Faithfulness of God

        Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.- Deuteronomy 7:9  Though the people of Israel rebelled again and again God maintained the covenant he established with them.  There were times when he had to act as a father and discipline them, but he was always there.  How are we like the people of Israel mentioned in this passage?

God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?-Number 23:19  God has spoken and therefore it will be done.  He says he will save us if we believe, he says he will come back, and he says he will never leave us.

        What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?-Romans 3:3  Maybe you were hurt or let down by a Christian, or someone who claimed to be a Christian.  Our nature as humans is to sin, but the nature of God is to faithful to his promises.  God is always there and he is always faithful.  He will always be there for you and will never leave.

        If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.-1 John 1:9  All of us have done things in our lives that we are not proud of.  That does not mean that you are not good enough for God.  Nothing we can do will make us acceptable to enter heaven.  The way we enter the heavenly kingdom is to confess our sin, and accept Christ as savior and Lord.  God says that if we confess that we will be made clean and righteous.  What do you have to lose?

        Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live-John 11:25  Our physical bodies will break down and we will eventually leave this earth.  However this is not the end of our spiritual lives.  Jesus promises that if we believe in him that we will live forever with him.

       The faithfulness of God is ultimately fulfilled in the resurrection, because without the resurrection our faith is void.  So how do we know that the resurrection took place?  Josh McDowell in his book Evidence for Christianity lists several reasons, but two reasons will be looked at briefly.  The tomb of Jesus was guarded by a group of Roman soldiers.  Skeptics may say that they conspired with the Apostles to have the body of Christ removed, but this makes little sense.  There was a very stiff penalty in the Roman Army for not fulfilling your duty.  It wasn’t more hours to work, it wasn’t more push ups, but death.  The Roman guards would have been executed had the willingly left their post.  There is no historical evidence to suggest that they left, but plenty of evidence to suggest something supernatural happened.  In addition to the Roman guard, the tomb in which Jesus was buried was discovered empty by a group of women on the Sunday following the crucifixion.  The testimony of women in first century Israel meant almost nothing yet nobody denied that Christ appeared to them first.  If there was a conspiracy going on then this is not a good strategy.

Jesus’ disciples had real experiences with one whom they believed was the risen Christ.  As a result of the preaching of these disciples, which had the resurrection at its center, the Christian church was established and grew.  Among skeptics there is the idea that the Apostle’s hid the body of Jesus and collaborated a story to spread Christianity.  There are a couple problems with is line of thinking.  People do not die for a lie, and all but one apostle dies as a martyr.  The history of the early church has no shortage of stories about martyrdom and persecution.  Despite all this Christianity grew and spread around the world.

        What does all this mean?  It means that God is faithful to his word.  Jesus said he would suffer, die, and rise on the third day and it happened.  Jesus says he is faithful to forgive sin, and he says if we do so we will live with him forever.  God is faithful to save us if we just ask.  Repent and ask Jesus into your life if you haven’t already.