Great Bible Truths Podcast Episode 134

The Promises of God Talk 15

Responding to God’s Promises

Welcome to the final talk in our series on the promises of God. I want to talk today about how we should respond to God’s promises, but first a summary of what we’ve been saying so far. Among the many things we have learned is that God’s wonderful promises are fulfilled in Christ and the salvation which he purchased for us by his death on the cross and which will be completed when he comes again. In understanding God’s promises we need to hold in tension both the present and future aspects of their fulfilment. It’s what is sometimes called the already/not yet of the kingdom of God.

For example, if we have accepted Christ as our Saviour, we have already received the promise of salvation, but there’s a sense in which our salvation is not yet complete until Jesus comes again. Our salvation is already/not yet. If you listen again or look back over some of our earlier talks, you will see that this is true of our righteousness, our sonship, and even our eternal life. We saw how there is both a present and a future dimension to each of these promises. We have them now, but we will have them completely when Jesus returns.

On the other hand, there are some promises which are guaranteed but which have yet to be fulfilled. These include the return of Christ, our final victory over death, and the wonderful inheritance we’ll receive as fellow-heirs with Christ. Meanwhile the gift of the Holy Spirit is made available to us as a foretaste of our inheritance and through the supernatural gifts of the Spirit we have tasted of the powers of the age to come.

For example, we experience healing through the work of the Spirit now, but the final fulfilment of God’s promises of healing will only be ours when we receive new bodies when Jesus comes again. And the same principle applies to answers to prayer too. If we’re praying according to God’s will our prayers will be answered – even if in some cases we may have to wait until Jesus returns before we see it!

So with all that in mind, let’s ask how we should respond to the promises God has made? How do we receive them? Did you notice that I didn’t use the word ‘claim’? Why not? It’s popular terminology in Christian vocabulary. But is it biblical? You may be surprised to know that nowhere does the Bible talk about claiming God’s promises! So can it be the right terminology to use when we talk about how we should respond to God’s promises?

Now I imagine that many of my listeners have been ‘claiming promises’ throughout their Christian lives, but if you’re one of them, please don’t switch off – at least until you’ve heard my reasons for saying this. I’m going to give you three reasons why I believe that claiming promises isn’t really biblical  before suggesting what the Bible actually teaches about how we should respond to God’s wonderful promises.

Why claiming is inappropriate

My three reasons for saying that the word ‘claim’ is not the best way to describe how we should respond to God’s promises are as follows:

• Because the Bible talks nowhere about claiming God’s promises
• Because God is faithful
• Because God is our Father

Because the Bible talks nowhere about claiming God’s promises

Quite simply, of the seventy New Testament references to the word ‘promise’ (epaggelia), not one is used in conjunction with the verb ‘to claim’. Words that are used are believe, have, receive, obtain, wait and inherit. More about these later.

Because God is faithful

God’s promises are reliable. In Hebrews we’re told to hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful (10:23, cf. 11:11). Our hope is firm and secure (6:19), an anchor for the soul, because God’s purpose is unchanging (6:17).

So it seems to me quite unfitting that Christians are encouraged to ‘claim’ what God has promised. The appropriate response to a promise from someone who is totally reliable is surely a simple and implicit trust that he will do what he has said, not an insistence on one’s rights on the grounds that he has said it! God’s promises are obtained through patience (6:12)!

Because God is our Father

As we have already seen, the promise of sonship is one of the promises that we have already received. We are already God’s children. He is already our Father. And this is why I find difficulty with the idea of ‘claiming’ God’s promises. Let me give you a personal illustration. I enjoyed throughout my life a very warm and close relationship with my earthly father while he was alive. Ι knew from him nothing but love, even if in my younger days that love was sometimes tempered with discipline. I count myself privileged to be his son and, because he was the kind of father he was, I not only loved him but I trusted him and respected him.

Such was my relationship with him that I knew that, if he promised me something which was in his power to perform, he would certainly do it. To claim such a promise by saying, Father, I insist that you give me what you have promised me.  Give it to me now. Ι demand it as my right, would have been to doubt his love, impugn his integrity and question his faithfulness. But because Ι trusted him and respected him I would not have dreamed of talking to him like that! So maybe, if we feel the need to ‘claim’ God’s promises we have not yet fully understood how much our Father loves us.

So how should we respond to God’s promises?

Perhaps the best way to answer this question is to consider the words the Bible itself actually uses in connection with this. If the word ‘claim’ is never used, what words are used?  As we said earlier, words that are used are believe, have, receive, obtain, wait and inherit. Let’s now look at how these words are used in the New Testament and see how we can apply them to our lives.

Believing God’s promises

The Greek word is pisteuo. There are numerous examples of the use of this word in the New Testament. We’ll mention just a few examples where it’s used in connection with God’s promises.

Mark 11:24

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Mark 16:17-18

And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.

John 14:12

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.

So the promises of answered prayer and the power to perform signs and wonders are made to those who believe. But it’s important to understand that this is no mere academic belief. Pisteuo is used in the New Testament to refer to a confident trust which is based on a relationship with God who is always faithful. Consider the following verses:

The LORD is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does (Psalm 145:13 NIV).

He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it (1 Thessalonians 5:24).

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful (Hebrews 10:23).

By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised (Hebrews 11:11).

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

We have faith (pisteuo) that God will keep his promises because we know that God is faithful (pistos). And because God is faithful, if he has promised us something, there’s a sense in which we already have it.

Having God’s promises

Paul uses this word in 2 Corinthians 7:1:

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

The promises referred to are cited in the previous chapter (vv. 16-18):

I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God and they will be my people (v.16, cf. Leviticus 26:12)

and

I will be a Father to you and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty (v. 18, cf. 2 Samuel 7:14).

These promises, like all God’s promises, are fulfilled in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20), and it’s because we now ‘have’ them that Paul encourages us to act upon them by living holy lives. Because of Christ, God does live with you, he says you are his people, he is your Father and you are his sons and daughters. So live accordingly, be holy.

So the promises referred to here are not be claimed because we already ‘have’ them. There is nothing further that could possibly be done to bring them to pass, for they are fulfilled in Christ. Rather, accepting that this is so,  we must live as what we are, God’s chosen people.

Receiving God’s promises

This word is used particularly in connection with receiving the promised gift of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 2:33 Peter tells us that Christ received from the Father the promise of the Spirit and he told the congregation at Pentecost to repent and be baptized and they will receive the gift of the Spirit for the promise is to you... (Acts 2:38-39). As we saw in a previous talk, the promise of the Spirit was made in Joel 2:28, and in Acts 2 at Pentecost the promise was fulfilled. The promise was now a gift – a gift available to all who repent and believe, and a gift that had to be received by faith (Galatians 3:2, 14). (For more on this please listen to the podcast dated 28/12/2018).

Obtaining God’s promises

In Hebrews 6:15 we’re told that Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise that God would bless him and multiply him. But please notice that Abraham did not obtain the promise by claiming it. He patiently waited for it. But that brings us to the next word connected with the word promise – wait.

Waiting (with patience) and inheriting God’s promises

Hebrews 10:35-38 tells us:

35. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.
36. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.
37. For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay;
38. but my righteous one shall live by faith…”

And 2 Peter 3:12-13 says:

12. waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God…
13. But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

And Hebrews 6:12 tells us to be imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises (Cf. Hebrews 11:9).

These verses clearly indicate that for the fulfilment of some of God’s promises, including our wonderful inheritance, we may have to wait until Jesus comes again. Meanwhile we are to live by faith and do the will of God.

So, to summarise, how should we respond to God’s promises?

We should:

Believe all of them because God is faithful

Recognise that we already have some of them and live accordingly

– e.g. salvation, sonship, God’s presence with us

Receive those that are available to us now

– e.g. Forgiveness, the Holy Spirit

Wait patiently in faith for those that have yet to be fulfilled

– e.g. prayers that are not answered immediately (including healing), the return of Christ, a wonderful inheritance, new heavens and a new earth.

