Seeking Jesus First - June 8, 2023

What does it mean to say that God is faithful? What makes God faithful? To what and to whom is God faithful? Before God can be faithful to anyone or anything, He is faithful to Himself. God always honors His word.

“so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:7–9, NKJV)

“Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil,” (Hebrews 6:17–19, NKJV)

“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13, NKJV)

“If we endure, We shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us. If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.” (2 Timothy 2:12–13, NKJV)

• God is faithful to those who keep His word because God is faithful to His word. God confirms His word until the end. If we abide in Jesus Christ and His words abide in us, God confirms us to the end.
• God made an oath to Himself because He is to=he only one capable of holding Himself accountable (that’s funny, right?) But God made the oath to Himself making it impossible on two levels fro Him to not follow through with what He said.
• This double confirming impossible to break promise by God is the anchor of our hope. When we hear God’s loving words, they invoke faith in our hearts and we are given hope to make it through any obstacle.
• God is the God of hope because He never lies. If God has spoken, you can believe His word no matter the circumstance. It is the hope that God gives us through His word and the fact that God is willing and able to accomplish what He said that fills us with joy and peace when we believe His words.
• If we endure, we overcome and we start reigning over circumstances. If in the midst of believing, we deny Him or His word, He denies us the ability to reign over our circumstance. Denying God and His word through unbelief is a form of pride. And pride brings a downfall - not exaltation.
• If we are faithless, God is still faithful because He cannot deny Himself. This passage is talking about faith in God. God is not going to deny Himself simply because a person denies Him. He will always honor His word. He will always honor Jesus Christ. He will always honor your faith in His Word and in Christ Jesus because it is His word.

Wait, are you saying you can lose your salvation? Lose? No. Deny? Maybe. (People have always taught that denying the faith is possible and there are Scriptures to support their teaching.) It is by grace you have been saved through faith which is the gift of God. I am not disputing the salvation of any person, particularly the person who lives by faith in Jesus Christ. Salvation belongs to The LORD. Salvation comes from The LORD. Jesus is the salvation of God and God freely gives Him to all who believe.

Faith in Jesus Christ is the only condition in the word for a person to be saved. If a person believes in Jesus Christ according to the word of God, they are saved. If a person denies Jesus, God denies them. This is The Word of God.

“Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.” (Hebrews 10:38–39, NKJV)

Note: In the New Testament, it is not sin that separates a person from God because Jesus became sin on the cross and was judged as sin so that we might receive and be the righteousness of God in Him.

The only thing that unites us to God is believing in and confessing the LORD Christ Jesus. The only thing that separates a person from God is denying Christ Jesus. This is a basic principle taught by Jesus and the apostles in The Bible.

What makes God faithful to His Word is that it is impossible for God to lie because God is truth. The character of God does not allow Him to change. For Him to change His character would mean that He was not truth.

God has changed how He interacts with humanity through the different covenants. His love for us allowed Him to reach for us where we were and make agreements with humanity where they were, because He always had a plan to fix it later. The covenant that Jesus made fixed it all and elevated every person on the same basis of God’s grace and their faith response - making us all equal in His sight