Who Holds Fast of Whom?

Does God hold us fast or do we hold fast to God?

Recently, I undertook a review of the Bible to try and answer this question. I found 52 verses among the King James Version of the Bible, New American Standard Bible, and English Standard Version (ESV). Of these, there are 39 verses which teach us to hold fast to God’s Word and His teaching. There is only one verse in Psalm 139 which says that God will hold us fast, and claiming that is what it means is taking the verse out of context. The others speak to the husband holding fast to his wife or evildoers holding fast to sin.

If we say that we hold God fast, which merely from the ratio of Bible verses to one another is the plain reading of Scripture, the concern that immediately faces us is a works based salvation. In other words, if we hold God fast, then we could appear to have the ability to work out our own salvation. This was the trap the Pharisees fell into, such that they believed by following God’s law they would be acceptable to Him.

Salvation is by faith, not by works. So, holding fast – whether God holds us or we hold onto God – cannot be all there is to the question.

We find verses such as Titus 2:11, which says that the grace of God brings salvation to all people (but the verse does not say all will be saved), and Philippians 1:6 where Paul writes that he is confident He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. If we hold fast onto God, then there is far more to our salvation than the tightness of our grip.
God’s covenant with Israel was marked by circumcision, and in Deuteronomy 10:16, God calls the people to circumcise their heart and to not be stiff-necked. This leads us to an important point in the question of who holds fast onto whom.

In Christ, we are being led on a path which ultimately leads to the imitation of Christ; however, we can abort the work of Christ in our lives. The people of Israel in the Old Testament constantly frustrated God’s work in their lives through disobedience, willful sin, doubt and lack of trust – to the point that the prophet Malachi forewarned that judgment was coming upon them. Even though they were given the Ten Commandments, they went so far as to routinely violate multiple commandments, often beginning by erecting idols to false gods.

And we do the same today … on a regular basis. What we find, then, is the need for our intentions and motives to be pure and holy. This is the subject of Romans 7:14-8:15. Paul highlights where we all live – that tension between the desire to please God and the bent or knee-jerk reaction to yield to temptation. Where Paul ends up in Romans 8:1-15 is that we are not in bondage to sin but made free through Christ. If that is the case, then any sin becomes a willful and intentional decision. Think back to the exodus where the people had freedom from bondage in Egypt but repeatedly wished they could go back.

Having been made free in Christ, how do we break free from the desire to put ourselves in bondage to the very sins which try to destroy us?

This is where we can decisively say that we must hold God fast in our lives. It is true that God has given us grace, breathes life into our faith, and leads us onward to purity of thought, word and deed. However, we must yield to God if we will have our hearts and motives made pure.
This is where most people turn away and abort God’s grace in their lives. The surrender God expects is just too much.

Will you yield, or is the pull of the enticement of sin too strong? Let’s clearly identify where we need God to work, and then yielding to Him becomes easier. Either we want to be Christ-like, allowing ourselves to be brought into the imitation of Christ and yielding our wills to God, or we don’t. There is no middle ground here.

Today, there is no shortage of false teaching, even sometimes by well-meaning people, assuring us that we can have it both ways – believing in God while serving the world. There is also no shortage of people drinking up this false teaching because we are always searching for an excuse or justification to avoid letting go of sin. The reality is that this attitude is found all throughout the Bible, so it is nothing new.

Either we will be committed to God, or we will be committed to the world of sin and evil. Either we will not care how much false teaching we willingly allow into our lives, or we will take careful steps to be focused on Christ.