Of Chastisement and Vengeance

Calvin, in the Institutes, has a long and very helpful section on the difference between what he calls 'chastisement' and 'judgment.' The former is corrective discipline, the latter retributive justice. Now he tackles this subject in argument against the Roman Catholic Church's teaching (at the time) that God inflicts punishment on Christian sinners for their sins. He writes (3.18.30):

But when they (the Roman Church) teach that temporal penalty is any sort of punishment that God inflicts either upon the body or upon the soul-apart from eternal death-this limitation helps them little...we are received by God into grace on the condition that whatever penalties we deserve he remits by pardoning our guilt (through the atoning work of Jesus Christ).

He then goes on to describe how God metes out judgment (or vengeance) and discipline (chastisement) (3.18.31):

One judgment we call, for the sake of teaching, that of vengeance; the other, of chastisement.

Now, by the judgment of vengeance, God should be understood as taking vengeance upon his enemies; so that he exercises his wrath against them, he confounds them, he scatters them, he brings them to nought. Therefore, let us consider this to be God's vengeance, properly speaking: when punishment is joined with his indignation.

In the judgment of chastisement he is not so harsh as to be angry, nor does he take vengeance so as to blast with destruction. Consequently, it is not, properly speaking, punishment or vengeance, but correction and admonition.

The one is the act of a judge; the other, of a father. For when a judge punishes an evildoer, he weighs his transgression and applies the penalty to the crime itself. But when a father quite severely corrects his son, he does not do this to take vengeance on him or to maltreat him, but rather to teach him and to render him more cautious therefore.

I have, essentially, come to the same conclusion. My only addition to this would be that, though we might not call it discipline, anything that is not death for the unrepentant is grace. Though they are not yet saved, God will intercede physically and emotionally (spiritually) in the lives of the unrepentant with the goal that they turn to him. Is that judgment? Yes, but it should also be considered an extension of God's grace.

If you're looking for some self-inflicted chastisement, his whole section on this is great. Click here and read through June 5th and 6th, and 3.18.30-37.