Great Bible Truths Podcast Episode 133

The Promises of God Talk 14

Promises of Answered Prayer

In the New Testament there are many passages where Jesus promises that God will answer prayer and, if like me you’ve been a Christian for some time you will probably have seen many wonderful answers to prayer. But, if we’re honest, we have to admit that there have also been many prayers that have not been answered – at least in the way we would like them to be. Someone once said that God always answers prayer. Sometimes he says Yes. Sometimes he says No. And sometimes he says, Wait. And although that’s undoubtedly true, we often find it difficult to understand why he appears to be saying No or why he is making us wait. There are no easy answers, but in this talk I’m going to look at some of the promises Jesus made with regard to prayer.

As we shall see, there are three keys that will unlock them:

1. Relationship with God
2. Faith in God
3. Authority from God

1. Relationship with God

Let’s start in Matthew 7 where Jesus says:

7. Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
8. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
9. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10. Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?
10. If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! (Matthew 7:7-11, Cf. Luke 11:9-10)

Notice who this promise is made to. Those who are sons (v9). Those who know God as their Father (v11). In other words, those who have been born again (See Talk 7). Our confidence that God will answer prayer springs from the fact that we are his children. It springs from our relationship with him. And that relationship must develop into an ongoing intimacy. Notice what Jesus says in John 15:

7. If you abide (remain) in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 
15. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
16. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
17. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

 

I suggest you take time to read the whole passage, starting at verse1. The guarantee of answered prayer springs from an ongoing relationship with Christ in which we know his commands and understand what the Father is doing. It doesn’t mean that we can ask for whatever we want and God will give it to us. It means that if we’re really in close relationship with him, because we love him we will only want what he wants! We will only ask for what we know to be his will. And that’s why we know that he will answer our prayers. As John tells us in his first epistle:

 

And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him  (1 John 5:14-15).

 

So the first key to answered prayer is relationship with God. The next two keys both spring from it.

2. Faith in God

There are several New Testament passages where faith is rewarded with answered prayer, especially with regard to healing – the centurion’s servant, blind Bartimaeus, the paralysed man lowered through the roof, the grateful leper, the woman with a haemorrhage, to mention just a few. But there are also some specific promises. Consider the passage in Matthew 21:19-22.

19. And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.
20. When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?”
21. And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen.
22. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.

 And in line with this, in John 14:12-14 Jesus says:

12. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father
13. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

 The same truth is reiterated in the epistles:

James 1:5-8

5. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
6. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.
7. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;
8. he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

1 John 3:21-23

Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.

Taking all these passages together we see that:

• Mountains can be moved by prayer if we have faith when we pray!
• We can even do greater works than Jesus did!
• However, if we doubt, we will receive nothing.
• We will have faith, confidence before God, if our heart does not condemn us.

By mountains Jesus is probably not referring to literal mountains, but is speaking metaphorically about major obstacles in our lives and the life of the church. There have been many suggestions as to what Jesus meant by greater works, but in my view he is simply telling us that there is absolutely no limit to what can be accomplished by faith through the power of the Holy Spirit whom Jesus was going to send when he returned to the Father. And finally, it seems clear that if our heart condemns us – if we have a guilty conscience – we are not likely to have faith that God will answer our prayers. As we saw in the first part of this talk, our confidence that God will answer prayer springs from our relationship with him.

3. Authority from God

There are several verses in the New Testament which speak about praying in the name of Jesus. For example:

John 14:13-14

13…Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

14. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

John 16:23-24

23. In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.
24. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

But the name of Jesus isn’t a magic formula. In New Testament times to do something in someone’s name meant to do it with their authority. It certainly doesn’t mean that to get our prayers answered all we have to do is say in Jesus’ name at the end of them! So to pray in Jesus’ name means to pray with his authority. Now at first sight the passages we’ve just quoted may seem to indicate that Jesus has already given us that authority. Some have even suggested that God has given Christians a blank cheque, signed by Jesus, and all we have to do is fill in whatever amount we like. But in the light of verses we’ve already looked at, can this possibly be right? We’re told to pray according to his will, not ours.

So what does it mean to pray with Jesus’ authority? This takes us back to the first point in this talk – our relationship with God. If there’s an ongoing intimacy with Jesus, if we’re abiding in him, we will know what he wants, we will want what he wants, and so when we pray we will be praying in his will and we’ll be praying in faith.

To help us understand this better, let’s consider the secret of Jesus’ authority while he was here on earth. He lived in constant intimacy with his Father. He was always submitted to his Father’s will. Consider the following verses from John’s gospel:

John 5:19

I tell you the truth. The Son can do nothing by himself; he can only do what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does, the Son also does

John 7:16

My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me

John 12:49

For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say.

The secret of Jesus’ authority was that he was always submitted to his Father’s authority. The Roman centurion understood this when he said:

8. …“Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed.
9. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” (Matthew 8:8-9).

The centurion only had authority because he was under authority. And he seems to have understood that this was true of Jesus too. Authority results from submission. If we truly submit ourselves to God we’ll be able to resist the devil and he will flee from us (James 4:7) and if we’ll see our prayers answered because they’ll be in line with his will.

So the keys to answered prayer are:

• relationship with God
• faith in God
• authority from God.

When we’re living in intimate fellowship with God we will have faith and confidence to pray with Jesus’ authority. It’s then that we shall receive whatever we ask him for, because what we pray for will be directly in line with his will.

 

Great Bible Truths Podcast Episode 132

The Promises of God Talk 13

Promises of healing

 

All the promises we have looked at so far are specifically referred to as promises in the New Testament. Surprisingly, nowhere is the word promise used to refer to healing, but that does not mean that there are no promises of healing in the Bible. There most certainly are – although some people claim Bible verses as promises of healing which most certainly are not!

 

In this talk I will not be attempting to go into the subject in great detail, but if you would like to hear or read more of what I have to say on healing, you could visit my website – https://www.davidpetts.org/podcast – where you will find several talks on healing first produced between May and August 2019. Alternatively, my book, Just a Taste of Heaven – a biblical and balanced approach to God’s healing power, covers the subject in great detail. So this talk will be just a short introduction to a vast subject. We’ll briefly consider:

 

• A right understanding of God’s healing power
• The right use of God’s healing power
• Why isn’t everybody healed?

 

A right understanding of God’s healing power

As evidence for the fact that the healing of our sicknesses is the privilege of the people of God we may point first to God’s promise in Exodus 15:26. Israel had been brought out of Egypt by a supernatural act of divine deliverance. The Egyptians had perished beneath the waters of the Red Sea. As a further token of his mighty power the Lord had made sweet the bitter waters of Marah (Exodus 15:23-25). God was showing his people that he was able to meet all their needs. Then came the reassuring promise:

 

If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in his eyes… I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.

 

God’s willingness to heal is also confirmed by the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ went around doing good and healing all who were under the devil’s power (Acts 10:38). The Gospels provide many examples of this (Matthew 4:23-24, 8:16, 9:35, Mark 6:56, Luke 6:17-19, for example).

 

When Jesus sent his disciples out to preach he commanded them to cure every kind of disease and sickness (Matthew 10:1, 7-8). And this commission to heal was not limited to the time of his earthly ministry. In his final words to his disciples before his ascension Jesus commanded his disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel. Those who believed would cast out demons, speak with new tongues and heal the sick in his name (Mark 16:15-20).

