This is a sample chapter from my Systematic Theology project "Theology for Thriving". 📎MORE TO THE STORY notes are not part of the main text of the book, but additional resources, charts, or other materials from Biblical Theology class resources.
Hebrews 12.1-2, 6-11 [1] Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, [2] looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God... [6] For the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and chastises every child whom he accepts. [7] Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? [8] If you do not have that discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate and not his children. [9] Moreover, we had human parents to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not be even more willing to be subject to the Father of spirits and live? [10] For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share his holiness. [11] Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
📖 Scriptural Reflection: Hebrews 12.1-2, 6-11
No one likes to suffer. It’s a universal human experience to avoid pain and seek comfort. But what happens when suffering comes not from a random accident or an unjust act, but as a direct consequence of our own bad choices? The question of theodicy tried to make sense of undeserved suffering, but a different, equally important question is this: What is God’s purpose in the suffering we do deserve? Is God an angry judge, waiting to smack us down when we mess up? Or is God able to use even painful experiences for our good?
The letter to the Hebrews was written to encourage Christians who were growing tired and discouraged in their faith. Using the metaphor of a long-distance race, the author urges them to persevere by looking to Jesus as their ultimate example. The passage then reframes their struggles, explaining that hardships can be better viewed as God's discipline.
This discipline is not the angry punishment of a judge, but the loving training of a parent. The author argues that God disciplines us because he loves us and accepts us as his children. While this training always feels painful at the time, its goal is ultimately for our good: To help us grow in holiness and produce the "peaceful fruit of righteousness." Discipline is how God coaches us to become our best selves.
🗝️ Key Concept: Discipline
Discipline is pain with a purpose, discomfort with a destiny. It is the process by which God uses the consequences of our actions and other hardships to train us, heal us, and make us stronger so we can thrive and become our best selves.
The New Testament is full of athletic metaphors to describe this process. Paul compares the Christian life to a long-distance race, urging us to “run in such a way that you may win it” by exercising “self-control in all things” (1 Corinthians 9:24-25). The author of Hebrews uses the same image, telling us to “run with perseverance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1). Paul also encourages his student Timothy to “train yourself in godlikeness, for, while physical training is of some value, godlikeness is valuable in every way” (1 Timothy 4:7-8). We can think of this in two ways:
First, discipline can be rehabilitative. When we sin, we harm ourselves and others. We are spiritually injured. Discipline is like the physical therapy we undergo after an injury. It’s painful, requires effort, and forces us to work muscles we’d rather leave alone, but it’s the only way to heal and regain our strength.
Second, discipline can be training. It’s “spiritual bodybuilding.” Just as lifting progressively heavier weights makes our muscles stronger, engaging in spiritual practices and enduring trials makes our souls more resilient.
We don’t have to wait for suffering to come to us. We can proactively engage in spiritual disciplines as a workout for our souls. These are countless ancient practices that train our hearts and minds for godlikeness, such as:
Prayer and Meditation: Regularly communing with God to align our will with his.
Study: Engaging with Scripture and Christian tradition to shape our minds.
Fasting: Intentionally denying our physical appetites to strengthen our spiritual focus.
Service: Putting the needs of others before our own to cultivate compassion and break the power of materialism.
Confession: Being honest with God and others about our failures to receive grace and accountability.
🔎 What is the difference between Divine discipline and retribution?
It’s true that some parts of the Bible picture God as wrathful and vindictive, pouring out punishment and retribution upon sinners forever. This reflects a lower point on the Bible’s developmental trajectory. But the full revelation of God’s character is found in Jesus Christ, and everything God does in Jesus is for our healing, redemption, and salvation.
Jesus directly overthrows the Old Testament principle of retribution. In the Sermon on the Mount, he says, "You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer" (Matthew 5:38-39). This is one of the only times he directly contradicts Scripture (cf. Exodus 21.23-25; Leviticus 24.17-21; Deuteronomy 19:20-21). Jesus overturns the letter of the Law, to fulfill the Spirit of the Law. The goal is no longer about getting even. It’s about restoration.
This redemptive purpose is found across Scripture. God speaks through the prophet Ezekiel, saying, "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live" (Ezekiel 33:11). The New Testament echoes this constantly: God "does not want any to perish, but all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9), because he “desires everyone to be saved” (1 Timothy 2:4) and is “the Savior of all people, especially those who are faithful” (1 Timothy 4:10).
