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My name is Glenn Leith.
I live in Memphis, Tennessee, 75 years old.
The question is, does a Christian who is sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise, can he be punished by the Lord for practicing fornication or some other sin?
And I'm thinking about the man in 1 Corinthians 5, 1 through 5, who was sleeping with his father's wife.
What about those people?
Thank you.
Glenn, good question.
A saved member of the church, the body of Christ, is as you said, Ephesians 1:13, sealed and also Colossians 2:10, complete in him.
We can't add to complete.
That's the best we can get.
We are in Christ.
Christ is our head.
Where we go, he goes.
Colossians 1:27, Christ in us, the hope of glory.
And if God were to punish the believer, spiritually speaking, he would be punishing his son.
As to the man in 1 Corinthians 5, let's read here, starting with verse 1.
Paul writes, 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 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 this 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.
So, this is not God punishing this man, who is a believer.
No.
Paul told the church to turn him away, to put him out of the church and let Satan have him, for the destruction of his flesh.
God doesn't need to punish us.
We do a good job without him.
We reap what we sow.
We punish ourselves.
There are consequences to our decisions.
There are consequences to sin.
You see, this seal and this completeness we have in Christ is positional.
It deals with our position in Christ.
But our day-to-day walk, our day-to-day state, can suffer.
Some days we may not feel sealed.
We may not feel complete.
We can do things outside the will of God that will affect us, but cannot affect our position, which is in him, and sealed unto the day of redemption.
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