 

The fact that they did so is well illustrated in the book of Acts. In Acts 3:7-9 a lame man was healed in the name of Jesus resulting in the salvation of thousands of people (Acts 4:4). In Acts 4:30 the early church prayed that God would stretch out his hand to heal in the name of Jesus. In Acts 5:14-16 multitudes were healed in the streets of Jerusalem. Miracles were performed in the ministry of Stephen (Acts 6:8) and the sick were healed as Philip preached the gospel to the Samaritans (Acts 8:6-8). Peter was used to heal the sick and to raise the dead in Acts 9:33-42. At Paul’s command a cripple leapt to his feet and walked (Acts 14:8-10), diseases departed (Acts 19:12) and the dead were raised (Acts 20:9-12). And it does not seem that the power to heal was ever withdrawn, for in the very last chapter of Acts the sick are still being healed (Acts 28:8-9), and in James 5:14-16 explicit instructions are given to Christians who need healing.

 

In both Old and New Testaments, then, we see God’s power and willingness to heal his people. When God made man he made him perfect and put him in a perfect creation. Everything God made was ‘very good’ (Genesis 1:31). It is clear that man was not only morally, but also physically perfect. There was no sickness in the Garden of Eden. There is to be no sickness in heaven (Revelation 21:4). The existence of sickness is the result of Adam’s sin. The whole of creation was affected by the Fall (Romans 8:22).

 

But just as God has not left us without a ransom for sin, so too he has not left us without a remedy for sickness. By Christ’s atoning death on the cross he has reconciled to God all those who believe. By faith in the substitutionary sacrifice offered at Calvary repentant sinners are brought into right relationship with God. Their sins are washed away. Sin, the root cause of sickness is atoned for. By restoring us to fellowship with our Maker, Christ has, by his death, made provision for the healing of our bodies.

 

It is in this sense that healing may be rightly said to be ‘in the atonement’. Of course, the word ‘atonement’ by its very meaning essentially refers to sin. Because of the atonement we are redeemed, we are reconciled to God, we are no longer enemies but sons. And the blessings of the New Testament are no less than those of the Old. To those who are by covenant his people, God still says, I am the Lord who heals you.

 

The right use of God’s healing power

As we examine the New Testament we discover that there are two main forms of divine healing. They are distinct, both in the purpose for which they are given and in the manner in which they are received, although there are, by the very nature of the case, many similarities between them. First there is there is healing for the unbeliever. This operates in the context of evangelism and is referred to in Mark 16:16-20 and in the various examples in Acts we mentioned earlier. Then there is healing for the believer. This is described in James 5:14-16.

 

Healing for the unbeliever

The Lord Jesus promised that miraculous healing would be one of the signs by which he would confirm the word of those who preach the gospel. In this connection it should be noted that healing was to accompany the preaching of the gospel. The apostolic message was Christ died for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). That is what they preached. They did not preach healing. They did it! Notice too that in Mark 16 it is the one who is laying hands on the sick who appears to be responsible for exercising faith (vv.17-18), not the sick person who may well still be an unbeliever.

 

Further, it needs to be pointed out that these verses do not imply that all who have hands laid on them will be miraculously healed. Jesus was not saying that every believer would be used in healing or that every sick person would be healed. What he does promise is that he will confirm his word by working in a variety of ways, including miraculous healing, to authenticate the message of the gospel to the unconverted. Perhaps if this were borne in mind, and if a greater emphasis were placed on the leading of the Spirit in the matter of praying for the sick, there would be less apparent ‘failures’ in the ministry of modern evangelists.

 

Healing for believers

Believers would remember that the form of healing prescribed for them is not that to be found in Mark 16, but rather that of James 5. The believer who is ‘in trouble’ (literally suffering evil) is to pray for himself (v.13). If he is sick, he is to call for the elders of the church who should pray in faith in the name of the Lord, anointing the sick person with oil.

 

James encourages Christians to pray for one another that they might be healed, and where applicable, to confess their faults to one another. Healing is promised, though not necessarily instantaneously. We sometimes need to persist in prayer. The conditions which govern all types of prayer are surely applicable in this context too. (The end of James 4 makes it clear that we cannot even be sure that we will be alive tomorrow – unless it is God’s will!)  Finally, it would seem sensible, and biblical, that when God has provided a simple natural remedy for a sickness, Christians should thankfully avail themselves of it.

 

Why isn’t everybody healed?

The basic problem that lies at the heart of most questions that arise about the doctrine of healing is the simple fact that not everybody is healed. Pastors who have watched the suffering of some of the greatest saints in their congregation simply cannot believe that the answer is merely a matter of sin or unbelief on the part of the sufferer. The scriptures themselves do not support this suggestion.

 

We need to remember that even in Bible times there is evidence that there were occasions when not everyone was healed. Of course, there were times when everyone was, especially during the ministry of the Lord Jesus, from which we may conclude that we may well expect special periods of divine visitation when the same could happen again, as it did for the early Christians in Acts 5:16. But nowhere else in Acts are we told that such a thing took place. In fact, even in the ministry of the Lord Jesus there was at least one occasion when only one out of a large crowd was healed (John 5:1-9). And those who remind us of the health and strength of Moses whose eyesight was still good even at the age of one hundred and twenty usually fail to mention Isaac who died blind!

 

To attempt to deal with the problems of healing at all is a formidable task. To seek to do so within the scope of so brief a talk is an impossibility. Perhaps we do well to remember as we consider the problem of those who are not yet healed that the spirit is more important than the body, that God does discipline us that we might be partakers of his holiness (Hebrews 12:5-11), that Paul’s thorn – whatever it was – was in his flesh (2 Corinthians 12:1-10), and that he did leave Trophimus at Miletus sick (2 Timothy 4:20).

 

As Christians we are still living in a world that is under the curse. The whole creation is groaning as in the pains of childbirth (Romans 8:22) and we ourselves groan inwardly waiting for the redemption of the body (v.23). But the day is coming when the creation itself will be delivered from its bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of the children of God! There’s going to be a resurrection. We shall receive a body ‘like his glorious body’. Our mortal bodies will be clothed with immortality! Death itself will be swallowed up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:50ff). Then every promise of healing will be fulfilled, for there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things will have passed away (Revelation 21:4).

 

 

Great Bible Truths Podcast 131

The Promises of God Talk 12

The Promise of Christ’s Coming

 

So far in this series we have considered promises made by God that are actually referred to as promises in the New Testament. By that I mean that the word promise is specifically used in connection with the particular blessing that is being promised. These have included:

 

• The promise of salvation
• The promise of righteousness
• The promise of sonship
• The promise of victory over death
• The promise of eternal life
• The promise of an inheritance
• The promise of the Holy Spirit.

 

All these blessings are specifically referred to as promises in the New Testament. And there’s just one more – the promise of Christ’s coming. 2 Peter 3:4 tells us that, because it’s been so long since this promise was made, some people will say:

 

Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.

 

So today we’re going to consider:

 

• The fact of Christ’s coming
• The nature of his coming
• The purpose of his coming
• The need to be ready for his coming.

 

The fact of his coming

The apostles and leaders of the early church taught very clearly that Christ would return.

 

James tells us that the Lord’s coming is near (James 5:8).

Peter assures his readers that the day of the Lord will come (2 Peter 3:10). Jude declares The Lord is coming (Jude 14).

And Paul tells the Thessalonians that:

 

…the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet-call of God…

(1 Thessalonians 4:16).

 

Finally, John, exiled on Patmos, cried Amen, come Lord Jesus

(Revelation 22:20).

So the apostles were quite sure that Christ would return. This was because of three main facts:

 

1. they were directed by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit as they wrote the scriptures.

 

2. they remembered the promise of the angels at the ascension:

 

This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come in the same way as you have seen him go into heaven (Acts 1:11).

 

They were sure he would come because they had seen him go.

 

3. they were sure that Jesus was coming again because they had his personal promise that he would do so:

 

I am going to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me (John 14:2-3).

 

The Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his holy angels (Matthew 16:27, Mark 8:38, Luke 9:26).

 

So we can be quite sure that Jesus is coming. It is promised by the apostles, by the angels, and by Jesus himself.

