“…He has granted to us His precious and very great promises…”
2 Peter 1v4
The Bible is full of God’s promises. There are so many books written about the promises of God. You can get “Promise Boxes” which contain hundreds of verses of Scripture tightly wrapped into little tubes for you to select and read each day. There are many Christian hymns and songs written on the theme of God’s faithful promises, and many sermons and video teachings on how to claim the promises of God.
But how many Christians live a confused and doubting life because they have not been able to secure these promises? How many people have abandoned The Faith because they believed in a promise from Scripture that was never fulfilled? If the Bible is so full of “precious and very great promises” to all God’s children, why do so few of us ever seem to get the fulfilment of them?
There can be several conclusions to these questions.
1 We have not met the conditions of the promises
2 God does not keep His promises
3 We have misunderstood and misapplied God’s Word.
There are requirements for certain promises. The promise of salvation is for those who repent of their sins and accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. If you do not repent, you do not get salvation. It really is as simple as that. Good works will not save you from the wrath of God. Your generous gifts to the work of God will not save you on the Day of Judgement. Hours of prayer, Bible reading and Scripture memorisation will not gain you an entrance into Heaven. There is only one way and that is through the applied blood of Jesus. To gain the promise of salvation, you must repent. No repentance, no promise.
“God is not a man that He should lie.” Numbers 23v19. God cannot lie. If He could, He would not be God. It’s a simple statement, but it is very profound. Meditate, contemplate and ponder this statement; lying is in the realm of the fallen.
When Satan and his angelic forces fell from their God given spheres, twisting the truth became their means of destroying the pinnacle of God’s creation, i.e., man.
Satan tempted Eve by implying that God cannot be trusted. She believed the lie that she would not die when she disobeyed God. She believed the lie that this forbidden fruit would make her wise. How can a perfect being (one without sin) become anymore perfect? Satan’s lies are so subtle. When Eve believed Satan and ate the fruit, the ability to lie came alive within her. Every human being born since then has been born with that slant towards believing lies and telling lies. To us it is the norm. We’ve been born into a lying culture and we are part of the lying culture. Absolute truthfulness is something that is really quite alien to us. Absolute truthfulness is something most of us don’t want to hear!
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” James 1v17 (ESV). God is absolute Truth. He is not changeable in His nature.
What He says He is, He is.
What He says He will do, He will do.
God cannot lie. He cannot break His promises.
So, that leaves us with the 3rd option. Have we misunderstood and misapplied the Word of God?
Over the next few days, I’m going to look at what the purpose of the Promises of God are.
Who were they given to?
How we can understand and apply them to our lives?
How do they enable us to become mature and strong in our faith and learn to divide the Word of God correctly?