“The Faithfulness of God,” originally delivered by Masao Uenuma, Th.D., on August 20, 2017, at Calvary Bible Church, Foresthill CA

This morning I want to share with you about the Faithfulness of God, particularly how our ‘faith’ is related to the Faithfulness of God.

We are easily preoccupied with the status of our faith, my faith, his or her faith, consciously or subconsciously, privately or publicly. ‘Consciously’ for example, would be, my faith is weak, how can I improve my faith, and so on. ‘Privately’ would be examining and focusing on our own faith. I decided to believe in Christ in 1961, when I was a High School student, after hearing the Gospel through a missionary in my town in Japan. It is a miracle for me to have had faith in Christ since that time. The year 2017 marked the 500th anniversary of the Reformation started by Martin Luther in 1517. The theme of the Reformation was ‘sola fide’, which means ‘by faith alone.’ This was in response at that time to the doctrine of works as a means of salvation. However, due to the influence of the Reformation, the emphasis on ‘our faith’ in Christ became very strong.

When we say faith and faithfulness, these two terms come from one original word in the Bible, which is pistis in Greek. This pistis is translated as both ‘faith’ and ‘faithfulness.’ Faith is an action or decision of our will. Faithfulness is a personal characteristic. We can see fours aspects of this ‘faith’ and ‘faithfulness’ as such:

1. Faithfulness of God

2. Faith/Faithfulness of Jesus Christ

3. Our Faith/My faith

4. Faithfulness as a fruit (or characteristic) of the Holy Spirit.

All these aspects are described by the one word pistis, ‘faith’ or ‘faithfulness’ in the Bible. Just remember the word ‘faithfulness’ is used to describe the character of God the Father, the Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. In this sense, our faith is surrounded by the Trinitarian God. I will look at these four aspects in sequence.

1. Faithfulness of God:

Regarding the Faithfulness of God, we can go to Romans 3:3. It says; “What if some were unfaithful? Will their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means.”

Paul is referring to the unfaithfulness of Israel, the people of God. When we read the stories in the Old Testament, we are surprised at finding how unfaithful the people were, and yet how faithful God was. In this sense no matter how unfaithful we are to God, His faithfulness never changes.

God used the prophet Hosea to demonstrate that no matter how unfaithful His own people were in departing from Him, He Himself remained faithful and only desired them to return to Him. Hosea 2:19, 20 says:

“I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord.”

Just remember that God’s faithfulness is also deeply connected with His righteousness, justice, love and compassion. The question is: No matter what happens to us or how weak our faith is, will we trust in His faithfulness?

I would like to show you a couple of pictures.

The first one: One Buddhist temple in the northern Japan displays the cross which was brought by a Catholic priest who was persecuted by Japanese authorities in 17th century.

The second one: The whole building of the church in northern Japan was washed away by a tsunami on March 11, 2011.

Sometimes we will doubt God. Yet we can always trust His faithfulness. Paul says to Timothy in 2 Tim 2:13; “If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” How very encouraging that is!

2. Faith/Faithfulness of Jesus Christ:

Now we can consider the faith or faithfulness of the Son of God. We know that Jesus was a faithful servant. Usually, Romans 3:22 is read as follows; “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference.” The revised NIV gives a more accurate reading in the footnote as follows: “This righteousness from God comes through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference.”

This more accurate reading is also consistent with the translation of Galatians 2:16 according to the revised NIV with the footnote;

The usual translation has been:

“We know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified”. NIV

The more accurate reading is:

“We know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified on the basis of the faithfulness of Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified”. (Revised NIV)

These more accurate readings demonstrate two wonderful points. One is that the focus is not on our faith, but on the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. The Reformation opened up the significance of salvation by means of ‘faith alone.’ Yet unfortunately, due to that influence the focus has tended to remain on ‘our faith’. Now this more accurate translation has shifted our focus onto the faithfulness of God and of Jesus Christ.

Secondly, as Hosea shows, the righteousness of God and the faithfulness of the Son of God are closely connected along with His justice, love and compassion, that is, there is no separation between the righteousness and the faithfulness of God.

If the righteousness and justice of God are revealed now to us directly, what would happen? None can stand before God. Because of the faithful sacrifice of Jesus Christ we have now the forgiveness of God instead of the judgment of God, and this demonstrates also the love of God.

3. Our Faith/My Faith

Now we’ve seen that our faith originates from the faithfulness of God and of Jesus Christ. As Hebrew 12:2 says; ‘Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.’ Again the emphasis is not on our own faith, but on the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. In this sense, we don’t have to be preoccupied with our own faith, but on the Lord Himself instead.

Jesus describes our faith ‘as small as a mustard seed’ (Matt 17:20). No matter how small our faith is, if we believe and trust Him, He will work in His way, not in our ways.

4. Faithfulness as a fruit of the Holy Spirit:

Though our faith is like a mustard seed, if we keep trusting and believing in God and Jesus Christ, it is promised that we will also develop faithfulness as a personal characteristic, as one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. In Galatians 5:22, 23 it says; “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

We are only required to be a faithful servant, to be the branch connected to the Vine, who is Christ, to bear fruit. Allow me to share with you about my father-in-law, Mr. DeWitt Lyon. He was a missionary to Japan and worked hard for thirty years in Japan. He passed away in 2015 at age 92. My wife, Louise, and I had the privilege of caring for him for the five years before that. He never complained about the hard things, nor boasted about anything he had done. He was just a quiet faithful servant. At his funeral we found out more of what he had done. Many people stood up to tell about his influence of his faithfulness in their lives.

One Iranian Christian man said that Mr. Lyon had helped him on countless occasions over a ten-year period with immigration matters to enable his wife to join him in the United States. Louise had the privilege of meeting both of them at Dad’s funeral.

One businessman also stood up and said that he had seen Mr. Lyon at church and realized that he was an honest and faithful man, so he made an appointment to come and talk about his personal and spiritual life. That was less than two months before Dad passed away.

Since then, by God’s grace, Dad’s faithfulness has continued to influence our family and many others in surprising ways.

Faithfulness comes from God, it is part of His Character. Faithfulness is not only the basis of the relationship between God and us, but should also characterize the relationships among us as human beings, husband and wife, family members and church members.