THE problem of sin in a believer's life has caused many people much perplexity. It is no problem at all to God. He provided for it long a^o in the glorious plan of redemption. He planned judment for unconfessed sin in the believer's life. He also planned abundant victory over known sin to be had for the asking as faith quietly takes it day by day and hour by hour. And God's plans do not fail of accomplishment.

Every believer must face sin in his own past life. No Christian lives a sinless life in God's sight. Sin cannot go unchallenged nor unpunished. God demands an accounting. No Christian has license to sin because he is eternally secure in salvation. Gold does give blessed and eternal security to the soul that is hid with Christ in God in personal salvation, but He requires a reckoning for sin in the believer's life. The saved soul will be judged! The doctrines of eternal security and chastening belong together and should be studied together. God does not wink at sin in the life of His child. What, then, does Scripture teach on this vital question so frequently asked?

There are two ways by which God settles for sin in a Christian's life. First, true confession on the part of the believer brings God's gracious forgiveness. Second, failure to confess sin brings God's loving chastening into the life of His child. Let us look at a few clear passages in. God's Word. "For if we would judge our would judge our selves, 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" (I Corinthians 11:31, 32). The first plan is stated, "If we would judge our selves, we should not be judged." That is to say that if the believer will put his finger on every known sin in his life, and, with "godly sorrow" for sin, not because of its consequence in human, experience but because it has grieved the Lord, will confess his sin to God, he will receive the forgiveness of God for his sin. God will not judge by chastisement it we have judged ourselves. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unnghteousness" (I John 1:9). The word "to cleanse is in a tense (the aorist) which indicates action which is final, once for all. In other words, God longs to hear the cry of confession of sin from his child, and it is His pleasure to put that confessed sin out of the way once for all. That is His desire, yet how often we come with the same old sin for forgiveness and deliverance! "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (I John 2:1). God hates sin in a believer's life. He must deal with it either by the believer's confession or by His own chastening. He offers to the redeemed, victory over every known sin, but He requires a genuine confession and contrition of heart for sin when that victory is not enjoyed. When believers judge themselves by confession, God forgives, and God cleanses. God wants to move forward in the conquests of His grace in the life of His child. That confession must accomplish the same results that His chastening would produce. We dare not rush into the presence of the Lord with a light confession and then rush out again as it sin were a light matter before Him. "If we would judge our selves, we should not be judged." If confession does not reach to the depths, chastening will. God lovingly removes confessed sin in the believer's life without meting out to it His own judgment. "If any man sin (that is, any man that is a child of God) we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." Calvary not only suffices for the sinner and the expiation of the guilt of sin—it is as truly the basis of continuous fellowship with God for the saint. A saint is not so called, in Scripture, because of his own character, but because of his position before God in Christ, and because of the character which God shall one day perfect in him by divine grace. It is a word which embodies in itself the imputed and imparted righteousness of Christ. The saint has a perfect and unchanging standing before God because of the finished work of Christ at Calvary, and in the Resurrection. That is the "free gift of eternal life" which is by faith in Christ Jesus as personal Saviour. It is God's purpose that saints shall become Christ-like in character. "He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until (or, unto) the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6). "We shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is" (I John 3:2). Hence, God must deal with sin in the saved soul. When sin in a saint's life is confessed, it can be put away by forgiveness. When it is not confessed, God must deal with it by chastisement. Remember that true repentance is a heart broken not only for sin but from sin. Unconfessed sin does not imperil one's salvation. It does hinder his fellowship with the heavenly Father. "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another (or, one with the other—that is, the believer with the Lord Jesus Christ) and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin" (I John 1:7). The word "cleanseth" is here in another tense (the present) which indicates an ever-present efficacy in the Cross to maintain the child of God in fellowship with God. "When we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world'' (I Corinthians 11:32). Either by heart-purging confession or by chastening, God must reckon with sin in the life of His child. But that chastening is a reckoning with sin in a believer's life on an entirely different basis than that upon which God deals with the sinner who is not sheltered under the shed blood of Christ Jesus. Note the phrase, "that we should not be condemned with the world."

When we turn to consider the chastening of the Lord, we note its severity in several passages. "He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation (or, marginal rendering, "judgment" — the chastening referred to in verses 31, 32) to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep" (I Corinthians 11:29-30). Failure to discern the Lord's body al the Table of Communion, that is, eating and drinking there for the body instead of using the precious element; as symbols of spiritual sustenance, may bring chastening even unto death. Oh how much the Cross means to God! Take another passage in illustration: "It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you. and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife, And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done the deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus" (I Corinthians 5:1-5). A Christian man in the church at Corinth had fallen into outbreaking sin. Even the church had not grieved over his sin. The message of God to that church through Paul was very plain — chastening unto death, yet a judgment upon sin in this man's life which did not imperil the salvation of his soul. "Destruction of the flesh" — death — Chastening! "That the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus" — Security!

Now this chastening is evidence of the love of God as well as of security in Christ. "My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him; for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. 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.'' For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening for the present seem eth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:5-14). Whom God loves He chastens. It is proof of His love. God scourges every son whom He receives, Chastening is also a proof of sonship. Every believer needs chastening. The purpose of chastening is "that we might be partakers of His holiness." It is the imparting process whereby we become Christ-like in actual character. The results of chastening are blessed "the peaceable fruit of righteousness." Chastening is a message of encouragement—"wherefore lift up the hands which hang down.'' Many who teach eradication of the "old nature" quote verse 14 as proof-text, "follow after peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord," but they fail to see that God is saying that imparted righteousness shall one day match imputed righteousness. It is because of sin in the life that God must chasten; but chastening in the believer's life for the purpose of moulding him into Christ-likeness, is proof of sonship and security.

Let us again note the words, "When we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be. condemned with the world" (I Corinthians 11:32), Both of these ways by which God deals with sin in the saved soul—confession, and chastening—have to do with the daily life of the believer. A day is coming when every saved soul will be judged at His appearing. "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in the body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad" (II Corinthians 5:10). "Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then' shall every man have praise of God" (I Corinthians 4:5). Both of these passages are written to believers, not to the unsaved. Likewise Romans 14:10, "But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ." This judgment-seat of Christ is the climax in judgment of the saved soul. For those believers who have yielded to the Holy Spirit and have known His indwelling lordship in their lives, glorious rewards await at the judgment seat of Christ. For those believers who have not lived in communion with their Lord during their lives upon earth, a sad judgment in the loss of rewards awaits in addition to the chastening of God upon them during this life. A passage which primarily refers to judgment upon teachers has apt application also to the judgment of believer's lives at the judgment seat of Christ. It is I Corinthians 3:11-17: "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it: because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. Know ye that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." Judgment may even rest upon God's children in the destruction of the body now, in chastening, as we have seen in other passages, but salvation rests upon only one foundation, which is Jesus Christ. This is God's work. Every believer shall come into final judgment for his life. Some shall abide the test and be rewarded; some shall fail in the, day of judgment and shall lose their rewards; but the soul's salvation remains assured because of the foundation.

Yes, the saved soul will be judged. May we who love Him Who gave Himself for us say with Paul, in the words of Galatians 2:20, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me."