today you
will be with me in paradise.’”
-Luke 23:42–43
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