Great Bible Truths Podcast Episode 121
The Promises of God Talk 2
Christ fulfils all the promises
In our last talk we saw that, although God has made many wonderful promises in the Bible, not every verse is a promise and not all the promises are for us, because some of them were made to specific people for a specific purpose. We used God’s promise to Abraham as an example. What God promised to him he is not necessarily promising to us. So we need to be very careful about ‘claiming’ verses taken out of context.
We looked at 2 Peter 1:1-8 and saw that Peter describes God’s promises as precious and very great and that it is those who have come to faith in Jesus as their God and Saviour that have access to them. The purpose of God’s promises is that we might know him, become increasingly more like him, and ultimately share in his glory.
We suggested that the promises Peter was referring to were not so much a selection of Bible verses as specific themes such as God’s promise of the Holy Spirit and the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, both of which Peter describes as promises elsewhere. It is through the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives that we can become more like Jesus, and the knowledge that he has promised to come again is a wonderful incentive to do so.
But the gift of the Holy Spirit and the glorious prospect of Christ’s second coming are not the only promises. There are many others, but as we examine other New Testament passages we discover that God’s promises all centre on:
- the Lord Jesus Christ (the subject for this talk)
- the salvation offered to us in Christ (the subject for our next talk)
The Lord Jesus Christ
The word promise first occurs with regard to Christ back in the Old Testament with the great promises that God made to Abraham. The key passages are Genesis 12:1-3; 15:1-6; 17:1-8 and 22:15-18:
Genesis 12:1-3
- Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
- And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
- I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Genesis 15:1-6
- After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”
- But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”
- And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.”
- And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.”
- And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
- And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
Genesis 17:1-8
- When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless,
- that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.”
- Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him,
- “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.
- No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.
- I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you.
- And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.
- And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”
Genesis 22:15-18
- And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven
- and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son,
- I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies,
- and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”
In these passages God promises to bless Abraham and to make him a blessing. Abraham will become the father of a multitude of nations and his offspring will be as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. God’s purpose in this is that all families and nations on earth will be blessed through Abraham’s offspring.
As we look at these promises in the light of the New Testament, we find that the ‘offspring’ through whom the the nations will be blessed is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. This is made clear in Galatians 3:16 where Paul says:
Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ.
The point Paul is making here is that in the verse he is quoting the word offspring is in the singular. God’s promise to Abraham is fulfilled in and through one particular descendant, Christ. Romans 15:8 tells us that Christ came to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs and 2 Corinthians 1:20 says that all the promises of God find their Yes in him.
This means that all God’s promises find their fulfilment in Christ. By the fact that he has come to earth God has owned his promises; for they are all fulfilled in him. It is in Christ that we who were strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world… have been brought near by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:12-13).
Before Jesus came we were without hope and without God. But, because Jesus died for us and we have accepted him as our saviour, we have entered into relationship with him. In receiving Jesus we received the promise of salvation. Jesus is the fulfilment of the promise of salvation.
This is further confirmed in Acts 13:32 where Paul says:
And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus.
This verse confirms that God’s promises are fulfilled in Christ and by his resurrection in particular. But it also identifies the gospel as their fulfilment too. (Interestingly, in Greek the words for gospel – euaggelion and promise – epaggelia are very similar). There is no contradiction here. Jesus himself is the good news. The message of Christ is the message of the gospel which Paul summarises in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4:
- Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,
- and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you— unless you believed in vain.
- For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
- that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.
So the promises are fulfilled in the gospel, which is the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection. Yet the final outworking of God’s promises will not be complete until Jesus comes again. This is sometimes referred to as the eschatological tension of the ‘already/not yet’ of our salvation.
For example, Hebrews tells us that the new covenant which is brought about by the death of Christ (9:15) is established on ‘better promises’ (8:6). The new covenant is already in force, but it gives to those who are called the promised eternal inheritance (9:15) which the patient believer will receive at the second coming (10:35-37). So it’s already but not yet.
The same writer tells us that Abraham lived in the land promised to him yet he lived as a stranger there awaiting the final fulfilment of the city of God which he saw contained in the promise given to him (Hebrews11:8ff). The fathers died in faith, not having received the promises but seeing them from afar they sought a heavenly country (Hebrews 11:13-16). It’s the same with us. We have already entered into the territory where God’s promises are fulfilled, yet
According to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells (2 Peter 3:13).
The fulfilment of God’s promises started with the first coming of Christ, but the final consummation of those promises will not be seen until his second coming. And, as we shall see in future talks, this fact is an important key to our understanding of all God’s promises and how we may appropriate them.
So Christ is the fulfilment of all God’s promises. Some we have seen fulfilled already. Others we must patiently wait for knowing that Christ is the cast iron guarantee that God will do what he has promised us because he IS the fulfilment of the promises!
And for this reason New Testament writers also see our salvation as the fulfilment of God’s promises. This will be the subject of our next talk where we will consider six facts about our salvation that are directly connected with the word promise:
- We are made righteous by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ
- We are God’s children
- We will rise from the dead
- We have eternal life
- We have a glorious inheritance awaiting us
- We have a foretaste of our inheritance in the gift of the Holy Spirit.