24. God, the Faithful One

Names of God Meditations No.24:  God, the Faithful One

Hos 11:12 “Judah is unruly against God, even against the faithful Holy One.”

1 Thess 5:24 “The one who calls you is faithful.”

The Concept: The term, ‘The Faithful One’ appears not to be found in Scripture but the description of Him as faithful does, and it is a vitally important concept, one which actually relies on some of the other things we know of God that we will look at more fully before we finish – that He is perfect, He is good, and He is love. Put all those things together and we find the reason why we can utterly trust Him. But yet, there might be one more concern we might have – does He change, will the God of the Bible be the God I find and experience today?

Faithful God? Faithfulness is all about reliability, unchangeability, in respect of expression. A faithful friend is one who is loyal, dependable, and trustworthy. And God, we are told, is all of these. Now I guess this is something most of us take for granted and most of the time give little thought to, but when it comes to the lies that the enemy would seek to whisper to us, that we have already considered in an earlier study, then God’s faithfulness is the crucial answer to such lies.

So what do we hear?

• “God doesn’t love you!” Yes, He does, He is love (1 Jn 4:8,16) and so He can express nothing else but love in your direction! And He never changes!
• “God won’t forgive you!” Yes, He will, He’s promised in His word (e.g. 1 Jn 1:9) and He never changes!  
• “You’re a sinner, a failure, doomed!” No, that’s only partially true. Yes, I am a sinner (just like a recovering alcoholic is always an alcoholic) and in the same way I have failed and sometimes got it wrong, but I’m not doomed because everything the Bible tells me, is that God delights in taking us in our messy situations and redeeming us as His precious children, and He never changes!

Facing AI: That’s what faithfulness is about. Intriguingly – and I don’t usually go down these paths – there is a fear behind modern computer science, and the question is asked, will our AI computers remain true and constant and for us? We are at a point in history where this concept is particularly applicable. So modern Artificial Intelligence developments are changing at a scary rate that is causing a lot of discussion and debate. Will so-called Artificial Intelligence, in what we currently call super-computers, reach a point where it becomes cleverer than us? Well it can certainly compute much faster than us, it can handle greater masses of data than us, but the big question is what will we be enabling it to do, and what will be the outcomes of it?

This has troubled writers and scientists for many decades so, for example, Isaac Azimov came up with his three laws of robotics: 1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

AI free will? But if you give your AI the ability to develop, how can you force morality on it that preserves us without limiting it. This, of course, is why God had to give US free-will, which allowed us to sin (i.e. reject Him). This is ultimately the problem computer scientists have to face, but one wonders if ‘progress’ and career development and fame will annul this.

In the realms of science the term ‘The Singularity’ was a term linked to black holes, but in more recent days ‘The Singularity’ can also refer to the future emergence of a greater-than-human superintelligence through technological means, i.e. a super-super-computer mind (that some claim will have consciousness – self-awareness) that can think entirely freely of any human ‘interference’.  

The God-Difference: Now I take us down this path to help us see how so assured we can be of God, especially when we consider His faithfulness, which in turn is based on His perfection (cannot be improved in any way), His love (always looking for our best) and His goodness (His ability to ‘do good’ or that which we always find totally acceptable and beneficial). Put all this together and we find that we are able to relate to God without fear that He will suddenly lash out at us in spite, knowing He is always thinking of us benignly and working for our good.

Turning to the Bible, God’s faithfulness is highlighted as an assurance that He will do what He has said and fulfill what He has promised. His nature is unchanging (Ex 3 – ‘I AM’), He promises He is for us and won’t let us be tempted beyond that which we can handle (1 Cor 10:13), He will always forgive us when we confess our sins (1 Jn 1:9), His love is steadfast (Lam 3:22,23), He will always be there (Deut 31:6, Heb 13:5), and He never breaks His covenant with us because it is based on His Son’s death (Lk 22:20, 1 Cor 11:25). In all these ways I can be completely confident and assured in all my dealings with Him. How wonderful!  He IS my Faithful One!