“Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:21-23)

The foundational message of the Bible says that God is faithful and those created in His image are unfaithful. God’s faithfulness extends to the unfaithful in love, then He can restore the unfaithful to faithfulness. From the beginning, God would make covenants, which they broke, with the unfaithful, and yet God remained faithful. God’s faithfulness would remain true to the point that God would pay for the results of the unfaithfulness of His creation. If they would trust the faithfulness of God, He would give them His faithfulness and work to restore faithfulness in His creation. All who trust His faithfulness to make them faithful, will live with Him forever. Everything is based on God faithfulness.

Here is how Scripture describes God’s faithfulness. As the people prepare to enter the promised land Moses reminds them, “Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.” (Deuteronomy 7:9) Moses also reminds them of the results of their unfaithfulness to Him, “Do not bring a detestable thing into your house or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction.” (Deuteronomy 7:26) The detestable things were the false gods. When they did bring in the detestable things, they were bound for destruction. However, God was faithful and ready to forgive. The first time they came to the promised land, God had sent spies into the land so they could see how bountiful the land was.  The results: they saw the bounty, but also the size of the people and rebelled. They refused to enter. Now, they would wander in the wilderness for forty years, yet God forgave. He did not destroy the rebellious people. He provided everything they needed for the forty years, even to the point that their clothes and shoes did not wear out. “The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion.” (Numbers 14:18) God remained faithful, “He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.” (Deuteronomy 32:4)

Because mankind is unfaithful, there are many trials which come our way trying to get us to look to the One who is faithful. The Book of Lamentations is the cries of an unfaithful people. “The LORD is righteous, yet I rebelled against his command. Listen, all you peoples; look on my suffering. My young men and young women have gone into exile.” (Lamentations 1:18) God reminds them of His faithfulness, “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:21-23) In distress, we must look to the one who remains faithful.

The culmination of all God’s faithfulness is found in Jesus Christ. He is the fulfillment of all God’s covenants. Jesus Christ, who is God in the flesh, the Son of God and the Son of Man. The Creator takes on creation to fulfill His promises. Scripture repeatedly reminds us of God’s faithfulness. The writer of Hebrews presents God’s faithfulness as the foundation of His message of hope through Jesus to us. “For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” (Hebrews 2:17-18) “Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.” (Hebrews 3:6) “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.” (Hebrews 9:14-15) “Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.” (Hebrews 10:19-23) Jesus Christ is God’s restoration of the unfaithful to become faithful.

It is all because of God’s faithfulness that we can come to Him and find forgiveness and hope as we learn to walk with Him in His light. Now we again can have fellowship with God. He did not desert us but made a way back to Himself. “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”          (1 John 1:7-9)

In the Love of Jesus,

Michael Block