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| Christian Suffering and The Faithfulness Of God |
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10Faithfulness as a Part of God’s Character Faithfulness is the consistency and stability of God. It means that God can never change His essence or be unfair to anyone. Faithfulness is the perfect expression of God’s essence; it is not possible for Him to be inconsistent or compromise His essence. God is consistent with Himself; therefore, He is faithful and consistent with us. That is, God keeps His Word. God has never made a promise that He has not kept (Psa 119). There has never been a time at which God was unfaithful. I will heal their apostasy, I will love them freely, for My anger has turned away from them. (HOS 14:4) It is blasphemy to think that God’s faithfulness could fail even for a moment. Unfaithfulness is totally incompatible with the very nature and essence of God (MAL 3:6). The very existence, function, and blessings of the Royal Family of God, both now and forever, depend on the faithfulness and character of God acting on our behalf through His justice. God is always prepared and He is never caught off guard. How refreshing it is to know that in the midst of the devil’s world there is One who is faithful. He is faithful in all things, at all times, to all His creatures, even unto the end. Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments. (DEU 7:9) This quality is essential to His being; without it, He would not be God. The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail (LAM 3:22). It is one thing to accept the faithfulness of God as truth, but it is another thing to act upon it. God is faithful to us, and He is faithful to tell us the good along with the bad. He has faithfully described the ruin to which negative volition toward doctrine leads us and He has faithfully diagnosed the terrible results and effects of sin. God is faithful in all things. The Bible reveals many ways in which God is faithful. For instance, God is faithful in keeping His promises. For as many as may be the promises of God, in Him they are “yes,” wherefore also by Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us. (2CO 1:20) God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent; has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? (NUM 23:19) Consider all the rebellion of the children of Israel and God’s unceasing faithfulness to them. Many times they were faithless, but He was always faithful because it is impossible for Him to lie (TIT 1:2). The permanence of God’s character guarantees the fulfillment of His promises. ISA 54:4-10 has an application for us and, though it was said to the Jews, we must realize how much more applicable it is for the Church. “Fear not, for you will not be put to shame; neither feel humiliated, for you will not be disgraced; but you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. For your husband is your Maker, whose name is the Lord of hosts; and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, who is called the God of all the earth. For the Lord has called you, like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, even like a wife of one’s youth when she is rejected,” says your God. “For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In an outburst of anger I hid My face from you for a moment; but with everlasting lovingkindness I will have compassion on you,” says the Lord your Redeemer. “For this is like the days of Noah to Me; when I swore that the waters of Noah should not flood the earth again, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, nor will I rebuke you. For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, but My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, and My covenant of peace will not be shaken,” says the Lord who has compassion on you (ISA 54:4-10). |
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