Sin, Guilt, Forgiveness, and Punishment- Part II

Click here to read Part I of this article.

Punishment

What is punishment? The Catholic Dictionary defines punishment as,

Any ill suffered in consequence of wrongdoing. It has three functions, which ideally should be retributive as serving the offended person, corrective for the offender, and deterrent for the community at large. Punishment is retributive because it pays back the offender for his crime and re-establishes the balance of justice, which has been outraged. It is corrective when directed to improving the offender and rehabilitating him as a member of society. It is deterrent as a means of forestalling similar wrongdoing by others.

In addition to contritely apologizing to the person we harmed by sinning, temporal punishments include restoring the thing taken, repairing the disorder we created, and detaching ourselves from the sinful object. The Catholic Church teaches that punishment redresses a disorder caused by an offense, and when a person undergoes this punishment voluntarily, it takes on the value of expiation (CCC 2266), also known as satisfaction.

But the question asked at the beginning of this article still needs a fuller answer, and it lies in the purpose of God’s punishment. God intends punishments to heal us, to discipline us, to sanctify us, to make us “perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect.” Hebrews 12 provides a solid explanation for punishment’s purpose:

And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as children—‘My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, or lose heart when you are punished by Him; for the Lord disciplines those whom He loves, and chastises every child whom He accepts.’ Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? If you do not have that discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate and not His children. 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? 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. 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.

This passage teaches us that God disciplines/chastises “every child whom He accepts,” which is every person in a state of sanctifying grace. When a person has grace in their soul, God has received them, justified them, and made them His friend.

Discipline for sin is simply punishment directed at our sanctification and the restoration of the common good. God may have forgiven and justified us, but that does not mean He morally perfected us, at least not yet.

Therefore, God gives us the discipline needed to make us perfect. God who is Justice, justifies us in grace that we may reflect His justice by justly executing His will and repairing the damage we caused by sinning.

Notice, too, that discipline yields righteousness to those whom God has “trained” by it. Training takes time and cooperation. So, this passage is telling us that God’s children, those whom He has justified, must continue in and cooperate with disciplinary training designed to morally perfect them.

Next, if we reject God’s post-justification discipline, we make ourselves illegitimate children. This is why the Church and Scripture teach that we must willingly undergo discipline that we may “share His holiness” and yield the “peaceful fruit of righteousness.” We call this full sharing in God’s holiness sanctification.

So, even though we escape the eternal punishment of Hell by grace through which we become God’s legitimate children, we must accept any kind of temporal punishment as discipline ordered toward moral perfection and sanctification. This is because sin disfigures our souls by configuring them toward sin. Grace puts us back in right relationship with God, but it does not immediately reconfigure us without discipline and our cooperation with it.

Similarly, a pill may destroy cancer, but the person must recover from the toll the cancer has taken on his/her body. Although forgiveness destroys sin in the soul, we must still repair the toll sin takes on the body of Christ (the Church), the community at large, and our own souls. Discipline and cooperating with grace are how God and we accomplish this.

More About Discipline

In addition to Hebrews 12, Genesis 3:16-19 teaches us that when man fell from grace, God punished him with spiritual and physical death, an increase in labor pangs for women, and working by the sweat of the brow for men. Restoration of grace through forgiveness provides an immediate remedy to spiritual death alone. However, physical death, labor pangs, and difficult work continue even after God forgives us. In other words, punishments remain after God forgives us.

Additionally, after King David had an affair with Bathsheba and sent her husband to the front lines of battle to meet his death, God punished David after He forgave him. In 2 Samuel 12:13-14, the prophet Nathan says to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child that is born to you shall die.”

David chose this punishment the moment he had the affair with Bathsheba and sent her husband to his death. Consequently, God struck with death the fruit of their adulteress relationship.

God designed this punishment to 1) fit the crime and 2) to help David reform himself and enter Heaven. And David must have entered Heaven because Hebrews 11:32 and 12:1 say as much. So, God disciplined David for his sins because David needed and chose God’s discipline the moment he sinned.

Earthly Punishment for Sin

What do we make of earthly punishments handed down by human authorities to those whom God has forgiven? Although God forgives those who turn to Him with contrition, the state will not typically forgive actions against it or its citizens. Even the individual whom we wrong may not forgive us.

By committing a sin against an individual, we create enmity between the individual and ourselves. If this sin is also a crime, we create enmity between the state and ourselves as well. God’s forgiveness does not remove the enmity we created against the individual and/or state.

So, one must accept any punishment the state inflicts against one whom God has forgiven as discipline directed toward sanctification. As a matter of prudence, we should ask God to accept this punishment as discipline for our sins. This discipline is also known as penance (CCC 1459-1460).

Pulling This All Together

From the above, we see the following:

• Sin is a word, deed, thought, or omitted act that is contrary to grace and separates us from God.
• Guilt for sin is the condition of separation from God.
• Forgiveness is the removal of guilt by the infusion of grace that reunites us to God.
• Discipline for forgiven sin is simply punishment directed at our sanctification and the restoration of the common good.

Sin makes us guilty of creating enmity between ourselves and God by rejecting the grace that makes us friends with God. Forgiveness restores that friendship with God by the infusion of grace, thereby making us not guilty of rejecting grace and creating enmity with God. However, by rejecting grace, albeit restored through God’s forgiveness, disorder remains in ourselves, the Church, and the community at large.

For an article on the Sacrament of Reconciliation, please click here.

Since God gives us the grace to be His friends and to function as those made in His image and likeness, grace makes us responsible for repairing the disorder our sins create. This is because God’s forgiveness and grace begin the process of reordering, and we, whom He makes in His image, must reflect His grace by restoring what we disfigured.

Therefore, according to Hebrews 12 above, “[God] disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share his holiness. 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.”

As you can see, God’s not-guilty declaration does not immediately repair all the disorders we introduce through sin. Therefore, in the interest of justice, justification begins reordering the disorders we have caused, and we whom God made in His image and likeness must reflect this justice by repairing that which we have harmed.

A Future Article

But what happens if I am not perfectly disciplined (i.e., morally perfect) when I physically die, or if I did not have the opportunity to repair the damage I caused by sin? I will answer this question in a future article titled Why Purgatory Is Real and Necessary.

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