A Fundamental Fact in Five

The Word is first...

1 Corinthians 1:9 (NIV)

⁹ God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.

The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984

As I consider today's study verse, I am reminded just how deceitful my heart is and how deceptive are humans. We make commitments and promises with no intention of ever keeping them. We make commitments and promises with every intention of keeping them but absolutely no ability to keep them. Every human relationship I have ever or will ever enjoy has or will be tainted with the bitter reality of disappointment. It's in our DNA.

However, we are not doomed to never knowing the joy of a dependable and faithful relationship! We just can't experience that with people. Nor can we experience such a relationship with 'things' of this world such as power, prestige, money, sports or television. Yet we routinely elevate the common, even mundane things of this world to 'god' status. More often than not, it takes a long time for us to realize the folly of our mistake and then an even longer time to recover from the inevitable disappointment.

But if we want to have the joy of such a dependable and faithful relationship, we must have a relationship with God. Consider these five comments on the fundamental fact of our faithful God.

The True God will call you into fellowship. The things of the world that we would elevate to the status of 'god' do not call us into relationship. They call us into addiction, isolation and distraction. Though we may be surrounded by 70,000 others who like us worship at the altar of the gridiron, true fellowship is not present. Though we may have a million dollars piled up on the table, there is no fellowship at all; greed drives out fellowship. As we know from Scripture, there is no profit in attaining the entire world if we have lost our soul or have not love. We can know, we can discern the True God by the fact that he calls, pleads, begs and cajoles us to enter into an abiding relationship, to have true fellowship.

The True God will call you into fellowship with his Son Jesus. The offer of fellowship from the True God will always be predicated upon a vibrant and living fellowship with his Son Jesus. The True God will never offer a relationship that is not accomplished through his son. Any such offer, no matter how tempting or tantalizing is to be shunned immediately and exposed for the deception that it most certainly is.

The True God will call you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ. The son through which we may enjoy fellowship with God is no mere mortal, nor prophet, nor seer, nor mystic. He is none other than THE CHRIST. I believe we have a tendancy to think of Christ in Jesus Christ as a surname or a family name. It is a title! He is THE CHRIST, the one promised, the one expected, the one born, killed and risen. He is our Savior and our Salvation, our Hope and our Reward. In Him there is no deception or falsehood or sin of any kind. As for fellowship, He is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. It is by our fellowship with Jesus alone that we may know the deep, abiding, rewarding and restful relationship with God that sets the standard for all relationships.

The True God will call you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Yet knowing Jesus, accepting the truth of His divinity, his death, his descent and his destiny is insufficient to secure the fellowship for which our souls yearn. It is only when we place the crown of Lordship, for our selves, on his head that we may come into the presence of God. It is then that we are bound tightly to Him and through Him to God by cords that cannot be broken.

The True God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful. We can know that based upon the facts herein that the True God is faithful; he wavers not. He neither lies nor deceives nor changes his mind. He neither diminishes nor increases for He is unchanging. Across all time and in all things He alone remains steady and steadfast. His promises, of which there are hundreds, are certainties, covenants that will not be broken.

If we enter in to fellowship with Him, we can do so without reservation or hesitation for we can depend on Him to never leave nor forsake us. He offers comfort and joy, truth and love. Were I friends with every normal person across all the generations I would have no friend like Him. Though I may be disappointed it will not be because He has failed me, it will be because I have removed myself from His will. Know that The True God is faithful.

Shalom,
Carl