 

The nature of his coming

There have been considerable differences of opinion among Bible-believing Christians as to the precise nature of the second coming of Christ. It is not possible in one short talk to enter into discussion upon the various points of view held by equally sincere evangelical Christians. It should be fairly safe to say, however, that there are certain facts about the return of our Lord which must be accepted if we are to be consistent in our belief in the authority of scripture.

 

The statement of the angels at the ascension (Acts 1:11) is sufficient evidence alone that the return of Christ will be personal, physical, and visible.

 

Jesus will return personally for it will be this same Jesus. It will be the Lord himself  who will descend from heaven (1 Thessalonians 4:16).

 

Jesus will return physically, for he is coming in the same way as they saw him go. He will descend with the same resurrection body with which they saw him ascend.

 

And Jesus will return visibly, for he will return in the same way as you have seen him go. The early disciples were privileged to see him go into heaven. How marvellous to consider that we may very well be among those who are privileged to see him return!

 

The purpose of his coming

Since the second coming has yet to take place, all that we know about it is what God has chosen to reveal in his word. As we examine the New Testament there seem to be five main purposes of our Lord’s return.

 

1. He is coming for us

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 tells us that when the Lord returns

 

the dead in Christ will rise first. After that we who are still alive and are left will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord for ever.

 

Jesus is coming. We will meet him and be with him for ever. Hallelujah!

 

2. Jesus is coming for the destruction of death

In those majestic verses in 1 Corinthians 15:51-57 Paul gives us another description of the events which will take place when the trumpet sounds. Then, he says, the saying that is written will come true: Death has been swallowed up in victory (v.54). For more on this, please see talk 8.

 

3. Jesus is coming to judge the world

Those who have rejected him will be judged. 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 tells us  that the Lord Jesus will be:

 

revealed from heaven with his powerful angels in blazing fire. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. They will be punished with everlasting destruction, shut out from the presence of the Lord and the majesty of his power.

 

True Christians, of course, will not be judged for their sins. Our sins were judged at Calvary. John 3:18 tells us that whoever trusts in Christ will not be judged. It does seem, however, that there is to be a judgment for Christians which is related to reward for service:

 

11. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one’s work will become manifest,
13. for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
14. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.
15. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. (1 Corinthians 3:11-15).

 

4. He is coming as king

Closely connected with the fact that Jesus is coming as judge is the glorious truth that he is coming as king. He is coming to reign. Paul tells us that Jesus must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet (1 Corinthians 15:25). The kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ and He shall reign for ever and ever (Revelation 11:15).

 

5. Jesus is coming to make all things new

There are to be new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness will dwell:

 

But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. (2 Peter 3:13)

 

There will be no more death, no more sorrow, or crying, or any more pain; they will all have passed away:

 

4. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
5. And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” (Revelation 21:4-5).

 

What a wonderful promise! What a blessed hope! Thank God, Jesus is coming!

 

The need to be ready for his coming

So the return of the Lord is certainly something to look forward to. But the  Bible also tells us that we must be prepared for it. Jesus said that it’s not for us to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put under his own authority (Acts 1:7) and that no one knows the day or hour when he will come again (Mark 13:32). The day of the Lord will be as unexpected as a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 5:2). We do not need to know the time of his coming and we certainly should not be trying to calculate it. But we do need to be ready.

 

In Matthew 24:42-51 Jesus warns us of the dangers of those who say, My master is staying away a long time. In the next chapter he tells us that we are to be ready by keeping watch (v.13). The fact that in the parable the foolish virgins were those who had no oil in their lamps may well suggest that Jesus meant that we should take care that we are spiritually ready.

 

And in the next parable he warns us to be ready by making sure that we are using faithfully the talents which the Lord has entrusted to our care (Matthew 25:14-30). If we do, we may be sure that we too will hear the commendation of our Lord when he comes:

 

Well done, good and faithful servant… come and share your master’s happiness.

 

So the Lord is certainly coming. He is coming personally, physically and visibly. He is coming for us. He is coming for the destruction of death. He is coming to judge. He is coming to reign. And he is coming to make all things new. As we rejoice at the prospect, let’s make sure that we are ready.

 

 

Great Bible Truths Podcast Episode 130

The Promises of God Talk 11

The Promise of the Holy Spirit

 

We finished our last talk by saying that, although God’s promise of a wonderful inheritance is something we have to wait for, there is a foretaste of it available to us right now in the promise of the Holy Spirit. Paul reminds the Ephesians that after they had heard the gospel and believed in Jesus they were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it (Ephesians 1:13-14). Luke actually gives us a detailed description of how this happened for the first Ephesian converts in Acts 19:1-6, which we will come back to later. But first let’s consider:

 

• How Jesus himself refers to the Holy Spirit as a promise
• How the promise was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost
• What we can learn from Acts 2 about the promise
• How the promise continued to be fulfilled afterwards

 

How Jesus himself refers to the Holy Spirit as a promise.

Luke records how, immediately before he ascended into Heaven, Jesus told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Holy Spirit.

 

Luke 24:46-49

46. (Jesus) said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,
47. and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
48. You are witnesses of these things.
49. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

 

Acts 1:4-5, 8

4. And while staying with them he (Jesus) ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me;
5. for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

 

8. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

 

These passages make it very clear that the promise of the Father is the Holy Spirit coming upon Jesus’ disciples empowering them to be witnesses to the end of the earth. Jesus described it as being clothed with power from on high or being baptised with the Holy Spirit. It was so important that they receive this power before setting out on the task of world evangelisation that Jesus ordered them not to depart from the city of Jerusalem until they had received it. Now let’s remind ourselves of how the promise was fulfilled ten days later on the Day of Pentecost.

 

How the promise was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost

 

Acts 2:1-8

1. When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.
2. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
3. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.
4. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
5. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.
6. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.
7. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?
8. And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?”

 

In response to this question, and to the criticism of some who thought the disciples were drunk, Peter stood up and stated that they were not drunk, but that what they were experiencing was the fulfilment of God’s promise in Joel 2:28

 

17. …‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams;
18. even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy…’

 

Peter went on to tell the people that Jesus of Nazareth, whom they had crucified, had been raised from the dead and was now exalted at the right hand of God (v33). Jesus had received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, and had poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. Peter concluded by saying:

 

36. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.

 

37. Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
38. And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
39. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

 

What can we learn from Acts 2 about the promise of the Holy Spirit?

In one short podcast it would not be possible to cover this in as much detail as I would like, but if you visit my website you will find much more in five podcasts first made in December 2018. Alternatively, see my book, A New Dimension.

 

So today I just want to highlight four main things:

 

• It happened suddenly
• It was accompanied by miraculous phenomena which were seen and heard
• It was received by those who were already Jesus’ disciples
• It was made available to all who were later to become Christians

 

It happened suddenly

There were ten days between Jesus’ ascension into heaven and the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit did not come gradually over ten days. He came suddenly (Acts 2:2). This is further confirmed by the tense of the Greek verb used in verse 4. They were all filled is in the Aorist tense which is never used for a gradual action.

 

It was accompanied by miraculous phenomena which were seen and heard

 

Acts 2:1-4 speaks for itself:

 

1. When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.
2. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
3. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.
4. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

 

Compare Acts 2:33

Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.

It was received by those who were already Jesus’ disciples

It was to those who were already his disciples that Jesus said:

 

And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high (Luke 24:49).

 

…wait for the promise of the Father, which you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now (Acts 1:4-5).

 

Jesus had already pronounced them clean (John 15:3). Their names were already written in heaven (Luke 10:20). So the purpose of the promise was not regeneration.  It was empowerment (Acts 1:8)

 

It was made available to all who were later to become Christians

 

38. And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
39. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

 

How the promise continued to be fulfilled afterwards

 

As we have already seen from what happened at Pentecost:

 

• the promise was received by those who were already Jesus’ disciples
• was accompanied by miraculous phenomena which were seen and heard
• was fulfilled suddenly

 

And as we read on in Acts we and see how others received the promise of the Spirit, we discover the same thing.

