Hello and welcome to Foundations where with each video I’ll go through one verse from the Bible that you can memorize which teaches key foundational principles about God. Memorizing Scripture is one of the best ways to stay centered in God’s Word and solidify what God’s Word teaches.

Today’s foundation verse is all about our salvation assurance through Jesus and answers the question: What happens to both a Christian and a non-Christian when they continue in sin? The foundation verse is 1 Corinthians 11:32:

“But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.” (1 Corinthians 11:32 NASB95)

This verse provides both comfort about how we can rest and be assured of our salvation and a warning of how important it is to walk in obedience. Here are 5 foundation principles. 

First, God, our faithful Father, judges His children daily. This verse starts off with the phrase “when we are judged.” Paul is writing this verse to the Church at Corinth, so this verse is directed toward Christians. The “we” in this verse refers to those who have already placed their faith in Christ to save them, have been forgiven of their sins through the blood of Jesus and have the Holy Spirit in them so that they are saved. From the context, we can see that this judgment is not referring to God’s final judgment of someone as to whether they will go to heaven or hell. It’s talking about the daily judgments God makes as He watches over His children, which results in daily disciplining. 

Throughout Scripture, God presents Himself as the faithful Father who watches over his children. God is constantly watching over each one of us. As any good parent will tell you, they may be doing a million different things, but no matter what, they will constantly remain mindful of their children so that they always know where their kids are and what they are doing. So it is with God, even more so.

God is the faithful Father and our behavior on earth, the things we do and even the things we think about and feel, matter to Him, just like a child’s behavior, thoughts and feelings matter to a parent. And when He sees His children doing, saying, thinking or feeling things that He doesn’t approve of, He judges.

Second, God is not distant but engaged, even knowing our thoughts and feelings. For God to judge us and discipline daily us as our Father, He can’t be distant but has to be engaged. In Matthew 6, Jesus said that our Father knows what things we need before we ask Him. 

God is the ultimate faithful parent. He’s not distant but is close by, so close that He always knows not only what you are doing but what you are thinking and feeling. He weighs those things and constantly evaluates whether you are heading in the right direction. And if you are not, He disciplines. In the Gospels, there are several times where it says Jesus knew the thoughts of the people he encountered and responded to them. That must have really freaked those people out when they had a thought in their mind and Jesus answered that thought verbally. That would certainly have caught my attention.

Third, God’s daily judgments can result in discipline. The word discipline here is the Greek word, “paideuō” (pahee-dyoo’-o ). It means “to train up a child, to educate, or to discipline, sometimes by punishment, with the goal of instructing and teaching them so that they learn. It is not speaking of punishing someone in anger or wrath, but more of a loving Father correcting His son or daughter. 

We see this aspect of God’s love for His children in the midst of disciplining them in Hebrews 12:6, where it says, “For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines.” Some of you may be going through God’s discipline right now. Whenever that discipline comes, we have to remember that God isn’t angry against so as to condemn us. Instead, He loves us. And it is because of His love that He disciplines us, always with the goal of teaching and correcting us.

This discipline can take many forms, including:

1. Gentle correction, such as a word of warning to us either through His Word, through prayer, or through other believers.
2. Loss of blessings in this life. Instead of God blessing you, He has to spend time disciplining you. How many blessings in this life have we lost because of that?
3. Allowing us to suffer through the consequences of our actions. Some Christians are spending their lives in prison, reaping the consequences of sin.
4. Experiencing sickness and dying before our time. In this very chapter, just two verses earlier, Paul told the Corinthians who were partaking of the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner that:
   
   “For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep (death).” (1 Corinthians 11:30 NASB95)
   
   
5. Demonic oppression. Christians cannot be possessed by Satan or demons because we have the Holy Spirit inside us. But we can be oppressed by them if God allows it. And what can cause God to allow it is sin. Sin gives the demonic world the legal right to oppress you. For example, a Christian who watches porn has just given the demonic world the legal right to oppress them and their family. It’s like God saying, “Ok, you want to sin and walk apart from Me and my blessings. Fine then. I’ll let you experience a little bit of what that’s like and how awful it can get.” God never abandons us, but He will allow oppression to occur to teach us how good it is to walk with the Lord and to encourage us to turn back to Him. 
6. Loss of rewards in heaven. 2 Corinthians 5:10 says, “”For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things [done] in [his] body, according to that he hath done, whether [it be] good or bad.” (2 Corinthians 5:10 KJV). Our behavior on earth matters to God. Those who walk in obedience will be rewarded for eternity. We’re not talking about salvation here, for salvation is a free gift, not a reward. We’re talking about blessings, praises, rights and privileges we will have in the coming Kingdom, such as ruling and reigning with Christ.

