The procedure for us today is given in 1 Cor. 11:31-32 "For if we would judge ourselves we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world". This confirms the fact that, when the believer sins, the result is not condemnation with those who have rejected the payment made by Christ. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus" (Ro. 8:1). For the believer, the result of sin is chastening, a spanking, if you please, from the Lord. The unbeliever, the world, will be judged later at the great white throne, but he is "condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God" (Jn. 3:18). That will be his day of execution, and now he only dwells in the death cell, as it were. The believer is judged right away, either by himself or by the Lord. If the Lord has to judge him now, it will be via weakness, sickness, or death (1 Co. 11:30).
Look at Hebrews 12:4-11 to understand something of the Lord's chastening: "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth" (v. 6). God chastens us, His children, because He loves us and does not want us ruined by sin. God does not merely give out advice. His Word says, "he that spareth his rod hateth his son" (Pr. 13:24). God "chasteneth...every son whom he receiveth," for still "there is none righteous, no, not one" (Rom. 3:10). If one who professes to be a believer goes on in sin and is not chastened of the Lord, it is because he is not really saved at all, not a child of God, according to Heb. 12:8. God's chastening is always for our own good, and "it yieldeth the peaceable le fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby" (v.11).
"Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live/" (v. 9). Notice these two words at the end: "and live". God said Aaron and his sons were to wash at the laver "lest they die." It is repulsive for a child not to be in submission to his earthly father, but it is much worse for a child of God, who has been redeemed from his sins at such tremendous cost, not to submit to God's chastening. God will not stand for that. God's child can come to the point of hating God's reproof and thereby commit the "sin unto death" and God will take his life, for "he that hateth reproof shall die" (Pr. 15:10). What other explanation can be given for these two words "and live"? This "sin unto death" of 1 Jn. 5:16 is that of a believer, and the death must be physical. Since God chastens through death, as shown in 1 Cor. 11:30 and many other examples in the Bible, this must be the result and explanation of these verses. It is a serious thing to get out of fellowship with God and face His chastening.
"Exhort (encourage) one another daily" Heb 3:13. Practice this daily! ABC Sumner
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