 

The promise was made to those who were already Jesus’ disciples

In Acts 2:38-39 the promise was made to those who would repent and be baptised. In fact, with the exception of Cornelius and his household (Acts 10), the order of events seems to have been:

 

• Repentance and faith in Christ
• Baptism in water
• Receiving the Spirit through the laying on of hands.

 

For examples of this, see the Samaritans in Acts 8, Paul in Acts 9, and the Ephesians in Acts 19. What’s clear in all these cases is that receiving the promise of the Spirit does not refer to the Spirit’s work in conversion but to the Spirit coming on those who had already come to faith in order to empower them for service (Acts 1:8).

 

The promise was accompanied by miraculous phenomena which were seen and heard

At Pentecost, as we have seen, the coming of the Spirit was accompanied by a sound like a mighty rushing wind, tongues as of fire, and the disciples speaking in other tongues (languages). Although the wind and fire were not repeated in Acts, the ability to speak in tongues is mentioned in the case of Cornelius (Acts 10:46) and the Ephesians (Acts 19:6) and may well be implied in the case of the Samaritans for Simon the sorcerer saw that the Spirit was received when the apostles laid hands on the new converts (Acts 8:17). However, this passage clearly does not offer us a full description of events, but what is clear in Acts is that, whenever Luke gives us a full description of people receiving the Spirit, the first thing he mentions immediately afterwards is that they spoke in tongues. And, as we consider Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 14:14-15 on the importance of prayer in tongues, it is perhaps not surprising that this is the first ability we are given when we receive the promise of the Spirit.

 

The promise was fulfilled suddenly

The most dramatic example of this is seen in the case of Cornelius. Acts 10:44 tells us that while Peter was still preaching the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. It was the same with the Samaritans and the Ephesians who received through the laying on of hands. There is no suggestion that it was a lengthy process. The apostles laid hands on them and they received the Spirit:

 

Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:17).

 

And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying (Acts 19:6).

 

My point is simply this. In all these examples, one minute they had not received the promise. The next minute they had! And, if you have not yet received it, the same promise is available to you right now (Acts 2:39). How do you receive it? Paul tells us that we receive it by faith (Galatians 3:14). Jesus said that our heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to his children when they ask him (Luke 11:13). Ask him, and expect to speak in tongues – and much much more!

 

Father, I pray that your Spirit will come upon your children who are listening to this podcast right now, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Great Bible Truths Podcast Episode 128

The Promises of God Talk 9

The Promise of Eternal Life

In our last talk we looked at the wonderful promise of victory over death. We concentrated our attention mainly on 1 Corinthians 15 and saw that Christ’s resurrection guarantees ours. Today our subject is the promise of eternal life, which is clearly closely related. Since victory over death is guaranteed, it must surely follow that we have eternal life. This is confirmed in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17:

 

16. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
17. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

 

But, of course, the return of Christ is still a future event – notice how often the word will occurs in the verses we’ve just quoted – so does this mean that we will have to wait until then before we receive eternal life? The fact that verses like 1 John 2:25 and James 1:12 use the word promise might well be seen as suggesting this.

 

1 John 2:25

And this is the promise that he made to us – eternal life

 

James 1:12

…the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

 

However, although these and other NT verses speak of eternal life as something we will receive, several other verses seem to indicate that we already have it.

 

John 3:36

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

 

John 5:24

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

 

John 6:54

Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

 

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.

 

So eternal life is present already and yet it’s still in the future. How do we explain this? This is just another aspect of the already/not yet of our salvation. The NT expresses our salvation in three tenses – past, present, and future:

 

I have been saved (from the penalty of sin)

I am still being saved (from the power of sin)

I will be saved (from the presence of sin, when Jesus comes again).

 

But how does this apply to eternal life? If I already have eternal life, in what sense have I yet to receive it? The answer lies in something we were looking at in our last talk. Since the Fall (as a result of Adam’s disobedience) all humanity has been subject to death. Our bodies are mortal. To make matters worse, because of our own disobedience (not just Adam’s) we are all spiritually dead – unless we accept God’s gracious gift of eternal life by receiving Jesus as our Saviour. When we do, our sins are forgiven, we are no longer ‘in Adam’ but ‘in Christ’. And to be in Christ is to have eternal life:

 

God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son (1 John 5:11).

 

So in what sense is our eternal life still in the future? We need to understand that although we have eternal life now, our bodies are still mortal. The passages which refer to eternal life as future are to do with the resurrection of our bodies. Spiritually we’re already born again, but we’re waiting for the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:23). When Jesus comes again our salvation will be complete. Our mortal bodies will put on immortality (1 Corinthians 15:53-54). Jesus did all that was necessary for our salvation when he died on the cross and rose again three days later. But the final outworking of the victory he won at Calvary will not be seen until he comes again. It is then that eternal life in all its fulness will begin.

 

But what about after we die, but before Jesus returns? And what about now?

 

 

 

The Intermediate State

The situation with regard to Christians who have died before Jesus returns is sometimes referred to as ‘the intermediate state’. The New Testament in particular is very clear that death is not the end of human existence. In Matthew 22:32 the Lord Jesus made clear to the doubting Sadducees not only that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would one day rise from the dead, but that they were even ‘living’ at that very moment. To the repentant thief on the cross Jesus said, Today you will be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43).

 

Some have suggested that the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) is simply a case of Jesus using current Jewish thought and not intended to be taken literally. But if that were so Jesus’ teaching would be extremely misleading, to say the least! What is clear is that both the rich man and Lazarus were alive after death, but that they were both in very different separate places.

 

So there is life after death for everyone. Those who have not received Jesus as their Saviour have good reason to fear death for it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment (Hebrews 9:27). Christians, on the other hand, have  no need to fear death. Consider the following scriptures:

 

Psalm 23:4-6

4. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
5. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
6. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

 

Hebrews 2:14-15

14. Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,
15. and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

 

Revelation 14:13

And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labours, for their deeds follow them!”

 

Romans 8:35-39

35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
36. As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
38. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth,
39. nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

2 Corinthians 5:6-8

6. So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,
7. for we walk by faith, not by sight.
8. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

 

Philippians 1:21-23

21. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
22. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell.
23. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.

 

These scriptures show that not only do we have no reason to fear death, but they also give an indication of what our eternal life will be like before we receive our new bodies when Jesus comes again.

 

It will be far better than life here on earth

We will be at rest

We will be blessed

We will dwell in the house of the Lord

We will be at home with the Lord

We will be with Christ

 

Eternal life now

As we have seen, several verses in the NT teach that we already have eternal life. Yet it’s clearly very different from the dimension of eternal life that we will experience once Jesus comes again. We’re still waiting for the redemption of our bodies and we’re still living in a fallen world. We still get sick and we still die. Note the contrast between present suffering and future glory in the following passage.

 

 

 

Romans 8:18-25

18. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
19. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
20. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope
21. that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
22. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
23. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
24. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?
25. But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

 

So our experience of eternal life now is manifested in the midst of suffering, in the confident assurance of a glorious future for which we are patiently waiting. We may be groaning inwardly as we are eagerly awaiting our adoption, but we already have the firstfruits of the Spirit. It will by the power of the Spirit that our bodies will be raised from the dead when Jesus returns and that Spirit lives within us now (Romans 8:11). Through the Spirit we are already enjoying a taste of the powers of the age to come (Hebrews 6:4-5). We are experiencing already many of the blessings of eternal life. We know Jesus and to know him is eternal life (John 17:3). 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.

 

Finally, let me ask you a question. Are you sure that you have eternal life? It’s available to you right now as a free gift. Romans 6:23 says:

 

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And you receive it by putting your trust in Jesus as your Saviour:

 

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

 

 

Great Bible Truths Podcast Episode 129

The Promises of God Talk 10

The Promise of an Inheritance

 

In earlier talks we have seen that, among the promises included as part of our salvation, there are promises of righteousness and adoption as God’s children. These are closely related to the subject of this talk, the promise of a wonderful inheritance.

