Why We Are Not True To Our Father God?

There is a peculiar tragedy in the language Scripture uses to describe our relationship with God. He is not merely our Creator or our Sovereign — He is our Father, and we are called His children. Yet Scripture does not shy away from a painful diagnosis: His children are often not true to Him. We live as sons and daughters who bear the Father’s name whilst not living a life loyal to Him. And yet — this is the wonder of the Gospel — the Father who has every right to disown unfaithful children, pursues us still. This introduction, then, is not merely an indictment. It is an invitation to examine honestly why we are not true to our Father God, so that, by His grace, we might become true again.

Repaid According to Deeds

He will repay according to what they have done, wrath to his enemies and retribution to his foes; he will repay the islands their due.
Isaiah 59:18 (NIV)

Every religion offers some version of the same promise: fulfil this duty, keep this rule, earn this merit, and you will be saved. So when Isaiah says that God will repay people according to their deeds, it is tempting to hear this as confirmation of what we already believe — that our eternity is a wage we earn. John sees the same picture in his vision of the great white throne.

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.
Revelation 20:12 (NIV)

If God repays every person according to their deeds, does that mean our salvation depends on what we do? It would seem so — until we remember what deed actually secured our debt. Paul is direct about where salvation comes from.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)

God did not leave the work of our salvation in our hands. He placed our sin upon His own Son and saved us through Him, so that no one could say, “I earned this.” Other faiths may point their followers to their own scriptures and their own righteousness. But the God who gave us Jesus Christ saved us by taking our sin upon Himself — and that, too, is written in His word.

What deed, then, pleases God when He evaluates us? It is faith (Hebrews 11:6) — faith placed in God, and in what God has done through His Son. Our deed is to believe what God has done and, on that basis, to walk in His word: to listen to it, understand it, and live by it. This is the only work God has left for us to do. Everything else — how much we hear His word, walk in it, and lean on Him when we fail to walk in it — is what He weighs when He judges according to our deeds. It is reliance upon what our Father God has done for us that is being measured in terms of faith, not merit.

If we persist in depending on our own deeds despite what God has done, this deepens into something more grievous still — spiritual adultery. For the relationship God establishes with His people is not only that of a Father to His children, but of a Husband to His bride. When our hearts turn after other loves — comfort, self, the world’s fleeting affections — we betray our Bridegroom. The prophets did not flinch from this language: they call out Israel for being an adulterous wife, playing the harlot with false gods (Jeremiah 3:20; Hosea 2:2).

A Flag Raised Against the Flood

From the west, people will fear the name of the LORD, and from the rising of the sun, they will revere his glory. For he will come like a pent-up flood that the breath of the LORD drives along.
Isaiah 59:19 (NIV)

Isaiah warns that the enemy will come like a flood — sudden, overwhelming, indiscriminate. We have seen such floods in our own time: nations shaken by disaster, people losing homes, lives swept away in a single night. God’s promise here is that even when such a storm rises, His Spirit will lift up a standard against it.

When calamity strikes people who believe in God, does that mean they are being judged for some hidden sin? Seeing others suffer in disaster is not evidence that they were greater sinners than we are, and we must be careful not to draw that conclusion. This verse is not a report card on other people’s righteousness — it is a warning for all of us, and a promise that when the flood comes, the Spirit God has given us will rise against the evil in it. The flag is not raised over the innocent to condemn them; it is raised against the enemy. Further, it will be raised to protect us only when we rely and trust in God completely, laying aside the other lies we have been taught through religious norms.

The Greatest Lie

The lies of this world are rooted in our disobedience to our Father God — the wilful defiance of a child who knows the Father’s voice yet chooses their own way, echoing the wayward sons of Israel whom the prophets rebuked:

I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me.
Isaiah 1:2 (NIV)

Isaiah exposes what actually stands between us and God — not the flood from outside, but the lie we have believed inside.

Whom have you so dreaded and feared that you have not been true to me, nor remembered me nor pondered this in your hearts? Is it not because I have long been silent that you do not fear me?
Isaiah 57:11 (NIV)

We say we believe in God, yet we are often more afraid of the people who control religion than we are in awe of Him. We know we should have the courage to test what we are told against God’s own promise, but we hesitate to use that courage fully. God is not asking this question rhetorically for our comfort — He is asking each of us directly: whom have you feared enough to forget Me? The lie underneath that fear is the belief that religion itself will save us — that if we perform every ritual, keep every observance, no one can raise a finger against us. Isaiah shows exactly where that trust leads.

Your covenant with death will be annulled; your agreement with the realm of the dead will not stand. When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by, you will be beaten down by it.
Isaiah 28:18 (NIV)

Why does this false covenant collapse exactly when we need it most? Because it was never a covenant with God to begin with — it was a private bargain we made with our own religious performance: I will attend on time, I will worship, I will give thanks, I will take part in every gathering, and therefore I will be saved. That promise is tied to a lie, so when real sickness or real weakness comes, it has nothing to hold us up. The person who is tied to the truth — to God’s own promise, God’s own grace, God’s own love — is never afraid in that moment, because his security was never built on his own performance in the first place.

The Redeemer and the Baptism of the Spirit

Having exposed the false hope of religion, Isaiah turns to the true one — the Redeemer who comes not for the self-righteous but for the repentant, and the covenant He establishes is permanent.

“The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,” declares the LORD.
Isaiah 59:20 (NIV)

This promise finds its fulfilment in Jesus Christ, who told His disciples exactly what this redemption would look like before He ascended.

Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised… For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
Acts 1:4-5 (NIV)

The baptism of John — a ritual, an outward washing — was never meant to be the final word. What Christ gives is not another ritual to perform but His own Spirit, placed within us. Paul describes this as a baptism into Christ Himself.

Having been buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
Colossians 2:12 (NIV)

Witnesses, Not Performers

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses.
Acts 1:8 (NIV)

The power that comes with the Spirit is not given for a stage — it is given to make us witnesses. When the Spirit filled the disciples at Pentecost and they spoke in the languages of the nations gathered there, this was not a display of spiritual talent. It was God enabling ordinary people to carry His love into languages and lives not their own — to be present among people, to speak of God’s love in the tongue they understood, and to let their own transformed lives testify to what Christ had done. The point was never the language itself. The point was the witness. We can mistake the ability to speak of God for the actual work of representing Him; the two are not the same.

There are two main things that lead us away from being true to our Father God. The first is spiritual adultery — leaving the Way that Jesus has shown, and clinging instead to the many other norms of the world’s countless religions. The second is disobedience to our Father God, who has adopted us as His own children. If we set aside these two things, we will be true to our Father God everywhere and in every circumstance. Then people will see our lives, not our performance, and come to our Father God — and ultimately the name of our Father will be glorified.

In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:16 (NIV)