"Our Place in God’s Family"

Last Sunday we talked about the saints of God in the Old Testament who remained faithful, even under the most severe circumstances. Today, we saints of the New Testament look to Jesus for faith and encouragement so we won’t become weary or discouraged as we run the race that has been marked out for us.

Have you ever heard the term "Who’s your daddy?" That goofy phrase seems to have two main interpretations these days. The first is basically, "I’m looking out for you" – with a bit of a sexual overtone. The second meaning is "I’m beating you at something, and you are totally defenseless."

It is interesting how people look at God from both of these perspectives. They see him as someone they’re totally defenseless against or as someone who is taking care of them, no matter what they do.

So let’s take that popular phrase, and use it in a little bit different way, to explain God’s discipline. This morning, we’ll see three things about God’s discipline. First, we know who our heavenly Father is because he disciplines us. Second, his discipline doesn’t come close to what he put his own Son through on the cross. Third, because of the cross, we know that we are part of God’s family, and we know where we fit in to that family. To say it another way, we know our place in God’s family because of His discipline.

God’s discipline is often misinterpreted. One of the biggest reasons for that is because of the experiences we have had with earthly forms of discipline. For most of us, it was probably our fathers who dished out most of the discipline. Their discipline was and is often imperfect at best. There were times when we were punished unfairly or much more harshly than we deserved. Of course, there we times we probably go away with stuff we should have been punished for.

Many people see God as one always ready to judge and condemn. And if we were honest with ourselves, we would also see that we don’t deserve simple correction. We would see that judgment and condemnation is exactly what our sins deserve, both in this lifetime and for all eternity.

Those who have no faith in Jesus, those who the writer to the Hebrews calls "illegitimate" will indeed get the wrath and punishment that all sinners deserve on that day when Christ returns in judgment.

Why does God discipline us? The answer is in Hebrews 12:10; He disciplines us for our good, for our profit, it’s always right and for our best good. God disciplines us not as earthly fathers sometimes do, but He does it with a view of eternity in mind. Verse eleven continues the explanation. "For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather then pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."

As we consider the discipline our heavenly Father applies to us, let us remember that it is nothing compared to the discipline He put his Son through on the cross. Remember, our sins don’t deserve discipline. They deserve punishment. Sin in any amount, in any form, in thought, word, or deed, are transgressions of God’s Law.

To sin is to do something that God forbids. It is non-conformity with the will of God. Every departure from the Law is sin, whether it is something great or small, known or unknown, intended of accidental, or even when what we do is not the good we want to do, but the evil we don’t want to do.

But instead of punishment, through faith and repentance we receive forgiveness. That is why Jesus came! He was patient when sinful men did terrible things to him. His blood shed on the cross did away with the old covenant and created a new covenant. Through His blood shed on the cross, our sins were all forgiven, every single one of them, once and for all.

The cross shows us our heavenly Father’s love. Our sins were laid on Jesus, rather than on us, and because of what Christ did, because of his pain and suffering and death, because of his body broken on the cross and the shedding of his blood, we are given what we don’t deserve; forgiveness, life, and salvation in His name.

Just as Moses stepped in between God and the people at Mount Sinai, just like Moses pleaded with God not to destroy them for worshipping the idol in the form of a golden calf, Jesus is now the mediator who stands between us and God. His blood of the new covenant stands between us and God.

Through the cross, because of what Jesus did at the cross, we are assured that we are part of God’s family and that he is our Father. We receive the gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation in his name through the Word and the Sacraments. In these heavenly gifts, we see that God is looking after us in all the right ways. God’s Word continually feeds us with a nourishment greater than any earthly food we can hope for in this life.

Through Holy Baptism, we become part of God’s family. In Baptism, through water and the Word, we are connected to the cross and the blood Jesus shed there. At the font, we receive the forgiveness of our sins, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and we are adopted as sons of God.

Paul wrote to the Galatians that "When the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those under the Law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out Abba, Father.

In Holy Communion, our heavenly Father provides for us, through the bread and wine, the true body and blood of Christ, giving us forgiveness and endurance – strength to live anew life in Christ as part of the family.

Former Dallas Cowboy coach Tom Landry was known for many things during his coaching career. One word may have described him best: disciplinarian. All of Landry’s drills and schemes required discipline on the part of all the players. Landry once explained; "The job of a football coach is to make men do what they don’t want to do in order to achieve what they always wanted to be."

God’s discipline is very similar. God applies his corrective discipline to our lives in order to make us all he created us to be. That’s why the writer to the Hebrews tells us, "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives."

Apart from the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we can’t be what God created us to be. But through his working, he changes us and molds us into the image of Jesus.

Unlike the world today, the cross gives us the answer to the question "Who’s your daddy?" Through God’s loving discipline, we see God’s continual love and care for us. We remember that that care is possible because Jesus took the punishment for our sins to the cross.

Because of the cross, we are a part of God’s family through Word and Sacrament. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer in just a few minutes, we can say "Our Father" with renewed confidence in the fact that He loves and cares for us. Amen.