 

Titus 3:7 tells us that having been justified (made righteous) by God’s grace we have become  heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

 

And Romans 8:16-17 assures us that we are God’s children and that as his children we are heirs – heirs of God and fellow-heirs with Christ.

 

Paul puts it slightly differently in Galatians 3:29 where he says:

 

…if you are Christ’s, then you are… heirs according to promise.

 

So the promises of God to his children include a wonderful inheritance. But  what will it be like, why will we receive it, and when? The answers to these questions are neatly summarised in 1 Peter 1:3-5 :

 

3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4. to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you
5. who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

 

What will it be like?

The NIV translates verse 4 as follows:

 

and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you…

 

Our inheritance can never perish

The word imperishable immediately reminds us of the new bodies we will receive when Jesus comes again (1 Corinthians 15:50-54). As we have already seen, life in the coming kingdom of God will require a body that’s very different from the mortal bodies we have right now. Our new bodies will be immortal and imperishable. And clearly it will not just be our bodies that will be imperishable. The kingdom of God itself is imperishable. It’s unthinkable that there could be anything that would perish in his kingdom! So what we inherit will be forever. We have treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal (Matthew 6:20).

Our inheritance can never spoil

Many years ago, when my wife’s father died, her mother asked me if I would like to have two of his suits. As I was about the same size as he had been, I gratefully accepted them. One of them was almost new and fitted me perfectly and it lasted me for several years. The other one, however, turned out to be of no use to me as I discovered a stain on the left arm. And although we tried everything to remove it, the stain stubbornly refused to go. Apart from the stain, it was a nice suit, but it was unwearable because of the stain. My inheritance was spoiled! How glad I am that there will be no stain on the robes of righteousness that will be part of our inheritance in heaven (Revelation 7:13-14).

 

Our inheritance will not fade away

Auntie Min was loved very much by all her nephews and nieces and on her seventieth birthday we gathered with all the wider family to celebrate with her. While we were there, my mother (Auntie Min’s sister) gave me some good news. Auntie Min had made her will and I was among the beneficiaries. Great! But of course nobody wanted Auntie to die and it would be many years before we would expect to inherit anything.

 

About 15 years later Auntie died and I was privileged to preach at her funeral. After the service my mother said to me, ‘David, I’m afraid you won’t be inheriting anything from Auntie Min. She lived so long after she made her will that all the money she had has been spent’. Little by little my share in the inheritance had diminished until there was nothing left. My inheritance had ‘faded away’. But there’s no such danger with our heavenly inheritance. It can never fade because it’s kept in heaven for us.

 

Why do we receive it?

Notice what Peter tells us in verse 3.

 

3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

 

• It’s because of God’s great mercy
• It’s because we’ve been born again – i.e. because we’re God’s children
• It’s because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

 

But to understand more completely why receive it we need to go back to Romans 8:17 which tells us that as God’s children we are heirs – heirs of God and fellow-heirs with Christ. The Greek word translated here as fellow-heirs is sunkleronomos. The word for heir is kleronomos. The prefix sun means with.  So a sunkleronomos is someone who shares an inheritance with someone else.

This means that in Romans 8:17 Paul is telling us that we actually share in Christ’s inheritance! Now to appreciate this more fully we need to understand what is sometimes called our identification with Christ.  When we heard the gospel and believed it we were included in Christ:

 

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed…(Ephesians 1:13 NIV).

 

Everything we have – and will have – springs from this. In the New Testament Paul uses ten different Greek verbs, all with the same prefix, sun, to express this wonderful truth:

 

We were crucified with Christ

We died with Christ

We were buried with Christ

We were made alive with Christ

We have been raised together with Christ

We are seated with Christ in heavenly places

We suffer with Christ

We will reign with Christ

We are workers together with Christ

We are heirs with Christ.

 

But back to the word sunkleronomos. Apart from its use in Romans 8:17, it occurs only three other times in the New Testament and these reveal three ways in which it is possible to become a fellow-heir.

 

By sonship

The first way you can become a fellow-heir is by sonship.

 

Hebrews 11:9

By faith he (Abraham) went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.

 

Jacob was the son of Isaac who was the son of Abraham. As a result, Isaac and Jacob were fellow-heirs with Abraham. When I was about 10 years old I went into my father’s shed where my bike was kept and attempted to tighten up a screw which had become loose. I looked in my father’s toolbox for a screwdriver and started to tighten the loose screw, when my father came into the shed and said, David, stop. That’s not a screwdriver, that’s a chisel. He explained the difference to me and then went on to say that I should carefully look after his tools because they had belonged to his father before him and one day they would be mine. My father had inherited from his father the box of tools and I became a fellow-heir with my father of the same toolbox which I still possess today. We both inherited the same thing by virtue of being sons.

 

By marriage

The second way you can become a fellow-heir is by marriage.

 

1 Peter 3:7

Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

 

Husbands and wives are fellow-heirs. This means that what belongs to my wife belongs to me and what belongs to me belongs to her! When my wife inherited several thousand pounds when her father died I was glad to be her fellow-heir. She, of course, is welcome to the toolbox!

 

By grace

The third way you can be a fellow-heir is by grace.

 

Ephesians 3:6-8

6. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
7. Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power.
8. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ

 

These verses teach that Gentile Christians have become fellow-heirs with Jewish Christians simply by the grace of God. If you were to leave me something in your will – and I’m not suggesting that you should – since I am neither your son nor married to your daughter I would become a fellow-heir simply by your kindness, your grace.

 

So the three ways you can become a fellow-heir in the New Testament are by sonship, by marriage, and by grace. And that is precisely why we too are fellow-heirs with Christ. We are God’s children, we are part of the bride of Christ, the church, and it’s all because of his wonderful grace. We inherit what he inherits! That’s what it means to be a fellow-heir. And Hebrews 1:2 tells us that he has been appointed heir of all things!

 

 

 

 

 

 

When will we receive it?

So, finally, when will we receive this wonderful inheritance?

1 Peter 1 tells that:

 

• It’s kept for us in heaven (4)
• It’s part of our future salvation – ready to be revealed in the last time (5)

 

So I’m afraid you’re going to have to wait for it. We will only enter fully into it when Jesus returns.

 

But actually that’s not quite the whole story. A foretaste of our inheritance is available to us right now.

 

Ephesians 1:13-14

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

 

The Greek word translated guarantee here is arrabon which can also be translated pledge. In Greece today, as in New Testament times, it’s used to mean an engagement ring. But it  also carries the sense of a foretaste. When we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit we receive not only a guarantee of our inheritance but actually a wonderful foretaste of it. As Hebrews 6:4 tells us, in the gift of the Spirit we have already tasted of the powers of the age to come.

 

But that must wait for next time, when our subject will be:

 

The Promise of the Holy Spirit.

 

 

For more on arrabon see the final chapter of my book, The Holy Spirit – an Introduction.

Great Bible Truths Podcast Episode 127

The Promises of God Talk 8

The Promise of Victory over Death

 

In Talk 3 we saw that the resurrection of Jesus was a key part of the fulfilment of God’s promises (Acts 13:32-33). We also took a brief look at 1 Corinthians 15 and saw that Christ’s resurrection guarantees ours. Today we’re going to examine this in more detail. Focusing our attention largely on 1 Corinthians 15, we’ll be considering:

 

• Why we can be sure about Christ’s resurrection
• Why we can be sure about our resurrection
• What our new bodies will be like
• The certainty of final victory over death

 

Why we can be sure about Christ’s resurrection

 

The basic answer to this question is found in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8:

 

3. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
4. that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
5. and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
6. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
7. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
8. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

 

Note that the verb here also means ‘he was seen’. He appeared to, and was therefore seen by:

 

• Peter (v5) (cf. Luke 24:34)
• the Twelve (v5) (a title rather than a number)
• 500 brothers (v6) (cf. Matthew 28:7,10, 16)
• James (v7) (referred to only here in NT) – James the Lord’s brother who ‘did not believe in him’ during his earthly ministry
• all the apostles (v7) (including Thomas? Or does this refer to a wider company than the 12?)
• me also (v8) (note the importance of personal experience)

 

Paul goes on to argue that, if Christ did not rise from the dead, their faith was futile, their sins were not forgiven, they were of all people the most to be pitied, the apostles must be liars and there was no point in all the persecution he had just suffered.

