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Knowing that Our Triune God is Faithful

To be faithful is to be trusted. It is to have the character and the commitment to do what one say they would do. Since God is truth, He also commits to finish what He said He will do. This is nowhere clearer than in the Triune God at work in history to bring about what he says.

  • Jesus says “Don’t you know that I could ask my Father and He would immediately send twelve legions of angels? How then would Scripture be fulfilled if my mission happened some other way?” (Matt 26:53-54)
  • Men decided not to bother breaking the bones of Jesus’ corpse so that Scripture would be fulfilled “Not one of His bones will be broken” without them knowing it (John 19:36)

The Father makes the plans (Eph 1:3-4), the Spirit is breathed out in conveying those plans (2 Peter 1:21), and the Word brings about exactly what the Triune God wanted to happen (Is 55:11). That means that when God makes promises, those commitments are from His very being: He follows through exactly as he commits to do! God is always unchangingly faithful.

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Meditations

Knowing that Our Triune God is Truth

Many things can be true. It is true that the sky is blue. Grass is green. NY Pizza is better than CT pizza. Okay, that last might not be objectively true. The point is that many (not all) things have the quality of containing some truth.

God doesn’t contain some truth. Nor does God merely tell the truth. God is, in his nature, in all three persons, truth.

  • Let God be true, and all men be liars (Rom 3:4)
  • Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. (John 14:6)
  • The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth (John 14:17; 15:26; 6:13)  

Scripture is so strong on this point that it says it is impossible for God to lie (Heb 6:18-19) and describes Him as the God who Never Lies (Titus 1:2 or the Un-lying God)! We can always absolutely trust Him.

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Meditations

Knowing That Our Triune God Feels Yet Doesn’t Change

When considering that God, in all three persons, doesn’t change, the Bible shares two tremendous facts:

  • He feels infinitely more than we can understand: He can weep overflowing tears without ceasing (Jer 14:17) as he shares in the affliction of his people (Isaiah 63:9)
  • His feelings and nature are not lessened or enhanced by any circumstance (1 Samuel 15:29) because he does not change (Malachi 3:6) or shift (James 1:17)

What a mystery! On the one hand, He is never emotionally out of control (Num 23:19); on the other, He can empathize with our weaknesses (Heb 4:15). He can rejoice with those who rejoice, as we are told to do (Rom 12:15); on the other hand, he is never swept away by any external situation.

Like a fireman who can enter the burning building when your children are still inside, God can infinitely feel your sorrow and simultaneously not be moved to change his rescue plans, no matter the situation. This fact shows that God, in his nature, is truly our unshifting anchor (Psa 18:2).

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Knowing that Our Triune God Doesn’t Change

Think about last year. You may have had ups, downs, failures, successes, and learnings. Some things made you stronger. Some things made you weaker. Today, you’re not the same person you were in the beginning of last year. Much less twenty years ago. Why? Because we grow. We learn. We change.

God does not change.

Read Psalm 102. It is filled with a slice of our lives. Withering hearts, distressed groaning, sleepless nights, days filled with fear, horrendous news of war and shaking earth: but all of these things will pass away. “But you remain the same, and your years will never end.”

Read Hebrews 13: 8: Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

What comfort: God, in all three persons, is always the same. He doesn’t change who he is. He does not change his plans. He does not change his promises.  He doesn’t learn something that He doesn’t know. Nothing surprises him. He’s completely and forever perfect. He is the anchor of our soul! (Heb 6:19)

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Meditations

Knowing that Our Triune God is Eternal

When we think about God and His creation, we sometimes let our ideas become as wild as something from a space movie. But the Bible gives us the real story. God tells us:

  • That He lives forever (Isaiah 57:15)
  • That He exists from everlasting to everlasting (Psalm 93:2)

When we see God at work in the Bible we see that:

  • God was there at the start (Genesis 1:1) and will be there at the end (Revelation 22:13)

And when He speaks of Himself in all three persons he says:

  • God was here before everything and will last through everything  (Psalm 90:2)
  • The Son was here before everything and keeps everything going (Col 1:17)
  • The Holy Spirit was there at the start (Genesis 1:2) and always knows what God is thinking  (1 Cor 2:11)

We should not mistake what 2 Peter 3:8 says—that one day is like a thousand years to God—to mean that one ‘God day’ is actually a thousand years for us. What Peter means is that God, who knows everything, is all-wise, all-powerful, and lives forever, doesn’t keep our agenda! This is great news! It means God, who created everything, isn’t far away. He’s here with us now, will be there waiting for us at the end, and promises to be with us always.

Savior, our only joy be though, as Thou our crown shalt be; Be Thou, O Lord, our glory now, and through eternity!