As soon as sin came into the world God intervened to bring into being a world into which sin could not enter. In addressing the tempter, God announced the coming of the Seed of the woman who would bruise the serpent’s head, the One who would set aside all evil, and through whom the sinless, eternal age would be brought into being. Although it was an announcement of the coming One, for faith the words of God contained a promise, and this was fulfilled when the Son of God came as born of the virgin, even as spoken by the angel to Mary, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).
God’s Promises to Abraham
When the Lord first called Abraham to leave Ur of the Chaldees, the promises He gave him were largely for himself. Abram was to be a great nation, he was to be blessed of God, his name was blessed of God, and those who cursed Abram were to be cursed of God, and in him all the families of the earth were to be blessed. This contained wonderful promises both present and future, involving the blessing of his descendants and every family of the earth in a coming day. In these promises God was looking forward to the time when the results of Christ’s work on the cross would bring blessing to a renewed earth, for we have not yet reached the time when all the families of earth are blessed.
Canaan was the land of promise for the seed of Abraham, for Abraham himself was a stranger in it, walking by faith as in a strange country, but which he would afterwards possess in his seed. Israel, on account of their sins, were driven out of the land, and have not ever been possessors of it since, though remnants have dwelled there, but they will yet possess it, according to the promises of God, no matter how hotly the nations around may contest their right to be there. Although Israel are in the land of Palestine today, it is not on the ground of their divine title in God’s promise, but as having the support of some of the great nations of the world, but the day is surely coming, after they have passed through the divine judgments with their coming leader, the man of sin, when they shall again possess the land, the promised land, never more to be dispossessed.
Among the many promises given to Abraham, the greatest was that connected with Christ, the promised Seed (Gen. 22:18). It was given after Isaac, in figure, passed through death, and was received back alive again. It is in this way the Lord Jesus is presented to us in Matthew’s Gospel, which begins, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ…the son of Abraham.” Not only was Christ promised to Abraham, but the promises were made to Christ also, even as it is written in Galatians 3:16, “Now Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He says not to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” It is in Christ that all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; it is Christ who shall possess the gate of His enemies (Gen. 22:17-18).
God’s Promises to David
The promises given to Abraham concerning his seed were confirmed to Isaac and Jacob, and as Jacob neared the end of his pilgrimage He showed, in his remarkable prophetic history of Genesis 49, how he had entered into the thoughts of God. There he stated “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be” (verse 10). It was a clear prediction that the throne of Israel would belong to Judah, and that Messiah would belong to the royal line.
When David desired to build a house for the Lord, God sent His servant to tell him that He did not wish him to carry out this work, but that his son would build His house for Him. Then God gave David certain promises, first of all confirming the promise given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob regarding the nation. How touchingly the Lord speaks of this: “Moreover, I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime” (2 Sam. 7:10). What comfort for the faithful among Israel this gives, especially in the days of their expulsion from the land on account of their sins.
There was also the promise concerning Solomon, who would sit upon David’s throne, a promise that went far beyond Solomon, even to the Christ of God, as is seen in Hebrews 1:5. By the Spirit of God, David, in such psalms as 45, 72 and 110, enters into the glory that would belong to Messiah, as answering to and fulfilling the promises God made to him.
Further promises are found in the words of the prophet from Jehovah, “Thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever” (verse 16). David, in his last words, showed that he realised that all these promises depended on the sovereign grace of God, for he said, “Although my house be not so with God; yet has He made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure” (2 Sam. 23:5). Moreover, if they were to be sure, they must needs by secured in Christ, risen from the dead, for in Him are “the sure mercies of David.”
God’s Promises to Israel
Among the many privileges belonging to Israel, enumerated by Paul in Romans 9:4-5 are “the promises,” the promises given to the fathers, and to the nation through the prophets. There are the many promises concerning the coming Messiah, and of the prosperity that awaits the people of God in the millennium. The announcements of the blessing that shall come to Immanuel’s land in such passages as Isaiah 11, are clearly promises of blessing for God’s earthly people Israel.
When Israel is restored to the land of promise, and blessed of the Lord, it will not be because of their faithfulness, but on the ground of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the sovereign grace of God. This is promised in Jeremiah 31:31-34, where the Lord says to Israel, “I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah…I will put my law in their inward parts, and write them in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people…and I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matt. 26:28).
The Promise of the Holy Spirit
The coming of the Holy Spirit to be with the disciples of the Lord, and to be in them, was promised by the Lord Jesus in John 14:17; and in this chapter, and the two that follow, the Lord has much to say regarding the functions and work of the Holy Spirit. In other Scriptures, the coming of the Spirit is spoken of by the Lord as the promise of the Father, as in Luke 24:49 and Acts 1:4. This promise was fulfilled, as Peter announced in Acts 2:33, “Being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He has shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.”
