You ever wonder about this? I do.
Our sins are forgiven, covered over, and taken away at the cross. God holds them against us no more!
Yet when we sin we feel His displeasure and His discipline.
How does that work?
Here is a great explanation —
[Our] relationship to God as Father is alive, rich, nuanced, dynamic, and personal. Our behavior certainly can influence this relationship. Although God the Father will never disown or reject us as his children, our behavior can please or displease him in a thousand different ways.
To be on the wrong side of God as judge is to be headed for eternal punishment—absolute disaster. But to be on the wrong side of God as Father because our sin has displeased him is not to be outside his love, care, and mercy in the slightest…
However, though our sin does not change the reality of our newfound relationship with God, it does impact our father/son or father/daughter relationship with him. . . . When God the Father chastens his children the goal is always restorative—never punitive. To say it again, God does not punish his children—he disciplines them…
The discipline of God is an evidence of his love, not hatred. If God does not discipline you when you go astray “then you are illegitimate children and not sons” (v 8). Therefore, do not be made anxious by the presence of discipline in your life. Be frightened by its absence.
This is from my friend Paul Tautges, whose church is just up the road in Sheboygan.
It is take from his newest book “Brass Heavens, Reasons for Unanswered Prayer”
You can get it at CruciformPress.com