| | What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God's faithfulness? Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar." (Romans 3:3-4)
God has chosen the Jews as a nation and before any Gentile could hear the Gospel, He has blessed the Jews with His Word first. And yet, there are Jews that don't have faith. Doesn't this fact nullify God's faithfulness? In other words, doesn't this make God's promise and commitment (faithfulness) useless? Doesn't this mean that God's Word has failed in what it was meant to do?
The answer that Paul gives doesn't make much sense to the modern mind, but I'm guessing it made much better sense to his readers in his day. He answers the above objection with "Not at all! Let God be true and every man a liar." Then he quotes from Psalm 51 and says, "So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge."
So what is he saying? What's his point?
First, let's state the obvious facts.
The apostle Paul doesn't believe that God's faithfulness is threatened in any way.
He doesn't believe that God's Word failed to do what it was meant to do.
Why?
Well, it must be because he believes that God's Word was never designed to save every single person who hears the message. So in the apostle's Paul's mind, the objection raised by his critics is based on a faulty notion of what God's faithfulness means in the first place.
This might disappoint you, but I think the answer he gives basically boils down to this:
"God is God. He is true and faithful no matter what you might think of Him.
Man might lie, but God never lies.
Whatever He does and however way He might judge people
is going to be right, because He is God."
That's my paraphrase of v.4.
One could probably also say that God is ultimately faithful to His righteous character or that God actually reveals His faithfulness in punishing unbelief, but again what I think it boils down to is the fact that we are really in no position to question God's goodness, justice, and faithfulness. He is who He is and He is awesome in all He does.
Praise and glory to the King!
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| | Posted 9/19/2006 12:54 PM - 11 Views - 2 eProps - 1 Comment
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