His Faithfulness is Greater Than My Failure

Introduction

Deuteronomy 7:9 CSB

9 Know that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps his gracious covenant loyalty for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commands.

As I began preparing for this subject and the overall theme for this enrichment day, I thought upon the courageous nature of this topic. Many people have been intimidated to talk about the faithfulness of God, because it seems to encourage irresponsibility. And surely, as in the times of the biblical writers, there and still are some who sought to use the faithfulness of God as permission to continue their earthly motives and fleshly desires (Romans 6). Scripture strictly prohibits our use of God’s grace for these purposes. Yet, most importantly—we should not limit our acceptance and view of God’s faithfulness because of the irresponsibility of nonbelievers.

The faithfulness of God is a major theme in Scripture. It is the bedrock of Paul’s theology and the driving message of Jesus during His earthly ministry. The doctrine of the faithfulness of God is the declarative statement of Scripture that God keeps His promise…no matter what. However, there are three important questions we should consider when thinking through God’s faithfulness:

Why is God faithful?

To who or what is He faithful?

How does God show His faithfulness?

The tension that is presented throughout Scripture is: Faithful God enters into a relationship with unfaithful man. If you want to get a glimpse of what that is like, take a read through the Book of Hosea. That book is first, a description of God’s relationship with Israel. Yet, on a deeper level it is a depiction of God’s relationship with humanity. It is the story of how the faithful husband voluntarily elects to enter into a covenant with an unfaithful bride. And the story of Scripture conveys the complexity, the drama, and the complete chaos of such a unbalanced attempt to live in covenant.

The beauty of Scripture is that it tells of God’s grace and favor to less than imperfect individuals. The miracle within Scripture is that a holy God has elected and has, in fact, dwelt among men through covenant relationship. And still, he remains among us—as unholy as we can sometimes be—without compromise to His own holiness.

Why is God Faithful?

Why faithfulness? Scholars have what they call “communicable” or relative and “incommunicable” or absolute attributes of God. There are certain attributes of God that are incommunicable, such as omnipresence, omnipotence and omniscience. These attributes are not relative to man, because we are unable to personify these characteristics and attributes in our reflection of God. We cannot begin to imagine what it truly means to be present everywhere, fully aware, and completely sovereign. These are attributes that are reserved solely for an absolute Being who is far greater than created beings in every way. Therefore, God does not use these attributes to communicate to His creatures.

Yet, when God wants to communicate to His creatures and develop relationship, He refers to Himself as loving and holy; righteous and merciful. These are relatable to mankind, and for this reason God expects us personify these communicable attributes amongst ourselves.

There’s a list of communicable attributes we could consider today. However, the one most relevant to our session today is faithful. When we ask the question, “Why is God faithful?” we are intending to ask, “Why does God show faithfulness?” And by asking this question we are rushing to the behavior of God without first accepting the attribute and nature of God. Yet, before we can discuss God’s behavior we must first understanding His being or His communicable attributes. Faithful is not just what God does; faithful is who God is! 1 Corinthians 1:9 says,

1 Corinthians 1:9 CSB

9 God is faithful; you were called by him into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

“Faithful” is used as an adjective and is a description of who God is and not simply what He does (it is not a verb). Paul uses this throughout the New Testament in several passages (1 Corinthians 10:13, 1 Thessalonians 5:24, 2 Thessalonians 3:3, Hebrews 10:23).

Because faithful is Who God is, we understand that faithfulness is what He does. In Isaiah, the term “faithful” is a participle, which demonstrates God’s continual action expression of faithfulness.

Isaiah 49:7 CSB

7 This is what the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One, says to one who is despised, to one abhorred by people, to a servant of rulers: “Kings will see, princes will stand up, and they will all bow down because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel—and he has chosen you.”

Principle: God’s faithfulness is greater than my failure, because—God does not bless us, because we are so faithful. God blesses us, because faithful is Who He is and everything He does, He does faithfully.

2 Timothy 2:13 CSB

13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.

To Who or What Is God Faithful?

The explanation we have given to why God is faithful is only the beginning. It serves as an introductory explanation to the faithfulness of God. Yet, I must admit—it is found lacking when confronting the question of “Who is God faithful to?” What we mean by this question is—to whom is God favorably faithful to?