Much has been written on the evidence for the resurrection – see, for example, the relevant chapter in You’d Better Believe It – but the argument can be summarised as follows:

 

• There can be no serious doubt that Christ died.
• There are numerous witnesses who state that they saw him alive after he had died.
• The reliability of these witnesses is evident in that many of them died rather than deny the truth of their testimony.

 

But Paul’s purpose in 1 Corinthians 15 is not only to establish the fact of Christ’s resurrection. In verses 20-26 he goes on to show that Christ’s resurrection guarantees ours.

 

Why we can be sure about our resurrection

 

1 Corinthians 15:20-28

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.
24. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.
25. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
26. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

 

The firstfruits referred to in vv 20 and 23 is an allusion to Leviticus 23. 

The first sheaf of the harvest was brought as an offering to God.

It was representative of the full harvest that would follow.

This happened on the day following the Sabbath after the Passover,

which was the day Christ rose from the dead! 

Christ is the firstfruits of resurrection.  We are the harvest that will follow.

 

So in vv21-22 Paul says:

 

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.

 

What does this mean?

 

 

Genesis 1:26-28 God gave humanity dominion over creation.

Genesis 3 indicates that at the Fall that authority was diminished and humanity became subject to death.

Romans 5:12-17 tells us that because of Adam’s sin death spread to all humanity because all sinned, but that those who through God’s abundant grace receive his free gift of righteousness will reign in life through Jesus Christ.

 

Paul sees Christ as the last Adam (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:45)

Christ succeeded where Adam failed (temptation)

Adam is the representative head of unredeemed humanity (those in Adam)

Christ is the head of a new redeemed humanity (those who are in Christ)

These are the only two groups of people in the world.

Either you are in Christ or you are still ‘in Adam’.

But when you receive Christ as your Lord and Saviour

you are no longer in Adam. You are in Christ.

You have become part of the new redeemed humanity.

Christ’s resurrection is the guarantee of yours!

 

Paul develops this further in 1 Corinthians 15:45-49 which we’ll look at in a moment. But what does he say next in vv27-28?

 

27. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him.
28. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.

 

All things have been put under Christ’s feet 27 (cf. Ephesians 1:19-22)

Christ is reigning and must continue to reign 25

He must continue to reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet 25

He will destroy every rule, authority and power 24

The last enemy to be destroyed is death 26

Then the end will come 24

Christ will deliver up the Kingdom to the Father, to whom the Son will be subject, that God might be all in all 24+28

 

So our physical bodies are subject to death because we have inherited them from Adam.

Death has been conquered by Christ but not yet destroyed.

But if we are in Christ, when Jesus returns we will be given a new spiritual body just like Jesus’ resurrection body.

 

Paul goes on to explain this in vv35-50.

What our new bodies will be like (1 Corinthians 15:35-50)

 

They will be Necessary

        50. I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

        53. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

 

Note the words cannot and must. Our present bodies will be totally unsuitable for life in the coming kingdom of God.

 

They will be Different

35. But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.

 

They will be Spiritual

44. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
45. Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

 

The natural body we inherited from Adam is as different from the spiritual body which will be our inheritance in Christ as Christ is different from Adam himself.  Adam is of the earth, earthly.  Christ is the Lord from heaven (vv 45-50). The natural earthly body from Adam is mortal and perishable. It is ‘sown’ (when we are buried) in weakness and dishonour. The spiritual heavenly body we receive from Christ will be immortal and imperishable and will be raised in glory and power (vv42-43). It will be incapable of sickness and death.

 

They will be like Jesus’ resurrection body

46. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.
47. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.
48. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

 

You might like to read again the accounts in the Gospels of Jesus’ resurrection and consider the implications of this.

The certainty of final victory over death (50-58)

The closing verses of the chapter form one of the most powerful passages to be found in the Bible.  When the trumpet sounds at Christ’s coming, Christians still alive will be changed in a split second.  Their corruptible, mortal bodies will become incorruptible and immortal.  The dead, too, will be raised with incorruptible bodies.  So will be manifested the final victory over death.

 

“The long chain of decay and death inaugurated by the first Adam will finally be irrevocably broken by the last Adam” (Fee p 803).

 

Final victory is ours, over law and sin and death – through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Our labour is not in vain.  Christ is risen.  Because he lives we shall live also.  The knowledge of these certainties should inspire us to practical Christian discipleship.

 

50. I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
51. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52. 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.
53. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
54. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55. “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
56. The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
57. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.

 

Great Bible Truths Podcast Episode 126

The Promises of God Talk 7

The Promise of Sonship

In Talk 3 we saw that one aspect of the salvation that God has promised is the fact that all those who have put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ are the children of God. As Paul says in Romans 9, 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.

 

Now there are two ways in which it is possible to become someone’s child. By birth OR by adoption. Clearly, from the natural perspective, it can’t be both. You’re either born as someone’s child or your adopted as their child. But when it comes to the relationship we have with God when we accept Christ as our Saviour, the New Testament teaches that we are both born AND adopted as his children!

 

There’s no real contradiction here. They’re simply two different metaphors that enrich our understanding of our relationship with God. Actually in New Testament times adoption was not common in the Jewish world. A person’s standing was based on his birth. Whereas in the Roman world, adoption was a common practice. So in the New Testament these two different metaphors are used so that everyone, whatever their cultural background, might understand that as Christians we really are God’s children.

 

We’re born again

When we receive Jesus as our Saviour, we are not only saved from our sins and their consequences, but we actually become a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) and this comes about by our being born again. In John 3 Jesus made it abundantly plain that if we are to enter heaven, we must be born again.

 

John 3:1-7 ESV

1. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
2. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”
3. Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
4. Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
5. Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

Nicodemus was not only a deeply religious man, but he would have been well educated by the standards of his day and a man of considerable social and political position. He even acknowledged that Jesus was a teacher who had come from God. He recognised that the miracles that Jesus was performing were undoubtedly an indication that God was with him (v.2). Yet it was to this man that Jesus said, You must be born again (v.7). In fact, if anyone is to see the kingdom of God, they must be born again (v.3).

 

Jesus is here teaching very clearly that our education, our social or political position, even our religion, will not save us. Whatever we do, we are so far short of God’s standards and glory that our only hope is to become an entirely new person altogether! We must be born again! But how? John 1:12-13 gives us the answer.

 

John 1:12-13

12. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
13. who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

 

Notice first that it starts with God. We are children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God (John 1:13 NIV). He chose to give us birth through the word of truth (James 1:18). It is the will of God that men and women be born again.

 

The new birth is not of natural descent – it cannot be inherited from our parents.

It is not of human decision – it is in no way a natural event.

It is not by a husband’s will – it cannot be humanly imparted.

 

God and God alone can regenerate. This fact is emphasised by the frequently recurring phrase born of God (John 1:13, 1 John 3:9, 4:7, 5:1, 4, 18), and the expressions born of the Spirit (John 3:5) and rebirth by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5) show us which person of the Godhead is the agent of the new birth. We are born again by the agency of the Holy Spirit.

