The perfecting of the immature believers in the age of the millennium will be through the Lord’s dispensational and governmental discipline. Hebrews 12:6 tells us, “Whom the Lord loves He disciplines and scourges every son whom He receives.” The Lord’s discipline of the believers is not only in this age but also in the coming age. Because the age of the millennium will still belong to the old heaven and the old earth, the coming age will still be a time for the Father to deal with His children so that they may be perfected. Those believers who are not perfected in the church age will be perfected in the age of the millennium. The means of their perfection will be the Lord’s dispensational and governmental discipline. This discipline will be for those who were slothful in the church age, in the dispensation of grace, and did not apply the Lord’s sufficient grace and enjoy it, taking this grace as their portion. Such believers will need the Lord’s loving discipline in the coming age for their perfection.
The Lord’s dispensational and governmental discipline of the immature believers in the age of the millennium is illustrated by the cases of the unfaithful slave and the slothful slave in Matthew 24:48-51 and 25:24-30. Matthew 24:48 and 49 speak of an evil slave who says in his heart, “My master is delaying his coming,” and who begins to “beat his fellow slaves, and eat and drink with the drunken.” Verses 50 and 51 say, “The master of that slave shall come on a day when he does not expect him, and in an hour which he does not know, and shall cut him asunder and appoint his portion with the hypocrites; there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.” The problem with the evil slave is not that he does not know that the Lord is coming but that he does not expect Him. He does not like to live the kind of life that is prepared for the Lord’s coming. Moreover, the evil slave beats his fellow slaves, that is, mistreats the fellow believers, and eats and drinks with the drunken, that is, keeps company with worldly people, who are drunk with worldly things. Therefore, when the Lord comes back, He will cut asunder the evil slave and appoint his portion with the hypocrites.
To “cut him asunder” means to cut him off, not to cut him to pieces. This signifies a separation from the Lord in His coming glory. The Lord will not cut the evil slave in pieces; rather, He will cast him off from the glory in which He Himself will be. The issue here is not salvation but the discipline of an immature believer in the coming age. Such a believer will miss the enjoyment of the kingdom and instead suffer punishment and discipline where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
For a believer to be cut asunder is for him to be cut asunder from the organic union with the Lord. Whenever a person believes in the Lord, he is put into an organic union with the Triune God so that he may enjoy Him. According to Matthew 28:19, the believers are to be baptized into the name of the Triune God, that is, into an organic union with the Triune God, so that they may participate in Him, partake of Him, and enjoy Him. By enjoying the Triune God in the organic union we are transformed and perfected, made ready for the Lord to come back to take us into His enjoyment in the millennium. However, Matthew 24 tells us clearly that in the coming age certain ones will be cut asunder from the organic union. This means that they will be cut off from the enjoyment of the Lord. This cutting off from the organic union corresponds to the taking away of the branches in John 15. For a branch to be cut off from the vine means that it is cut off from the union with the vine. Those branches that are in union with the vine enjoy and participate in all the riches of the vine, but those branches that are cut off from the vine lose this enjoyment. This is the correct understanding of the cutting asunder in Matthew 24.
After the immature believers have been cut asunder, cut off from the organic union with the Lord, they will be put into the outer darkness, the darkness outside the bright glory in the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens. This is different from being cast into the lake of fire after the millennium for eternity (Rev. 20:15). The overcomers will be called into the Lord’s enjoyment, which will be in the glory, but the defeated ones will be put outside this glory. They will be outside the glory in which the Lord and His overcomers will be during the coming age. To be in the glory will be a reward, but to be put outside the glory will be a kind of punishment. Those who are put into the outer darkness will weep and gnash their teeth. The weeping will indicate regret, and the gnashing of teeth, self-blame. Both the weeping and the gnashing of teeth will be a sign of suffering the Lord’s dispensational and governmental discipline.
The Lord’s dispensational and governmental discipline is also illustrated by the case of the slothful slave in Matthew 25:24-30. In verses 26 through 30 we see that the one-talented one who was not faithful in using his gift is rebuked by the Lord and punished. Verse 30 says, “Cast out the useless slave into the outer darkness; there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.” Whoever is cast into outer darkness will be cut off from the Lord, from His presence, from His fellowship, and from the glorious sphere in which the Lord will be. This is not to perish eternally but to be chastened dispensationally during the coming age of the kingdom. This chastening, this punishment, has a goal, and this goal is the believers’ perfection.
In this dispensation of grace, the Lord is supporting us and supplying us with rich grace so that we may enjoy this grace, be edified, and be transformed for our perfection. If we are faithful, we shall enter into His joy in the coming age. But if we are not faithful, we shall be disciplined by Him in the coming age so that we may be perfected. Those who are faithful in this age of grace will be rewarded by the Lord in the coming age. They will be with Him in glory and even reign with Him. But for those who are not perfected in the church age, the age of the millennium will be a time of discipline. In order to be fitting to enter into the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and the new earth, the immature believers will need to be perfected through discipline during the coming age.
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