Faithfulness of God
Romans 3:1-8
Introduction
Think about the people you know, your family and friends and acquaintances. What are the virtues that you value and admire most? There would be things like politeness and kindness and intelligence and humour. All of these things are good and should be appreciated. What about faithfulness? How important is that? It would be great to know that the people in our life would be always faithful. To know that they would always be there for us and never turn their backs on us. To know that when they say something, there would not be a last minute forgetting, change or excuse. If only we experienced faithfulness in every area of our life. What about our relationship with God? Do we expect God to be faithful to us? How can we live if God is not faithful? I must be clear that not everyone believes in a faithful God. Either God does not exist or God does not care or God is so independent that we can never know what he might do. If any of those options were true, what kind of hope would we have? Thankfully, the Bible reveals a God that is faithful. But what does that mean? Does faithful equate to Santa Claus and a God who will give us what we want, when we want it? The Bible presents a different picture of faithfulness, one that is less comfortable and yet much better.
Faithful in Unfaithfulness
We are told in Genesis that God created humanity in his image. The irony is that we tend to create God in our image. We tend to project what we are like, both the good and the bad, onto our image of God. This is one of the reasons that idolatry is condemned in the Bible. We get annoyed by certain things and we assume that God is annoyed by them as well. We are tolerant of certain things and we assume God is tolerant of them as well. How does this fit with faithfulness? We tend to interpret God’s faithfulness through our own faithfulness. Since we know how unfaithful we can be, that leaves a frightening image of God. Paul asks the question: “What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness?” (Romans 3:3 NIV) Paul has been describing the actions of some Christians and have shown those actions to be less than desirable. Paul will soon begin a section that describes the sinfulness of humanity in general. If God’s faithfulness is based on our faithfulness, then we are in much trouble. But this is how we operate. We sometimes put the pressure on ourselves. Who God is and what he does is all based on our own performance. God will remain faithful to the extent that we remain faithful and not a step beyond. As soon as we step out of line, there is instant and harsh repercussions. However, Paul answers his own question with a negative. Our lack of faithfulness does not nullify God’s faithfulness. When God says something, God will do it. We cannot make a mistake and then discover that God has abandoned us. God will remain faithful. This is one of the things that attracted me to God. I have told the story of my experience in Mexico. Before I was a Christian, I was a heavy drinker. As I was taking steps toward personal faith, I realized that abusing alcohol was against God’s will. I even told my friend that I would not get drunk because of what I had been reading in the Bible. I was going into this with knowledge of what God wanted for my actions. So my first night, I got completely drunk and ended up in a Mexican jail. This was a clear case of unfaithfulness. I knew what I was not supposed to do and yet I did it anyway. Out of desperation I prayed that God would get me out of jail. If I was God, I might have left me there for a while. But I was pleading in Jesus’ name, begging for mercy. God heard my prayer and delivered me from that cell. Aside from the joy of getting out of jail, it taught me a great lesson of God’s faithfulness despite my faithlessness. I wish I could say that was the last time I was faithless, but I am thankful that was not the last time God was faithful. Over and over God has demonstrated his faithfulness, apart from how good or bad my performance of the Christian life has been. This is an important and sometimes expensive lesson to learn.
Unwanted Faithfulness
I share these stories and this encouragement with full awareness that this could be misunderstood. It could easily look as if God’s faithfulness apart from our faithfulness means that God will always be nice to us no matter the circumstances or the things that we do. It could look that way but that is not the promise. The promise is that God will always be faithful despite our faithfulness, not that he will always be nice. Paul asks the question: “But if our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us?” (Romans 3:5 NIV) The question is: why would a faithful God judge or punish his people? That seems unfair. God should just pour out his blessings, no matter what we do. But that is not what faithfulness is. Faithfulness is about doing what has been promised and acting consistently. The question then is: what has God promised and how has he acted in the past? God has not promised to give us everything we want and to shut his eyes to our sins. God has promised to be a loving and merciful God. But he has also promised to be a righteous, holy and just God. God hates sin and injustice and wickedness. It is true that God is very merciful and that he does not punish us the way we deserve, but he still cares about how we act and how we live. What we must realize is that God acts not out of a bad temper or impulsive anger. God acts out of love and that love sometimes is manifest in correction. This verse will never make it on the top of people’s favorite verses and yet it is one of God’s love for us as his child: “And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:
“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”” (Hebrews 12:5–6 NIV) Parents know that the only way to raise an emotionally healthy child is to not give them everything they want, to say no, withdraw privileges and at times provide discipline. Why should God be any different with us? I understand the question many will ask: how do we know when God is disciplining us? How do we know that the troubles we experience are not the random chance of life or even attacks from Satan? Good question. I have no idea. All I know is that we can take any opportunity to check our life and make corrections and we need not the certainty that circumstances are God’s direct punishment. We do know that God does correct his people, it is the story of the Old and New Testaments. When things go wrong, it is not lack of evidence of God’s faithfulness, it might actually be evidence of God’s faithfulness.
Faithful to the Faithful
We have seen that God is faithful even when we are unfaithful. We have seen that we cannot complain when things don’t go our way because God is still faithful, even when he is correcting us. But we need more. We need to know what our responsibility is. What does God expect from us? God expects us to be faithful. Yes, it is true that God is still faithful when we are unfaithful. But that is no excuse for faithlessness. Would Amanda divorce me for forgetting our anniversary? Probably not. She would still show love to me, even if I was thoughtless. However, it would be unacceptable if I took that as a reason to put our anniversary and every other important occasion out of mind. It is no way to have a relationship by living to the extreme border of what you can get away with. I cannot have a marriage where I stay just slightly away from whatever point Amanda would leave me. Why would we ever want to live our life with God that way? I hear people ask about a certain behavior, whether it is serious enough to change from heaven to hell. That should not be our question. Our question should be: what is it that God wants? What does a life that is faithful to God look like? If that seems overly complicated, then remember that Jesus summarized it for us into loving God and loving people. Should we bother with a prayer life? That depends, does communication with God indicate love for God? Should I support that person who is going through a hard time? That depends, does helping a person indicate love for people? The test for this is not an absence of hate for God or people. The opposite of love is not hate but apathy. At the end of the day, we can ask ourselves if we lived in such a way that we loved God and people or did we live as if we just did not care. Living a life of faithfulness is not an attempt to earn our salvation or earn God’s love but rather is a logical response to God’s faithfulness. We have a simple purpose: live lives faithful to God.
Conclusion
We value faithfulness and well we should. We should be encouraged that we worship a faithful God. There is no need to expect surprises or fear random acts of rage. God is a faithful God. God’s faithfulness is not based on our faithfulness but rather is based on his character and the promises he has made. That does not mean that God gives us all that we want or that his main purpose is to make us comfortable and happy. There will be times that God corrects us and that he uses difficult circumstances to get us back on the right track. That is not evidence of God’s unfaithfulness but his faithfulness. Our response should be to live a life of faithfulness. God may be faithful when we are unfaithful but we should still seek to be faithful to the one who is always faithful. Our faithfulness should not be based in fear but in a loving response to the God who is faithful to us.