Even the language of "eternal" punishment has a redemptive layer. When we read of "eternal flames", we should not understand this as unending suffering, but as being refined by the flames of God's Love, which alone is eternal. When Jesus speaks of "eternal punishment" in Matthew 25:46, the Greek word he uses is kolasis, which was an agricultural term used for pruning a tree to help it bear more fruit. This connects to Jesus's teaching in John 15, where God the Father is the vinegrower who prunes every branch so it will be even more fruitful. The goal of God’s judgment is not to destroy, but to forever cut away the sin that hinders us from thriving.
This raises a crucial theological question: Which comes first, God's Love or God’s Justice? If we say Divine Love is just an expression of Justice, then God's Love is conditional, excluding those who don’t meet the standard. But if we say that Divine Justice is an expression of God's Love, then even judgment and discipline are ultimately aimed at our redemption. God's discipline is always to help us become our best selves, never merely for revenge. God loves us as we are, but God loves us too much to leave us that way.
Yet for some it seems right for an infinite God to demand infinite punishment for sins against infinite justice. But when we view this idea in light of the compassion and healing embodied in Jesus, we see that infinite goodness and love must exceed infinite death and destruction just as Light scatters darkness. Thus, Jesus invites us to compare God’s infinite goodness with the finite goodness we expect of parents (Matthew 7:7-11). We would say that a parent who birthed a child in order to punish and kill them is a moral monster. Likewise, an infinite parent who brings countless children into the world for the purpose of infinite punishment and suffering would be a demon, not God. But God is an infinitely good parent, and God's Love will never give up until all of God's children are healed and restored.
A famous prayer puts it this way: "You are merciful to all, for you can do all things, and you overlook people’s sins, so that they may repent. For you love all things that exist, and detest none of the things that you have made, for you would not have made anything if you had hated it. How would anything have endured if you had not willed it? ... Therefore you correct little by little those who trespass... so that they may be freed from wickedness and put their trust in you, O Lord." (Wisdom 11.23-12.2)
🔎 Why does God harden some people and abandon them to sin?
The Bible contains difficult passages that seem to contradict this redemptive vision. In Exodus 34 we are told that the LORD is "merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin". And yet he will "visit the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation". In the Hebrew Bible, God allows whole families and groups to be affected by the sins of their ancestors. We see this happen to the family of Achan, the Canaanite people, the rebellious Northern Kingdom of Israel, and even to the descendants of King David.
Yet, we have to notice two things. First, even in those very passages, God’s grace is exponentially greater than his judgment. God "punishes" the third and fourth generation, but shows "steadfast love to the thousandth generation" (Deuteronomy 5:10). The trajectory of Scripture is clear: "mercy triumphs over judgment" (James 2:13). Second, it is simply a tragic fact of life that sin has consequences that are passed down through families and social systems. Addiction, abuse, and poverty create cycles that are incredibly difficult to break. This is not an arbitrary punishment from God, but the natural, observable result of sin in the world. But God wants to heal this cycle, not perpetuate it.
The "wrath of God," then, is best understood NOT as God actively punishing us, BUT as God allowing us to experience the natural consequences of our choices. Paul writes, "Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity... God gave them up to a debased mind" (Romans 1:24, 28). This isn't God zapping people. It is God letting go and allowing the cause-and-effect nature of sin to run its course, hoping the painful result will lead us to repentance. We reap what we sow, and harvest what we cultivate (Galatians 6:7).
One of the classic stories that illustrates this is when Exodus says that God "hardened Pharaoh's heart" so that he stubbornly chose a course of action that destroyed his nation and even his own child. At first glance, God sounds less like a caring coach and more like a cruel puppet master. But on a closer look, we notice that the way God hardened Pharaoh's heart was by allowing Pharaoh to harden his own heart (Exodus 8:15, 8:32, 9:34, etc.). At any time, God would have relented from his discipline on the Egyptians, but they hardened themselves and would not set their slaves free, nor treat the Hebrews with human dignity.
But God never wants sin to have the last word. God’s last Word is always the same as his first Word: Love. It is true that "God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden" (Romans 9.18). But it is equally true that "God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all" (Romans 11:32). Even when Paul recommends handing a sinner "over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh," the ultimate goal is redemptive: "so that his spirit may be saved" (1 Corinthians 5:5). This vision of final judgement leading to ultimate redemption is witnessed in 2 Samuel 14.14: "We must all die; we are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up. But God will not take away a life; he will devise plans so as not to keep an outcast banished forever from his presence."
🔎 Why does God allow suffering and death that isn't redemptive?
