122 The Promises of God – Talk 3 – God’s promises are fulfilled in the salvation offered to us in Christ

Great Bible Truths Podcast Episode 122

The Promises of God Talk 3

God’s promises are fulfilled in the salvation offered to us in Christ

 

In our last talk we saw that all God’s promises find their Yes in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20). He 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 guarantee that God will do what he has promised us because he IS the fulfilment of the promises.

 

In this talk we shall see 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.

 

We are made righteous by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ

 

In Galatians 3:21-22 we read:

 

21. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.
22. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

 

These verses directly connect the promises of God with the righteousness we receive by faith in Jesus. Paul teaches very clearly that the law of the Old Testament could not give life because no one was able to keep it. So the righteousness we need to enter heaven could not come through the law. But in God’s mercy he counts us as righteous through faith in Jesus. This is known as justification. As Paul says in Romans 5:1, we have been justified by faith and as a result we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

We are God’s children

 

In Romans 9 Paul warns his fellow-Jews that being physically descended from Abraham does not necessarily mean that you are one of God’s chosen people.

 

6. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel,
7. and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring

 

It is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring (v8). As believers in the Lord Jesus then we are the children of the promise. We are the children of God.

 

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2).

 

Notice that the promise has already been fulfilled. We ARE God’s children now. But there’s another promise in this verse that has yet to be fulfilled – we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is!

 

We will rise from the dead

 

The next wonderful aspect of our salvation that is connected with the word promise is the fact that when Jesus comes again we will rise from the dead. We have already seen that the resurrection of Jesus was a key part of the fulfilment of God’s promises.

 

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 (Acts 13:32).

 

But, as Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 15, Christ’s resurrection guarantees ours:

 

20. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
21. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
22. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
23. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.

 

In the Old Testament the first sheaf of the harvest was offered to God (Leviticus 23). This was known as the firstfruits and it was offered on the day after the sabbath following the Passover. Now Jesus was crucified during the Passover – Paul describes him as Christ our Passover who was sacrificed for us (1 Corinthians 5:7) – and the day after the sabbath is Easter Sunday! Jesus rose from the dead on the day that the firstfruits were offered to God.

 

But the first sheaf of the harvest was not the only sheaf. There were many more to follow. Just as the first sheaf was the sign of the harvest that was to follow, Paul sees Christ’s resurrection as just the beginning of a much greater  resurrection. All in Christ will be made alive. Because he lives, we shall live too. Whether we are dead or alive when Jesus returns, our bodies will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed (1 Corinthians 15:52). This is all part of what it means to have eternal life.

 

We have eternal life

 

In 1 John 2:25 we are told that eternal life is the promise that he made to us.

and James 1:12 says:

 

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

 

Now the fact that these verses use the word promise might well suggest that eternal life is something we will receive in the future. We have already said that the resurrection of our bodies when Jesus comes again is part of what it means to have eternal life. Indeed, the majority of references to eternal life in the New Testament speak of it as something we will receive. But other verses seem to indicate that we already have it.

 

1 John 5:11-13, 20

11. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
12. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
13. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

 

20. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

 

John 17:3

And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

 

These last two verses show that to know Jesus is to have eternal life. So we already have eternal life because we know Jesus. But how much better will we know him in the future! As Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13:12,

 

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

 

So eternal life is both present already and yet in the future. Eternity transcends time! This is yet another aspect of the already/not yet of our salvation.

 

We have a glorious inheritance awaiting us

 

Another aspect of the salvation which is promised to us as Christians is the fact that there is a glorious inheritance waiting for us. We will not take time to develop this in this talk, but later in the series we will dedicate a whole talk to this important subject. For the time being, please note the following verses.

 

Galatians 3:29

And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

 

Hebrews 9:15

Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

 

James 2:5

Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?

 

We have a foretaste of our inheritance in the gift of the Holy Spirit.

 

The gift of the Holy Spirit is frequently referred to as a promise (Luke 24:49, Acts 1:4-5; 2:33, 39, Galatians 3:14 etc.) We will return to this theme in more detail in later talks, but here we’ll consider just two passages.

 

2 Corinthians 1:20-22

20. For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.
21. And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us,
22. and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

 

Ephesians 1:13-14

13. In him you also, when (or after) you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
14. who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

 

In both these passages the Holy Spirit is seen as both a seal and a guarantee of the inheritance which God has promised to us. As we shall see  later, the Greek words which are used in these passages indicate that through our experience of the Holy Spirit we already have a foretaste of our eternal inheritance. Through the Spirit we have already tasted of the powers of the age to come (Hebrews 6:4-5).

 

Conclusion

 

God’s promises are primarily fulfilled already by the coming of Christ, but they will find their ultimate completion at his second coming. Some of God’s promises we see fulfilled already but others we must patiently wait for knowing that their fulfilment is guaranteed in Christ.

 

Meanwhile God has made available to us through the gift of the Holy Spirit a wonderful foretaste of the powers of the age to come. We are in the tension between what is already and what is not yet, but in that interim we have the Holy Spirit.

 

Finally, in this talk we have looked only at verses which contain the word promise, and have seen six wonderful aspects of our salvation. But clearly there are promises in the Bible which do not mention the word promise itself.

In our next talk we will seek to show how we can identify God’s promises even where the word promise is not mentioned.