"God is faithful,
through whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus
Christ our Lord" (1 Cor. 1:9).
"There hath no temptation taken you but such as man can
bear: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted
above that ye are able; but will with the temptation make also
the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it" (1 Cor.
10:13).
"Faithful is he that calleth you, who will also do it...
sanctify you wholly... your spirit and soul and body be preserved
entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ" (1 Thess. 5:24,23).
"The Lord is faithful, who shall establish you, and guard
you from the evil one" (2 Thess. 3:3).
"If we are faithless, he abideth faithful; for he cannot
deny himself" (2 Tim. 2:13).
God's
Faithfulness Based Upon His Love For His Son
"God is faithful, through
whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ
our Lord". That comprehensive statement means that God's
faithfulness is based upon His love for His own Son; His
faithfulness to us is because of His faithfulness to Him. Because
of the fellowship with His Son into which He has called us, we
enter into that faithfulness. That means much. It raises the very
big question - which question, of course, we ought never to
entertain - as to whether the Father would ever be unfaithful to
His Son. We have a fairly solid block of Scripture to establish
the nature of the relationship between the Father and the Son,
and the Father's estimate of the Son, which would certainly lead
us to rule out any such question as to whether the Father would
ever be unfaithful to the Son, would ever fail Him, would ever go
back upon any promise to Him. That, of course, is unthinkable.
The
Father's Attitude To Us in His Son
It is not quite so
easy for us to believe and really to enter livingly into the
further statement that the Father's attitude to the Son is His
attitude now to all who are in fellowship with His Son. We have
selected a few passages of Scripture, which can be supported by a
very great deal more, to show that that is so. God has Himself
called us into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord,
and on that ground the same faithfulness which is toward His Son
is carried over to us. That is something very strong, very
far-reaching and much-embracing.
God is faithful. How? Why? It
is a tremendous thing to find that to be the introduction to the
first Corinthian letter. We know what is to follow in that
letter. We know the disclosures that are going to be made about
the state of things among the Corinthians. Another side, that of
our responsibility, will develop, but when all has been said -
and not much more could be said, I think, of human imperfections
and the failures of Christians than we have in the first letter
to the Corinthians - when all has been said of that kind, the
faithfulness of God still stands, and all that is required from
our side is that, when God shows where the faults and weaknesses
and wrongs are, we adjust, we respond, we obey; and when we do so
the Lord just goes on with the rest. We know quite well that if
we resist the Lord, if we refuse obedience, if we do not walk in
the light which He has given us, then of course we put ourselves
out of the blessings and benefits of His faithfulness.
But there is the other side. I
think sometimes we get loaded too heavily with our side, and do
not take sufficient account of God's side in this way, that,
given openness and responsiveness of heart to the Lord: given
that there is no wilful, conscious resistance, disobedience,
refusal, neglect, carelessness: given that we are toward the Lord
and that the fellowship of His Son is to us the most precious
thing: I say, given that, the Lord takes a tremendous amount upon
His own faithfulness. He can be trusted to look after the
imperfections and everything else, and I think that this,
standing right at the commencement of this letter, just says,
'Well now, you Corinthians, there are many things where you are
at fault, and many things that have to be put right, but if only
you seek grace to make the adjustments and be obedient, God will
faithfully fulfil all that He has undertaken to do. He will do
it. Yours it is to seek to step into line with the Lord; His it
is to perfect that which concerneth you: and He will.' God is
faithful. And His faithfulness, as we have said, is not affected
so much by our weaknesses, our defects. It is affected by His
devotion to His Son. He has sworn to His Son, He has made
promises to His Son, and He is not going to fail Him. Wherever He
can get a way, He will fulfil His word to His Son. He is the
covenant-keeping God, and all His covenants are related to His
Son.
There are many covenants made
by God in the Bible. There is the covenant of the rainbow; there
is the covenant of the Sabbath day; and there are many others.
But if you look at them you will find that in every covenant
there are the features of the Lord Jesus. The covenants do not
finally and exclusively concern only those to whom they were
immediately made, but all the promises of God are ratified with a
Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 1:20). That is to say, God
looks beyond the temporal occasion to His Son and His Son's
interests, and He has secured everything in Him. The faithfulness
of God to His Son is the solid rock of our confidence.
Faithful
to Conform to the Image of His Son
When you break this up, you
find that it applies to so much. As a matter of fact, this word
"through whom ye were called into the fellowship of his
Son" applies to everything that affects us. The first
calling is into the fellowship of His Son, and then within that
fellowship we find that we are called "according to
purpose". That is in Romans 8:28. Looking to see what the
purpose is according to which we are called, we find we are "foreordained
to be conformed to the image of his Son". God is
faithful to carry that out, not on the ground of any struggling
on our part, nor of anything at all that we can do other than
walk in the light He has given; that means, to take our steps in
the direction of His will as made known to us. Then the Lord is
faithful to fulfil this work of conforming us to the image of His
Son.