The more straightforward answer is God is faithful to everyone, because since faithful is who He is, there’s not a time when He is not being faithful. Yet, the question is to whom is God favorably faithful?

The natural response is that God is favorably faithful to those who are faithful to Him. We have taught this reciprocal theology of God’s faithfulness to those who are faithful to Him. Yet, one read through the book of Hosea will dismantle this entire idea. Notice, what God expected from Israel verses what He received from Israel and notice how their actions never influenced God’s faithfulness.

Hosea 4:1 CSB

1 Hear the word of the Lord, people of Israel, for the Lord has a case against the inhabitants of the land: There is no truth, no faithful love, and no knowledge of God in the land!

Hosea 6:6 CSB

6 For I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Hosea 2:14–20 CSB

14 Therefore, I am going to persuade her, lead her to the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. 15 There I will give her vineyards back to her and make the Valley of Achor into a gateway of hope. There she will respond as she did in the days of her youth, as in the day she came out of the land of Egypt. 16 In that day— this is the Lord’s declaration— you will call me, “My husband,” and no longer call me, “My Baal.” 17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth; they will no longer be remembered by their names. 18 On that day I will make a covenant for them with the wild animals, the birds of the sky, and the creatures that crawl on the ground. I will shatter bow, sword, and weapons of war in the land and will enable the people to rest securely. 19 I will take you to be my wife forever. I will take you to be my wife in righteousness, justice, love, and compassion. 20 I will take you to be my wife in faithfulness, and you will know the Lord.

Israel was far from faithful. Yet, God gave Israel the faithfulness she never gave Him. Why? Because God understood this principle—before you can ever be faithful to individuals, you must first be faithful to the covenant that brought you together. The moment you commit to the covenant, is the moment you learn to commit to the person that you are in covenant agreement with.

Brothers, your test of faithfulness will be living in faithfulness to those who are not faithful to you; learning how to be faithful to covenant so you can be faithful to others.

Principle: God’s faithfulness is greater than my failure, because—God’s faithfulness is determined by His decision to be in covenant with me.

How Does God Show His Faithfulness?

There’s a final point that I will mention about our current resolve regarding God’s faithfulness being greater than our failure. It will seem to be out of sequence with all that we have said, but I think it summarizes in essence everything that we have shared so far.

The Bible seems to tell a story about God, who is determined to do something. The unfortunate thing about this plan of God is that it involves finite human beings with a proclivity to sin. Yet, it is not truly unfortunate. It is actually okay, because God is not hindered by the failures of man. We must know this! If they were, things would have been over the moment Adam sinned. Yet, the Bible is insistent upon communicating how Adam’s fall could not stop God’s plan. How is this?

There’s a principle of connection between God’s faithfulness and God’s veracity. That is, God’s faithfulness is uniquely connected with His truthfulness. And Scripture has a lot to say about God’s truthfulness. In fact, it is clear to say that God cannot lie. Paul in relaying this point in lieu of Israel’s faithlessness wrote,

Romans 3:3–4 CSB

3 What then? If some were unfaithful, will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? 4 Absolutely not! Let God be true, even though everyone is a liar, as it is written: That you may be justified in your words and triumph when you judge.

Numbers 23:19 CSB

19 God is not a man, that he might lie, or a son of man, that he might change his mind. Does he speak and not act, or promise and not fulfill?

Principle: God’s faithfulness is greater than my failure, because—God’s faithfulness is determined by His Word.

Conclusion

Brothers, all of us are here today by the faithfulness of God who spoke a word long ago, before the foundations of the world, that included us. He declared with His word that we would be given an opportunity to be saved and holy. He honored His word and we are here today because of it.

If God could speak a Word before your failure that secured you before your failure, don’t you think He can speak a word after your failure will do just the same? In fact, I suggest that the same word that was spoken before is keeping you right now.

Paul said in 2 Timothy 2 that he was bound and chained for preaching the gospel. However, he’s willing to endure everything, because he knew the word of God is not bound (2 Timothy 2:9). Long ago, God spoke a word—that through Jesus Christ those who believe will be saved! God kept His promise, and we can know that God’s faithfulness is greater than my failure.