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"It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us; If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself" (2Ti.2:11-13). This is a much misunderstood passage for many Christians, because modern preaching has distorted the presentation of God. He is portrayed as loving, forgiving, merciful and patient, without telling us about His holiness, righteousness, justice and impartiality. As a result, many people get the idea that no matter how we live, even if we are faithless, He will only show us love and mercy, saying, "He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself." Look at another passage, "Who will render to each person according to his deeds: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation" (Ro.2:6-8). That is also a description of His nature. He cannot deny Himself in the sense that He cannot go against who He is.

"If we died with Him, we will also live with Him." What will happen if we don't 'die with Him' but please ourselves and do not do His will? Will we receive His life? "If we endure, we will also reign with Him." If we give up along the way? Will we still be among those who will reign with Him in eternity? We can see that in looking at it in this way we are not going against what is written, when we read plainly, "If we deny Him, He also will deny us."

If we think of it, what this false gospel of cheap and exaggerated grace has made people believe is that God has no integrity. We know people who overlook the sins of those they love and pretend as if they did not do them. Can we go on to think that because God loves us, He will simply cover our sins with the blood of Jesus and pretend as if we have not done them? Every sin is an offence to God, whether we have done it before we were born again or afterwards. Because God has forgiven us and accepted us as His children, does it mean that our sins now do not matter?

How can we have such a careless attitude towards sin if we have seen that Jesus had to go through such a painful death to earn forgiveness for us? That should show us how serious sin is to God. Some people may think that they are exalting the grace of God when they say He will be faithful even if we are faithless in the sense that He will continue to treat us just as if we have not sinned. Whenever we choose to please ourselves and sin, when we know we are disobeying and ignoring His commandments, aren't we denying Him? What will He do then? He will deny us!

Yes, God is patient, merciful. He gives us time to repent. He wants us to stop sinning. He warns us, disciplines us. But if He sees that we are taking advantage of His goodness, His justice and impartiality will come into play (Ps.18:26).

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