Some Christian You Are
Saturday, May 19, 2018 at 05:19AM 
“If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.” 2 Timothy 2:13.
Not to shock your sensitivities but allow me to introduce to you some believers across the centuries. Let’s see, there was the drunkard Noah, the perverted Canaan, the liar Abraham, the carnal Lot, the devious Sarai, the conniving Jacob, the murderer Moses, the idolater Aaron, the philanderer Samson, the adulterer David, the compromising Solomon, the prostitute Mary Magdalene, the unnamed divorcee and cohabiting woman of Samaria, the defector Simon Peter, the doubting Thomas, the persecutor Saul of Tarsus and the backslider Demas. To be generous, call them imperfect. Flawed. Somewhat faulty. More accurately, call them wicked, sinners, criminals, felons and evildoers. These are the people who deserve to be kicked into hell. If we give any credence to Dante’s Inferno (I don’t), these names represent the personification of sin, frozen deep within the lowest circle of Hades.
And yet, in a broad, epiphanic swath arcing across the heavenlies, God calls punishment to heel and unleashes the virtue Grace. “Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy.” Micah 7:18. The contrast defies explanation. The righteous God who defines ultimate perfection—the God who could find fault with the most exquisitely pure person among us—instead, plunged headlong into the pursuit of salvaging the worst of us.
One must, as a matter of course, ask the question of why? Was it love? “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. Was it compassion? “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” Romans 9:15. Was it a demonstration of divine will power? “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” Romans 5:19.
All these motives were intrinsic to redemption’s story. But what Paul wrote to Timothy points to an overarching reason for our salvation: faithfulness! Love, compassion and will power, superlative though they may be, all proceed out of this incontrovertible attribute of divinity. When God establishes a purpose in His mind, He ties Himself to that purpose. He is faithful to Himself! To clinch the nail, Paul further denotes “He cannot deny Himself!” You and I are saved simply because God is true to Himself!”
To accept God as God means that we are saved. That does not mean that God condones or endorses man’s faithlessness, but it does mean that if we deny His salvation, it will not be because He bailed on us. God predicates HIs saving grace on His own blameless character and nature. His integrity disallows defection.
Call me imperfect. Judge me to be flawed. Spy on me to prove my unworthiness for the precious blood of Christ. Go ahead and say, “Some Christian you are!” I can tell you right now that you would be justified in your assessment. But one thing you can never say is that God is not faithful! And, as long as I live in a repentant state of mind, I can appropriate His grace forever. “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:7-9.
Your salvation and mine does not depend on my worthiness but on God’s faithfulness. Hallelujah, what a Savior!
Reader Comments (1)
Amazing Word.