2. Church discipline is a means of grace. One of the ways that Christ communicates His grace to us is through church discipline. It is not just a body of believers disciplining their brother, but Christ the Lord Himself from His heavenly court who is disciplining that man or woman. I take great comfort in knowing that since the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church is a gospel believing denomination that their discipline is as I like to say "Kosher".
3. Church discipline cleanses the church of the unholy leaven. The unholy leaven of unrepentance, pride, sexual immorality, etc. All these things are a danger to the purity of the church and once revealed they must be dealt with by the proper authorities.
4. Church discipline is not for the faint of heart. Being excommunicated is not fun and it is not something I wish for my fellow Christians to experience. As the last step in church discipline it is so severe that it has a lasting effect on the mind and heart of the individual.
5. Church discipline drives you to repentance in Christ. I think that being excommunicated when you understand that it is a denial by a church court of your profession of faith can really do a number on your soul. I have always had unquestioned confidence that I was a true believer (as far as I remember), but when I was excommunicated I began to doubt my salvation. This has lead to much soul searching and although I don't really know all the reasons I was excommunicated, it has driven me to seek repentance in those areas of my life where I see that I need improvement
6. Church discipline is complicated. When I was in seminary the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church was in the midst of revising its book of Discipline, so I had to learn to different documents in Seminary. Honestly, I had no idea what was going on in when I was disciplined. This is partly because it was a different book of discipline and secondly because I simply couldn't remember what all the steps were. Now, in the aftermath of excommunication there is still unclarity about the process of reconciliation. I believe the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church should have better rules/clearer rules about how one is to reconcile after excommunication. It seems to me that church courts have great levity in how they choose to proceed in the case of reconciliation
7. Church discipline is not always done well. Even with the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, which is a wonderful little denomination with very talented and scrupulous office-bearers, there are still things that I think could be done better. If you want more details on this, I'd be willing to share them with you in person.
8. Church discipline can only be administered by lawful authorities. Who are the lawful authorities? Well, I would argue that not just anybody can discipline you. It has to be a gospel believing court which has jurisdiction.
9. Church discipline is necessary. The best way to keep the church pure and bring a brother to repentance is to enact church discipline. This is God's tool for sanctifying His church and his children. We are all disciplined by the Lord if we are his children and this is necessary because we need to bare the fruit of righteousness in our lives to the glory of God.
10. Church discipline glorifies Christ. Church discipline makes Jesus look good and confirms the gospel message that is the most inclusive-exclusive message on earth. When someone is cast out of the church it teaches those who know about the incident that there are boundaries. You can't believe just anything to be a member of the body and you can't just act any ole way to be a Christian. There's an in and an out and there are biblical standards of behavior that are to be adhered to.
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