God’s Good Faith Promise Fulfilled: “Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?” Romans 3:3 Geneva Bible

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God’s Good Faith Promise Fulfilled:

“Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?”

Romans 3:3 Geneva Bible

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For unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given:  And the government will be upon his shoulder.  And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever.  The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

-Isaiah 9:6-7

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The Master Architect

For behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone,  a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. [1]

It was fitting that the One through whom God created the world would also be the corner stone in the plan of redemption.  Notwithstanding Israel’s stubborn insistence on building according to her own designs thereby putting herself under a covenant of death, God laid the foundation for a new covenant–a covenant of life for all who believe–to the Jew first, but also for the Greek. [2]  A roofer may tell you his price to replace the shingles and perhaps a couple of rotten pieces of the underlying plywood, the architect understands that there is much more to it than that.  The trusses have to be properly designed.  The spacing and number of trusses is not anybody’s guess but is determined by the length of the roof and the load it will bear.  Further the trusses themselves have to have adequate support.  Otherwise you will soon have a sagging roof or what is worse–a major roof collapse.  So it is with God’s house–we must submit to the plan of the Architect or disaster will follow, and it all relates to the foundation, indeed the corner stone.  Nothing in God’s revealed plan, therefore, is to be taken lightly or dismissed as no longer applicable in the modern world.

A Master Builder

As the apostle to the Gentiles, and a co-worker with God, Paul wrote,

According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon.  But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man lay than that has been laid, which is Jesus Christ. [3]

In the modern era of the church, no less than the first century, the apostle Paul has come under attack by unbelievers, as well as professing believers trying to accommodate the wisdom of this present evil age.  Paul’s views on marriage– no less than his views concerning the order for leadership in the church, are regarded as quite negotiable by professing evangelicals of our day.  Paul’s perspective on Jewish festivals has been ignored to the extent that Christendom has insisted  on squeezing Christian instruction into the mold of the so-called “Christian calendar” with little  mandate from Scripture.  Our Puritan forebears refused to celebrate “Christmas” in the way that Rome had done and that so many moderns do.  Now an “enlightened” American elite would have us forget our religious roots as a nation altogether, and even relegate the divine institution of marriage to the category of a “tradition” in order to lay its own irrational foundation for so-called “homosexual rights.”  And, if language means anything, there is nothing “gay” about it, much less marital.

How are you building?  There are many within the ranks of churches for whom homosexuality,  once a chosen life-style, is now but a shameful habit of the past. [4]  May their testimony be heard throughout the land to the glory of the Savior Jesus Christ!

Rational and Relevant

Though the world considers Him foolishness, nothing is more rational than the Logos–the Word made flesh; nor is there a more fundamental principle for modern man than that which Isaiah spoke so many centuries ago

Come now, let us reason together, saith the LORD.  Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.  Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. [5]

The author once worked with a carpenter who frequently would voice the thought: “Don’t make it hard on yourself.”  The Almighty has no need to debate abstract ideas, nor to encourage men to do the same.  The universe He has created is a rational world from which the Almighty has drawn simple analogies familiar to every man’s experience and awareness, even stooping to clothe himself in our common humanity.  The message is “not too had for thee.” [6]

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Endnotes

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