Faithful
in Leading Into Afore Prepared Good Works
Then we are told that we are "created
in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we
should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10). This same sovereign
calling relates to the works which God has afore-prepared for us
to walk in; and if He gets us responsive and obedient in His
hands God is faithful to see to it that we are found in the
afore-prepared works. It is not a case of our straining to be in
the work of the Lord, but of the outworking of this Divine
sovereignty. God has appointed certain things which He calls good
works in relation to His Son, and if He possesses us completely,
we shall find that, in the sovereignty of God, we shall come into
the good works afore-prepared.
Faithful
in Fulfilment of Vocation
Then the same thing is said
about our vocation. We are familiar with such words as Ephesians
4:1 - "I... beseech you to walk worthily of the calling
wherewith ye were called, with all lowliness and meekness, with
longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; giving diligence
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is
one body, and one Spirit, even as also ye were called in one hope
of your calling". Or again in 1 Tim. 6:12 - "Fight
the good fight of the faith, lay hold on the life eternal,
whereunto thou wast called". This Divine calling lies
behind every aspect of the life of the child of God, whether
conformity to Christ's image, or the works to be performed, or
the vocation to be fulfilled; the calling gathers it all up,
carries it all. Our calling into the fellowship of His Son means
that we are brought into all that: and again, given a
full-hearted response, the faithfulness of God to His Son demands
that we do not miss the way for want of light, that we do not
miss the calling because we never had the Divine help in that
direction. If we miss the way after we have wholly put ourselves
into the Lord's hands and responded to His calling, then that is
God's unfaithfulness, not to us, but to His Son. If any of these
aspects, of the work and way of God fail where we are concerned
when He has us wholly, then God has failed His Son; and if you
can think of that, then you can think of failure in these
respects where we are concerned. If you cannot believe that God
is going to fail His Son, then, apprehending the truth that
Christ and ourselves are one now by the calling of God, you need
not fear that God can fail us. He is faithful.
It does not say that we shall
always be able to see how God is doing it, but He is faithful.
The end will be attained, it will be an accomplished fact, and
when eventually we see things as God sees them, and know what He
was doing and how He was doing it, we shall see that He has
reached His end, and say, 'Well, I could not see it, I had very
bad times about it, but God has got what He was after, and He has
got for His Son what He intended Him to have'. God is getting for
His Son what He has promised Him by the way in which He is
dealing with us and leading us. He is faithful to His Son, and
therefore He is faithful where we are concerned. That is the one
side.
The
Ground of Rest
But there is the other side.
What is the ground on which we shall come to rest in this matter,
and to assurance and to relief from strain? It will be the ground
of the Lord Jesus. It will be when we take and maintain this
attitude: 'Lord, it is for Thy Son, not for me, it is all for
Him. If greater gain is coming to Him, if Thy faithfulness to Him
is being proved by my being denied or deprived of many things
that I feel would be for Him, that I would like for Him, that I
think would be best - so long as He is gaining His end and Thy
faithfulness to Him is working out in His having that which Thou
dost want Him to have where I am concerned, that is the only
thing that matters. If in any way I have to adjust, I count on
that same faithfulness to be shown to me as was shown to the Lord
Jesus, to bring me into the knowledge of my need, that I shall
not err in ignorance, and the Lord Jesus shall not lose anything
because of my blindness or failure. I count on Thy faithfulness
to work in that way for my enlightenment. I make it a matter of
Thy faithfulness to Christ, and that faithfulness to Christ will
mean also faithfulness toward me; and though it may express
itself in ways contrary to my expectation or desire, I come to
rest on that'.
Now note this as a personal
application. If you go to the letter to the Romans, you have
these same things emphasized, but you find there much that is
individual. When you come to the Corinthian letter, you have come
more on to the collective ground of the Church; and then you move
right on to the highest expression of that in 'Ephesians'; but
the same thing applies right through from the individual aspect
to the corporate in 'Ephesians'. Every step, every stage, from
the individual to the whole Church is governed by this
faithfulness of God to His Son. It is all a matter of God's
keeping His eye on His Son, and therefore upon everything that
can be for His Son, and faithfully seeing to it that, wherever He
has a chance, wherever there is response to Him, the goal is
reached. With all the seemingly hopeless conditions as at
Corinth, God says even there, "God is faithful, through whom
ye were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our
Lord". He says, in effect, 'I am going to tell you what is
necessary from your side in the matter of adjustment and
correction, how this and that must go, and this and that must
come in. Give your response, and I will see to it that all that
ever can be for My Son shall be, even in Corinth, even in you'.
Oh, this is only walking round
a little fragment, seeing it from different aspects, but the
affirmation of our hearts must be - God is faithful. We may not
think He is being faithful because He is not taking us the way we
want or would like, but God is faithful and the whole universe
hangs upon that. For us there is no bigger issue raised than that
of the faithfulness of God. For us, everything for faith, for
life, our very existence, hangs upon whether God is faithful. If
we have any question about that, our world goes to pieces. We
have nothing to stand upon if we have any question about the
faithfulness of God, and that, not as a general and abstract
thing, but as concrete and personal. It must not be personal in
the sense that we want God to come our way. It is only
personal in the right sense when it is in fellowship with His Son
Jesus Christ.
First published in "A Witness and A
Testimony" magazine, Jan-Feb 1950, Vol 28-1