The whole Bible shares the story of our loving God initiating relationship with us despite hard-hearted resistance. Zooming in on Romans 5:8, we read how Paul expresses this truth: “But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” In the same way that God authors reality and writes the rules of the universe, He also defines what our relationship with Him looks like. We know Him on His terms, not ours, for which we can be grateful.
Recently, I’ve been thinking about the comfort that comes from trusting God as the definer of my relationship with Him. Ephesians 1:13-14 says that those who “heard the word of truth, the gospel of [their] salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of [their] inheritance.” Being sealed means that God’s work cannot be undone. He holds onto those who walk with Him, and nothing on earth or in heaven will make Him lose hold of them. Our relationship with Him is based on His faithfulness to us, not on ours to Him. By His grace, He defined the terms of our relationship in such a way that once we know Him, we cannot sin ourselves out of His love and forgiveness. 2 Timothy 2:13 lays it out in the simplest of terms: “If we are faithless, He remains faithful–for He cannot deny Himself.” God’s faithfulness eclipses our unfaithfulness. Our immense need for Him is swallowed up in His presence with us and His love for us. When we give Him the cold shoulder, He does not respond in kind; as Asaph writes in Psalm 73:23, He is continually with us and holds our right hand. How comforting it is to trust in His faithfulness, His love, and His ability instead of our own.
But while enjoying this comfort, we have to remember Romans 6:1-2: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who have died to sin still live in it?” God’s grace does not give us license to be sinful and faithless–after all, it is for freedom that we have been set free from sin. God’s grace instead gives us assurance that our salvation and redeemed life are not in our power to lose, just as they were not in our power to obtain. God includes obedience in the terms of our relationship, and the Holy Spirit enables us to obey as we can’t on our own. We want to stay close to Him because we need Him and we love Him, yet we need not fear being lost by Him. We are sealed, not by our merit but by His faithfulness.
By: Elle Vandewalle
