Consequence or Correction?

Funny that I'm only talking about this now. Since 3 Sundays ago a questioned raised bugged my mind.

A concerned student raised the question:
"How do we know if we are being disciplined or just simply suffering the consequence of sin?"

Hairy, hairy question.
But if I may, I think the motivation behind the question is a response to people who say
"God is disciplining me" in a highly unapologetic manner, as though externalising their sinfulness from themselves, or wickedly pointing the spotlight to what seems to make a good christian (for God disciplines those He calls as His children) when it's just rotten rebellion and resultant curse.

So some people hug the discipline idea because they are infact really unrepentant and are incredibly eager to frame their suffering in a positive, self-absolving light.

I thought the answer was really clear though.
Let's start with unbelievers. When they suffer are they being disciplined? No, since God disciplines His children. I think it is clear the the unbeliever's suffering is just the bearing of wrath. There is no positive, silver-lining, hopeful concept of "for their good" here.

And the answer becomes clear.
What differentiates is the identity. The sonship. Sons are disciplined. Non-sons are vessels of wrath.
But I don't want to make this into a dichotomy, it is presently beyond me.

So, I stop at saying that both experience the consequence of sin, which God meticulously metes out on all transgressors. However, when a son experiences it, he is being disciplined. To what end? "share in His holiness" (Heb 12:10).
When non-son experiences it, it's wrath, pure wrath, justice.

Therefore, in the words of Thomas Watson
Answer: Though a child of God, after pardon, may incur his fatherly displeasure, yet his judicial wrath is removed. Though he may lay on the rod, yet he has taken away the curse. Correction may befall the saints, but not destruction. (Thomas Watson, Body of Divinity, p. 556)

Big difference? I think. What catches my eye is the word "curse". To suffer the consequence of sin as a chastening and not a curse/ condemnation makes the experience worlds apart. It looks like sin is being wrung of its corrupting power and sharpened into a precision instrument when it happens to sons. 

The curse is gone. This is a correction.