In writing to the saints at Ephesus, the Apostle Paul speaks of the seal of “that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession” (verses 13, 14). The Holy Spirit has come to give us the anticipation of what lies ahead in the inheritance God has given us in Christ, being also the earnest of “all the promises of God” of which Christ is the yea and Amen (2 Cor. 1:20-22).
What Paul Writes of God’s Promises
We have just seen that Christ, in 2 Corinthians 1, is the One in whom every promise of God is set forth and confirmed. The promises of blessing for us all centre in Christ, and we have nothing from God apart from Him. This brings glory to God, but it brings blessing to us, the Holy Spirit giving us the present joy of all that lies in prospect.
One of the elements of the mystery, as brought out in Ephesians 3:6 is that Jew and Gentile are joint-partakers of God’s “promise in Christ by the Gospel.” This would appear to be the same promise that is spoken of in 2 Timothy 1:1, “the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus,” and in Titus 1:2, “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.” Paul presents eternal life as a divine promise that has yet to be fulfilled, for it is the full enjoyment of the divine blessing when we receive our glorified bodies. The Apostle John presents eternal life as a present possession in Christ, and belonging to all who continue in “that which ye have heard from the beginning,” for this is to continue “in the Son, and in the Father.” Then John adds, “And this is the promise that He has promised us, even eternal life” (1 John 2:24-25).
What Hebrews and James Say of God’s Promises
In Hebrews 9 Christ is shown as having obtained eternal redemption, in contrast to the offerings of the Levitical system (verse 12). Under the old covenant Israel lost their inheritance, for their possessing it depended on their obedience to the law; but the great work of the Lord Jesus on the cross has enabled God to righteously forgive those who had faith in Him in a past dispensation, and to give those whom He has called “the promise of eternal inheritance” (verse 15). All that the saints of God shall yet inherit, according to the promise of God, in the world to come, is based on the abiding efficacy of the work of Christ upon the cross.
James writes of “the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love Him” (James 1:12). This same crown of life is held out as an encouragement to the persecuted saints of Smyrna (Rev. 2:10). The saints of God have not been called to a life of ease, but to endure trial, and it may be to give up their lives in the conflict of good and evil, following in the steps of their Master. Our encouragement in the time of testing is that we shall be crowned with life in another world, a life that cannot be taken from us, and where there are no trials to endure.
We are also told by James that God has “chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He has promised to them that love Him” (James 2:5). Christ was refused His kingdom when He came to earth, for His own received Him not, but He will yet be seen as King of kings, and Lord of lords, the kingdoms of this world becoming the kingdom of the Lord and of His Christ. Those who love God are content to share Christ’s rejection, and to wait for part with Him in His coming kingdom, for this is what God has promised to His own.
What Peter Says of God’s Promises
The Apostle Peter, in his second Epistle, tells us that God has given to us “all things that pertain to life and godliness…whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises” (2 Peter 1:3-4). God’s promises are indeed great and precious, promises that have brought to us the knowledge of salvation, both present and that which is to come, and that holds out the hope of an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for us” (1 Peter 1:4-9).
The promise of the Lord’s coming in 2 Peter 3:4-9. We have reached the days of which Peter prophesied, when scoffers would say, “Where is the promise of His coming?” Foreseeing what would take place, the Lord forewarned His saints what to expect, and took the occasion to give further light on the promise of His coming. His coming would introduce the day of the Lord, in which He would “come as a thief in the night,” both for the world, and for the false church, and it would end with the heavens passing away, and the earth and its works being burned up.
How different is the prospect for the saints of God, their eternal dwelling would be in the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwells righteousness, and this “according to His promise” (2 Peter 3:13).
What John Says of God’s Promises
We have already seen that John in his first Epistle speaks of eternal life as the promise of God (1 John 2:25). In John’s Gospel the divine promises are brought before us as from the Son, even as He said to His disciples, “I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:2-3). How this divine promise has cheered the hearts of the saints down the ages, as they waited for the fulfilling of the Lord’s words to them.
For the fulfilment of this promise we still wait, but knowing that the Lord will surely come, even as He has thrice told us in the last chapter of Revelation that He is coming quickly. At the Lord’s coming there will be the fulfilling of every divine promise that remains to be fulfilled, the promises made to Israel of earthly blessing that will never be taken from them, the promises made to the saints who shall share Christ’s heavenly kingdom, and dwell with Him in all the deep joys of the Father’s House for evermore.
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