 

But what is the instrument the Spirit uses? James 1:18 tells us that he gave us rebirth through the word of truth, and 1 Peter 1:23 assures us that we are born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. The preaching of the word of God under the anointing of the Holy Spirit creates by God’s grace an opportunity for the sinner to believe in Jesus and receive him as their Saviour (John 3:1-16, John 1:12-13, and 1 John 5:1). If he does so, he is instantaneously regenerated by the Holy Spirit. He is born again.

 

So the first great result of our being born again is that we immediately become children of God (John 1:12-13). And if we really are the children of God then we should live like it. And that means living in victory:

 

Everyone who is born of God is victorious over the world (1 John 5:4).

 

The world around us will claim our attention and our loyalty. Sin will always be present to tempt us. But we have been born again. We are members of the heavenly family. We are dead to sin and alive to God (Romans 6:11) and consequently we do not habitually practise sin because God’s nature is in us because we are born of God:

 

No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God

(1 John 3:9).

 

This verse does not mean that if we sin at all we cannot possibly be born again. It refers to habitual attitudes, not to occasional actions. John was writing his letter to combat the Gnostic heresy that taught that knowledge was superior to righteousness and that right living was not important! Christians do sin, but, thank God, 1 John 1:9 tells us that

 

if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive us our sins, and purify us from all unrighteousness.

 

However, God has made provision for us to live in victory. He has implanted within us his own divine nature. We have been born again. We are his children. Our old sinful nature was crucified with Christ (Romans 6:6) and we need no longer listen to its desires. We are new creatures in Christ. Old things have passed away. All things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:17). That is why we not only have victory over the world and over sin; we also have victory over the devil:

 

We know that anyone born of God does not deliberately and knowingly practise committing sin, but the One who was begotten of God carefully watches over and protects him – Christ’s divine presence within him preserves against the evil – and the wicked one does not lay hold, get a grip on him or touch him (1 John 5:18, Amplified Bible).

 

There is absolutely no need to live in defeat! We are born again. We are born of GOD! Let us live as his children. We should live in victory!

 

 

 

 

We’re adopted

As we have seen, adoption is another metaphor used in the Bible to explain how Christians are brought into the family of God. To adopt someone is to make that person a legal son or daughter. But in the Roman world adoption meant something rather different from adoption as we know it today. It was older boys or men who were adopted. If a man had no sons or felt that his sons were incapable or unworthy of managing his wealth, he would adopt someone who would make a worthy son.

 

The adopted son would have all his debts cancelled and would receive a new name. He would be entitled to all the rights and benefits of a son. In fact, although a father could disown his natural-born son, an adoption was irreversible. Similarly, when we receive Christ as our Saviour, our debts are cancelled, we are given a new name, and we are given all the rights that heirs of God possess!

 

Galatians 4:4-7

4. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,
5. to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
6. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
7. So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

 

There’s a wonderful mixing of metaphors here. In verse 5 Paul talks about redemption and adoption. No one metaphor is sufficient to explain the wonder of the salvation that Jesus has accomplished for us. In redemption the picture is of a slave being set free because the price has been paid for his redemption. Paul says that before Jesus came we were slaves to the law, but now we have been set free and have been adopted as God’s sons and daughters.  And that makes us heirs!

 

He says something similar in Romans 8.

 

Romans 8:15-17

15. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
16. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
17. and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ..

 

We’ll be talking about what it means to be an heir later in this series, so for now let’s summarise what we’ve seen today. The New Testament uses two different metaphors to show us how as Christians we have become children of God. We have been born into God’s family and we have been adopted into God’s family. Whichever metaphor we think about, the truths about our relationship with God as our Father remain the same. It is God who has taken the initiative in making it possible for us to be his children. All we have to do is believe and receive him. And when we do, our debts are cancelled, we are given a new name, and we are given all the rights that heirs of God possess! Because of these amazing privileges, as children of God we should live accordingly. And his nature within us enables us to do so – to live in victory over sin, over the world, and over the devil.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great Bible Truths Podcast Episode 125

The Promises of God Talk 6

The Promise of Righteousness

 

In Talk 3 we saw six aspects of our salvation that in the NT are related to 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.

 

In this talk we’re going to look at the first of these in a little more detail – the promise of righteousness.

 

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 also known as justification.

 

A. The meaning and scope of justification

This English word comes from two Latin words:

 

Justus which means righteous

Facio which means I make.

 

So to be justified simply means to be made righteous. But to give a more theological definition:

 

‘The term refers to that act by which, on the basis of the infinitely righteous and satisfactory work of Christ on the cross, God declares condemned sinners to be free from all the guilt of sin and from its eternal consequences and declares them to be fully righteous in his sight’ (Daniel B. Pecota).

 

 

This does not mean that we’re not really righteous but God sees us as if we are. In Christ we really are righteous!

 

And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30).

 

The moment we believe the gospel we are included in Christ. Ephesians 1:13 tells us:

 

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed…(NIV)

 

And because we are in Christ, Paul tells us that God credits his righteousness to our account. He counts us as righteous. The Greek verb is logizomai. Paul uses it repeatedly in Romans 4:1-12.

 

1. 1.What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh?
2. For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.
3. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”
4. Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.
5. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,
6. just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
7. “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;
8. blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”
9. Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness.
10. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised.
11. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well,
12. and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

In this passage Paul is clearly teaching that we cannot be righteous in God‘s sight by our good works but only by faith. He uses Abraham and David as examples from the Old Testament to illustrate his point. In verse 3 he quotes Genesis 15:6 which says that Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.

 

And this was not just true for Abraham. In verse 5 Paul applies this teaching to anyone who believes:

 

And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

 

In verses 6-8 he backs this up by referring to what David said in Psalm 32:2.

 

6. just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
7. “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;
8. blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

 

And this promised blessing is not confined to the Jewish people. It’s for everyone who believes. Paul makes this clear in verses 9-12 where he points out that God counted Abraham as righteous before he obeyed God’s command about circumcision. From this we learn two things:

 

1. He was not counted righteous because of his obedience re circumcision because he was counted righteous before he was circumcised.
2. God’s purpose was to make Abraham the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well (v11).

 

He develops this point throughout the remainder of the chapter, concluding with:

 

20. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,
21. fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
22. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.”
23. But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone,
24. but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord,
25. who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”

B. Benefits of justification

 

Peace with God

 

Romans 5:1

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Preservation from God’s wrath

 

Romans 5:9

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

 

Present and future freedom from condemnation

 

Romans 8:1

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

 

Romans 8:33-34

Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised— who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”

 

Assurance of final glorification

 

Romans 8:30

And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

 

A wonderful inheritance

 

Titus 3:5-7

5. he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
6. whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour,
7. so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

 

C. How does justification take place?

 

1. It’s not because of any good works on our part

 

Galatians 2:21

I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

 

Galatians 3:10-11

 

10. For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”
11. Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”

 

Galatians 5:2-4

 

2. Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.
3. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.
4. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.

 

2. It’s because of the grace of God in sending Christ to die for us

 

Romans 3:23-25

23. for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24. and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus
25. whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith…

 

3. We receive it by faith

 

Ephesians 2:8-9

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

 

Acts 13:39,

…and by him (Jesus) everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

 

 

Romans 3:28

 

…one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

 

Romans 4:3, 5

 

3. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.

 

5. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness

 

Romans 5:1

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Galatians 2:16

…we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

 

Galatians 3:8

And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”

 

So justification – being counted righteous – is a gift from God and is received by faith. It’s not because of faith but through faith (dia pisteos not dia pistin). You can’t earn it by faith. You receive it as a free gift from God.

 

If you’re listening to this podcast and you’re not yet sure that you’re in right standing with God, if you’ve never received his forgiveness for your sins, I urge you now, reach out and receive it. Admit that you’re a sinner. Believe that Jesus died for you. Accept the salvation that is so freely offered to you in Christ.

 

4. The message of reconciliation is committed to us

And finally, a word to Christians. The message of reconciliation is committed to us.

 

2 Corinthians 5:19

…in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.