We’ve been talking a lot recently on this blog about faith. Specifically, our faith toward God and the connection between faith, righteousness, and obedience. There’s another aspect that we haven’t really talked about yet, and that’s the faithfulness of the one that we have faith in.
The fact that God is faithful enables us to have faith in Him. You can’t have faith (at least not for very long) in someone who’s unreliable and untrustworthy. Thankfully, God has proven Himself faithful, reliable, and trustworthy for thousands of years, and there’s no reason to think He’ll change any time in the future.
Christ’s Faithfulness
There’s a Greek phrase that Paul uses, pistis Christou (πίστις Χριστοῦ), that scholars aren’t quite sure how to translate. Many older versions use the phrase “faith in Christ” but modern translations are opting more often for “faithfulness of Christ.” It might even be that either translation would work equally well and that Paul’s intent was to imply “that the object of faith is a worthy object, for he himself is faithful” (see NET footnotes on Gal. 2:16). Our faith is closely linked with Jesus’s and the Father’s faithfulness.
We are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, yet we know that no one is justified by the works of the law but by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by the faithfulness of Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified. … I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:15-16, 20, NET
With this translation, it shifts the focus of justification off of us believing in Jesus (i.e. having active faith) and onto what Jesus did for us. Instead of being justified by the law, we’re justified by Jesus. That doesn’t eliminate our role–it’s still important to understand that our righteousness doesn’t hinge on keeping the law but rather on being obediently faithful to God. But it does emphasize how vital Jesus’s faithfulness is to this whole process (see also Rom. 3:20-26; Gal 3:21-22; Eph. 3:11-13).
More than that, I now regard all things as liabilities compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things—indeed, I regard them as dung!—that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness—a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ’s faithfulness. My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Philippians 3:8-11, NET
We owe everything to Jesus and the Father. They want us to actively participate in the covenant relationship they offer us, but make no mistake: everything we can do in this relationship is enabled by the Messiah’s faithfulness. God is the one who sets up the covenant. Jesus is the one who died to free us from the death penalty for breaking God’s law. Jesus and the Father are actively continuing to wash us, forgive us, teach us, and work in us. We get to choose whether or not we participate and we’re required to stay faithful, but we’re not the instigators of the opportunity nor the only ones working on this relationship.
Faithful Atonement
What did Jesus’s faithfulness involve? As we’ve talked about before, “faith” in the Bible isn’t just something that happens in the mind or a system of belief that we acknowledge. It’s an active, living thing. In the first century, pistis meant “faithfulness, steadfastness, and trustworthiness” (Brent Schmidt, Relational Faith, 2023, p. 11). It also “implied active loyalty, trust, hope, knowledge, and persuasion in the patron-client relationship or within the new covenant brought about through Christ’s Atonement” (p. 11). This isn’t something that goes one-way. Covenants are reciprocal relationships even when one party is infinitely greater than the other. We can’t pay God back for anything He did and we didn’t do anything to deserve His patronage, but once we join in covenant with Him we owe Him our loyalty, obedience, and active faith. Jesus modeled that kind of faith in His relationship with His Father while He lived here on earth as a human, and He’s still being faithful today.
Therefore he had to be made like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in things relating to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. For since he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.
Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, partners in a heavenly calling, take note of Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess, who is faithful to the one who appointed him, as Moses was also in God’s house. For he has come to deserve greater glory than Moses, just as the builder of a house deserves greater honor than the house itself! For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that would be spoken. But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. We are of his house, if in fact we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope we take pride in.
Hebrews 2:17-3:6, NET (bold italics mark a quotation from Num. 12:7)
As a human being, Jesus’s faithfulness to His father gave us a pattern for us to follow. Now that He’s been resurrected and lives forever at God’s right hand, He’s still practicing faithfulness as the Head of the church, the High Priest of the New Covenant, and the Son of God over His house.
One of the ways Jesus demonstrated His faithfulness was by a making “atonement for the sins of the people” (Heb. 2:17, NET). If you’re reading this blog post the day it goes live, then today is the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). This is one of the special annual festival days that God designates as holy to Him. In the Old Testament, this day involved a ceremony with two goats: one killed for the sins of the people as a picture of Jesus Christ and the other banished as picture of what will happen to Satan (Lev. 16; Heb. 2:17; Rev. 20:1-3). This was also the only day that the high priest could enter the most holy part of the temple.
Today, the Day of Atonement reminds us of Christ’s sacrifice, looks forward to a time when Satan is removed from the picture, and invites us to think deeply about our High Priest Jesus Christ who “secured eternal redemption for us” when He entered the heavenly Holy Place (Heb. 9:12, NET, see Heb. 9). Thanks to His decision to faithfully fulfill the roles given to Him by His Father, we have the opportunity to live by faith.
Proven Faithfulness
God’s faithfulness isn’t just a New Testament thing. He’s always been faithful to His promises, people, and covenants. Faithfulness and loyalty are part of who He is.
The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the Lord by name. The Lord passed by before him and proclaimed: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness, keeping loyal love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But he by no means leaves the guilty unpunished, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children and children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.”
Exodus 34:5-7, NET
The Hebrew word emeth is often translated “truth,” but it’s more than just something being factually true. It also involves “firmness, faithfulness … sureness, reliability” (Brown, Driver, Briggs; H571). The word translated “loyal love” is chesed, and it means “goodness, kindness” (BDB; H2617). The two words both point to God’s faithfulness.
These two words (“loyal love” and “truth”) are often found together, occasionally in a hendiadys construction. If that is the interpretation here, then it means “faithful covenant love.” Even if they are left separate, they are dual elements of a single quality. The first word is God’s faithful covenant love; the second word is God’s reliability and faithfulness.
NET footnote on Ex. 43:6
Faithfulness is such a core part of God’s nature that He included it when proclaiming His name to Moses. He “is the true God, the faithful God who keeps covenant faithfully with those who love him and keep his commandments” (Deut. 7:9, NET). This aspect of His character is celebrated throughout the psalms and mentioned in the prophets, including prophecies of the Messiah (Is. 25:1; 42:3; 49:7; 65:16; Jer. 31:3, 32; Hos. 2:20). Yet despite His love and faithfulness, ancient Israel was not faithful to Him (Jer. 3:20; 9:2; 23:10). That’s something that needed to change in the New Covenant.
“In a faraway land the Lord will manifest himself to them.
He will say to them, ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love.
That is why I have continued to be faithful to you.’ …“Indeed, a time is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I delivered them from Egypt. For they violated that covenant, even though I was like a faithful husband to them,” says the Lord. “But I will make a new covenant with the whole nation of Israel after I plant them back in the land,” says the Lord. “I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts and minds. I will be their God and they will be my people.
“People will no longer need to teach their neighbors and relatives to know me. For all of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me,” says the Lord. “For I will forgive their sin and will no longer call to mind the wrong they have done.”
Jeremiah 31:3, 31-34, NET
God is faithful no matter what, and He wants people to reciprocate faithfulness in their relationship with Him. He has demonstrated His faithfulness time and time again, including by Jesus’s atoning sacrifice. Because of His faithfulness, we who are in a New Covenant relationship with Him can “live by faith” and please God with that faith (Rom. 1:17; 2 Cor. 5:7; Heb. 11:6). His great faithfulness ought to inspire great faithfulness in us.
Featured image by Pearl from Lightstock
Song Recommendation: “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” by Maranatha! Music
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