if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself. [II timothy 2:13]
He cannot deny himself
What does it mean that God cannot deny Himself?
this verse is often seen as a verse of comfort – that God remains faithful even when we are not. while this is true (God is in his very nature faithful) there is more being said here.
this verse is the final line of a “saying” that paul is quoting:
11 the saying is trustworthy, for:
if we have died with him, we will also live with him;
12 if we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he also will deny us;
13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful—
for he cannot deny himself.
first of all, how beautiful to know that early believers encouraged one another with words such as this, which appear to be a poem or song.
secondly, we are given a series of actions from us and the response from God:
our death to self is answered by life with Him,
our endurance is answered by reigning with Him,
but here is where it becomes real – our denial of him results in his denial of us. this is consistent with scripture that tells us we can go ‘too far’. we can claim to know Christ, but through our actions prove that we don’t. His response will be the truth – that our faith was not real – that we never knew Him.
this is where his faithfulness becomes more complex.
those who continually and habitually deny Christ likely never knew Him at all. those who deny him repeatedly will also be denied.
but here’s the good part:
this passage calls to mind the moment when peter denied Jesus found in Luke 22:54-62. when Jesus was arrested, peter ‘denied’ him three times to three people. peter said he didn’t know Jesus or anything about him. yet this denial was not permanent, as Jesus was faithful to peter and to Himself. This was a moment of weakness, not a lifetime of denial. peter was ultimately repentant, and through the forgiveness of Christ peter became the man and apostle he was meant to be. there is no record of him ever denying Jesus ever again.
we are chosen by God to live in his glorious grace. we have heard the truth that will set us free. yet it is for us to decide – we can live as faithful servants who will receive the full reward, or we can deny who Jesus is, knowing that His denial awaits those who consistently deny Him, for he cannot deny Himself.
He is faithful to His own character: His grace and faithfulness is great! Likewise, His judgement of sin is real.
may we choose to be those who serve, who endure, who repent, who persevere in the knowledge that nothing can separate us from HIs love, that life lived for Him is eternal, and that He alone can save us from the sin that would ruin us. may we never deny the one who took our sins upon himself to make us his children.
~ jason soroski