Thinking About Law, Curse, and the Gospel

I signed up to receive a quote that reminds me of the gospel every day from the blog Of First Importance. Today, it was this quote, from pastor and author Ray Ortlund Jr.: "What is the curse of the law [Gal. 3:13]? It is the or-else-ness of the law: ‘Do this, or else.’ Christ took the or-else-ness of the law onto himself at the cross, so that there is no more or-else for anyone in Christ, as God looks upon us now. Or-else is gone forever from your relationship with God."

Deep down, I know that the gospel is that good. There is no more "or else" for me, in Jesus. But my experience as a Christian is more complicated than that, because there are clear and severe consequences for my many sins. For example, if I make Christian ministry an idol in my life, which for me is a real and constant struggle, then I make my relationship with God and my relationship with my wife a means to that end. I begin to subtly see my relationships with God and my wife as primarily about serving the goal of Christian ministry, which is a distortion and reduction of what those relationships are really about (I'm currently in the process of learning all this). Over time, the consequences of that sin are disastrous - a slow but steady alienation occurs as my wife learns that my true desire is for ministry, not her. By sinning in this way, I am sowing the seeds of the destruction of my family by trying to make it serve my idol of ministry. Sadly, we've seen this happen is far too many people's lives and families.

But here is my point: in the gospel, we are no longer punished for our sins, since Christ has taken our punishment on the cross. Yet the consequences of our sins as Christians are often just as devastating as for non-Christians. So if those painful consequences are not punishment, what are they? I think Hebrews 12:7 sheds light on this - "Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons." The writer of Hebrews is not saying "some of your hardships are really God's merciful discipline, but some of your hardships are just the result of your own stupidity and sin." No, he is saying that we are to endure all hardship as God's gracious and merciful discipline, which confirms our legitimacy as His children. For Christians, the consequences of our sins are God's mercy to us - they are the kindness of God which leads us to repentance, not the anger or wrath of God at our sins.

Kaitlyn has been dwelling on Jeremiah 2 lately, and came across these verses: "Your wickedness will punish you; your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the LORD your God and have no awe of me" (Jeremiah 2:19). God seems to be saying that the punishment for sin is sin itself - wickedness and backsliding are their own punishment. I love this because it screams the fact that God is our greatest good! He is the gospel, and since he is the source of all true joy and peace, to turn to anything else can only result in misery, and in a very real way, wickedness is its own punishment.

But if sin is its own punishment, then do we experience God's punishment on us as Christians when we sin? It seems to me, that even though the cycle of sin and its consequences might look almost identical in a Christian and non-Christian's life, it is fundamentally different for the Christian - the consequences for his sin are part of God's mercy towards him. We see this time and time again in the Old Testament prophets, when God promised to bring judgment on His people in order to turn them back to Him. For the pagan nations, however, there was no redemptive undercurrent to their punishment and judgment, just like there is no redemption when non-Christians reap the consequences of their sin (unless God graciously uses it for his purposes of course).

I don't know if this all made sense, or if it's completely correct, but it's part of my trying to figure out just how God can really cause "all things to work for good" (Rom. 8:28) in my life, and how it is that he graciously gives us "all things" (Rom. 8:32).