This is perhaps the hardest question. What about the suffering of a child with cancer? Why do some people do everything right but still face tragedy? What about pain that doesn't seem to lead to growth, but only to destruction and death? It’s common to hear people say, "God won't give us more than we can handle." But the reality is that God often allows us to face trials that are far beyond our ability to endure. Sometimes, this suffering ends in death. If all discipline is redemptive, what does God do with suffering that doesn't seem to redeem anyone or anything?
We can never fully understand these mysteries, nor offer a neat and tidy answer to why people suffer and die in ways that are not necessary. However, faith offers a few possibilities for how suffering and death may be redemptive in ways that are not obvious.
Sometimes, God may be waiting for us to invite God into our suffering to help us. James 4:2 puts it succinctly: "You do not have, because you do not ask." Perhaps God sometimes waits for us to turn from our selfishness and pride and ask for help.
God may be allowing undeserved suffering to unearth deeper struggles we have been avoiding: Old traumas, hidden anger, anxieties, and dysfunctional coping mechanisms.
God may be using it to teach us to depend on others in new ways, such as physical means (doctors, medicines) or psychological means (counselors, therapy). Scripture encourages us not only to pray for healing, but also to share our struggles with others (James 5), and seek physicians for medical help (Sirach 38).
God may know that if we were physically whole, we might become spiritually arrogant and disconnected from God and others (2 Corinthians 12:7-9).
God may use our suffering and experiences to bring comfort, empathy, and hope to other people who are walking a similar path (2 Corinthians 1:3-7).
And finally, God may use death itself as the ultimate act of discipline and healing, ending our earthly suffering, and bringing us home to an eternity where we will experience ultimate restoration (Isaiah 25:6-9; 57:1-2; Romans 8:38-39).
In the end, our greatest comfort is not an answer, but a person. God is not a distant observer of our pain. In Jesus Christ, God entered into our suffering, experienced it fully, and transformed it. He knows what it is like to do everything right and still experience suffering and death. Christ is with us in the race, journeying alongside us "through the valley of the shadow of death" (Psalm 23). His Spirit is coaching us through the pain, and God our Father is waiting for us at the finish line.
📚 Topical Scriptures
Here are some Scripture passages which explore and elaborate on the themes of this chapter. As you look them up and study them, think about how they relate to the Key Concept and Guiding Questions.
Proverbs 3:11-12
This passage serves as a direct parallel to the teaching in Hebrews. Notice how it frames divine discipline not as rejection, but as a clear sign of a loving, parent-child relationship between God and the believer.
Sirach 38:1-15
This text offers a balanced view on healing, showing that divine discipline does not exclude practical means. Look for how the author encourages honoring physicians and using medicine as gifts from God that work alongside prayer for healing.
Lamentations 3:22-33
Written from a place of deep suffering, this passage affirms God's ultimate goodness. Observe the central claim that God "does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone," suggesting that even in discipline, God's heart is for restoration, not harm.
John 15:1-8
In this famous teaching, Jesus describes himself as the vine and his followers as the branches. Pay attention to the metaphor of the Father as a gardener who "prunes" fruitful branches so that they will produce even more fruit, illustrating discipline as a cleansing process for greater flourishing.
Romans 1:18-28
This passage describes God's wrath not as an active, violent punishment, but as God "giving up" humanity to the natural consequences of its own sin. This illustrates the idea of discipline as allowing us to experience the destructive results of our choices in order to turn us back to him.
1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Paul uses a powerful athletic metaphor for the Christian life. He describes his own strict self-discipline as being like a boxer or a runner in training, not for a perishable prize, but for an eternal one.
2 Corinthians 1:3-7
This passage reveals a communal and redemptive purpose for suffering. Note how Paul explains that the comfort we receive from God in our own afflictions is not just for us, but so that we can then offer that same comfort to others in their suffering.
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Here, Paul speaks of his "thorn in the flesh," a suffering that God allowed to remain despite his prayers. Notice God's reason: the affliction was a form of discipline meant to keep Paul humble, demonstrating that God's power is made perfect in weakness.
Galatians 6:1-10
This section begins with instructions on gently restoring a person caught in sin and culminates with the principle that we "reap whatever [we] sow." This connects the idea of consequences (reaping) with the community's responsibility to act with discipline and grace.
James 1:2-12
This passage encourages believers to consider trials a source of joy. Look for the process it describes: trials produce perseverance, which in turn leads to spiritual maturity and completeness, framing suffering as an essential part of our training.
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