Keep the Faith, God does.

God is good to me. In spite of my personal struggles with sin God remains faithful, even when I am not. When we struggle with sin, what we are saying to God is that His provision for us is not good enough; in essence, we are disbelieving what He says in His word.

As an example, Romans 6.6 teaches that our flesh was crucified with Christ on the cross. The Greek meaning of that statement is "rendered powerless". So that the verse is saying our flesh was "rendered powerless" at the cross. Now the question is do I believe that or do I not believe it? I am a believer in Christ therefore I received at salvation all the benefits that go along with becoming a believer. Among those benefits is the defeat of the power of the flesh over my life. Therefore, when I fall into sin, when I do things that no one else sees but God, things that are sinful then what I am doing is saying to God, "I don't believe what you said in Romans 6.6. My flesh is still alive and at this point in time I have decided to listen to it instead of you."

OUCH!! that hurts yes? But as I said, God is good. In spite of my failures and struggle with sin He always does His part by remaining faithful to me. I may disbelieve Him sometimes but He never stops believing in me, do you know why?

Because when God looks at me He sees Jesus Christ. Why? because I am now the property of Jesus Christ. And since Jesus is the second member of the Trinity, God Himself, then God cannot deny Himself.

Consider 2 Timothy 2.11-13, "It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us; If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself."

We died with Him we will also live with Him. My flesh is considered dead by God. So also I must come to consider it dead/powerless. I will live with Him because He rose from the dead.

If we endure, we will also reign with Him. When we "walk by means of the Spirit" (Ephesians 5.18) we are not walking by the power of the flesh. When we are not walking by the power of the flesh, we are "getting it right" pleasing God and gaining reward; hence we are enduring. Our reward will be the privilege of co-reigning with Christ during the millennium.

If we deny Him, He also will deny us. No, this has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with losing our salvation, it has EVERYTHING to do with losing reward. To deny Christ is to dis-believe what He says (struggle with sin above). When we "deny Christ" we are walking in the power of the flesh not the Spirit. The result, LOSS OF REWARD. In context, the phrase prior to this one spoke of GAINING REWARD by endurance (walking in the Spirit). The logical flow would then state what happens when we "walk in the flesh" we LOSE REWARD He will deny it, take it away. BUT WE WILL NEVER LOSE OUR SALVATION. WHY??

If we are faithless He remains faithful because He cannot deny Himself. If we are faithless means again that we dis-believe what He says in His word. But even if we dis-believe He will remain faithful to us because it is IMPOSSIBLE for Him not to. At salvation, God imputes His Righteousness into the one who believes (Romans 5.10-11). The same life that brought Jesus Christ from the grave is now the same life that resides in the believer. Accordingly, God is in Heaven and God is in the believer. So denial of Himself is impossible.

It would be like me denying that my son is my son even thought his DNA proves that he is my son. ITS IMPOSSIBLE.

Take heart believer. Even when we sin and dis-believe what God says, He will remain faithful because of who He is not because of what we have done.