II Timothy I
…if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself. (II Timothy 2:13 ESV)
UNEXPECTED
Not only do we humans tend to like someone who first liked us… but we STOP liking someone who first stops liking us. Whether it is a third-grade crush, a politician, or a dog… we respond to dislike with our own dislike.
More than that, when someone else breaks their word to us, we write them off. When someone else lies, we write them off. When someone else shows themselves to be other than what we first hoped or believed, we write them off.
When someone is unfaithful to us, we feel completely justified in breaking off all relationship with them. They broke the deal first, after all.
It seems just and right for us to act like that.
But that is not how God reacts to our unfaithfulness!
In fact, it is part of who He is… He is faithful to His people, even when we are unfaithful to Him. He is faithful to His people even though we are unfaithful to Him.
If God acted like us, none of us would survive.
God would respond to our unfaithfulness with a breaking of His salvific promises to us. It would be fair, after all, by our standards.
But instead… He is faithful to His promises to us… even when we are not.
He does it through the life and work of Christ, the Messiah.