Fourth, in this verse we see God’s assurance of our salvation. It says we are disciplined by God so that we will NOT be condemned with the world. For a believer in Christ, sin can no longer cause you to lose your salvation. Even the ones whom God has to severely discipline will not be condemned. Why? Because when you place your faith in Christ, believing that His blood, His death, paid for your sins, then all your sins, every one of them (past, present and future) are immediately nailed to the cross. As believers in Christ, sin can no longer condemn us. The power of sin to condemn us has been broken by the blood of Christ. It says it right here, that though we have sinned and are disciplined by God, we will not be condemned with the world.

We see very strong proof of this in 1 Corinthians 5:5, where a Corinthian believer in the church was engaging in ongoing sexual immorality, the very kind that Paul said in Galatians 5, speaking of the world in general, that

“those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:21 NASB95)

Even worse, the man was totally unrepentant and continued in sin when confronted by the church. Yet, what was Paul’s response? He said that he had decided: 

“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.” (1 Corinthians 5:5 KJV)

In other words, the man would be severely disciplined by the Lord to the point where all of God’s protection would be removed, allowing Satan to kill him. And yet, the man would still be saved, even though he was grossly immoral and unrepentant. That could only happen if all of his sins (past, present and future) were nailed to the cross and paid for the moment he believed. So when that man would then stand before God and God looks at the man’s record to see if he had committed any of the sins that are listed in the Bible where it says, “those who commit such sins will not inherit the Kingdom of God,” God finds none of those sins listed there, even though the man was guilty right up until his death. Because he placed his faith in Christ, all of his sins were washed away and his record was clean. That’s what happened at the cross. That’s what happens when you place your faith in Christ to save you. 

So all the verses in the Bible that list sins and say, “those who commit such sins will not inherit the Kingdom,” remain true. If you have any of those sins on your record, you will not be saved. But when you place your faith in Christ, your record is immediately washed clean so that there’s nothing left for God to judge, even though you were guilty. Such is the grace of God. Such is the love of Christ.

As it says in this verse, we are disciplined by God as God would discipline His children, so that we will NOT be condemned with the world. This is one of the strongest verses on the assurance of our salvation, that it can never be lost. That’s why it is such a powerful verse to memorize.

But then, fifth, the rest of the world will be condemned for eternity. This last phrase speaks of the final judgment that those who do not turn to God for salvation will face. Not everyone is a child of God. In fact, most of the people on this planet are not children of God. Jesus spoke to this very point in John chapter 8, when the Pharisees claimed that God was their Father. Jesus corrected them, saying that God was not their Father but that they were of their father, the devil. 

All of the people in this world who have never placed their faith in Christ for their salvation are not children of God but are living under the authority, rule, dominion and even family of Satan, whom God has allowed to have temporary rule over this world, rule that is quickly coming to an end. 

To become a child of God, Jesus said you must be born again, born spiritually just as you were born physically.

“Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”” (John 3:3 NASB95)

Jesus then said,

“”For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16 NASB95)

God disciplines His children daily so that they will not be condemned along with the rest of the world. The rest of the world has but one fate: to be condemned for eternity. How important it is to become a child of God.

Are you a child of God? Are you sure? If you’ve never taken that step or perhaps you’ve strayed so far that you are not really sure whether God will spare you from being condemned along with the world, then you can settle that right now and it’s as simple as ABC.

Just between you and God in prayer:

ADMIT to God that you have sinned and fallen short of His holiness.

BELIEVE that God loves you so much that He gave His only Son, Jesus, to die on a cross in your place to pay for your sin and that Jesus rose from the dead to show you the eternal life, a much better life, that He offers you.

And then CALL. Call upon the Lord to save you and strengthen you, trusting in Him to forgive you and abundantly pardon you. Romans 10:9 says: 

“that if you confess with your mouth Jesus [as] Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;” (Romans 10:9 NASB95)

and then in Romans 10:13:

“for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”” (Romans 10:13 NASB95)

When you place your faith in Jesus to save you, you will find compassion, forgiveness, eternal life and a love from God that never fades away. God’s Holy Spirit will come to live inside you, enabling you to do what you could never to before, which is turn from sin, have a changed life and become a child of God. 

In closing, I encourage you to memorize this foundation verse to lock into your soul the assurance of your salvation and to remind yourself of the importance of walking in obedience to God after you are saved so that God doesn’t have to discipline you but instead can bless you.