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Exceeding Great
and Precious Promises
Prabhudas Koshy
“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that
by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the
corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4).
You may have heard the
saying, “Promises are made to be broken.” In our day of selfishness and
promiscuity, it seems all too obvious that many promises are mere
meaningless words; not worth the paper they may be written upon. The
increase in divorces is clearly a reflection of infidelity permeating
culture.
So many social evils of
these days result from failure in keeping promises. Broken businesses,
bad debts, bankruptcies, divorces and other similar evils reflect the
lack of sincerity and dependability in our modern society. All of us can
cite many more incidents and practices that reflect the growing trend of
unreliability among the people of our time.
But even in the best of
times, promises were made and then broken. Those who had promised with
the best of intentions also failed to deliver. Sometimes promises were
made that could not be kept or there was not enough time to make good on
sincere promises. Changing circumstances and unforeseen problems have
also made many promises void.
In such a world of
uncertain and unreliable promises, where can we assuredly look for help
to meet our trials and challenges? Can we rely on anything when life is
daunted with troubles?
The Exceeding
Preciousness of God’s Promises
Godly men throughout the
ages have written a great deal about the exceeding preciousness of God’s
promises in their lives. One of the most eloquent descriptions of God’s
precious promises comes from the pen of Charles Spurgeon, and it is
quoted below for your edification.
“The promises of God are
to the believer an inexhaustible mine of wealth. Happy is it for him if
he knows how to search out their secret veins and enrich himself with
their hidden treasures. They are an armoury, containing all manner of
offensive and defensive weapons. Blessed is he who has learned to enter
into the sacred arsenal, to put on the breastplate and the helmet, and
to lay his hand to the spear and to the sword. They are a surgery, in
which the believer will find all manner of restoratives, and blessed
elixirs; nor lacks there an ointment for every wound, a cordial for
every faintness, a remedy for every disease. Blessed is he who is well
skilled in heavenly pharmacy and knoweth how to lay hold on the healing
virtues of the promises of God. The promises are to the Christian a
storehouse of food. They are as the granaries which Joseph built in
Egypt, or as the golden pot wherein the manna was preserved. Blessed is
he who can take the five barley loaves and fishes of promise and break
them till his five thousand necessities shall all be supplied, and he is
able to gather up baskets full of fragments. The promises are the
Christian’s Magna Charta of liberty; they are the title deeds of his
heavenly estate. Happy is he who knoweth how to read them well and call
them all his own. Yea, they are the jewel room in which the Christian’s
crown treasures are preserved. The regalia are his, secretly to admire
today, which he shall openly wear in Paradise hereafter. He is already
privileged as a king with the silver key that unlocks the strong room;
he may even now grasp the sceptre, wear the crown, and put upon his
shoulders the imperial mantle. O, how unutterably rich are the promises
of our faithful, covenant-keeping God! If we had the tongue of the
mightiest of orators, and if that tongue could be touched with a live
coal from off the altar, yet still it could not utter a tenth of the
praises of the exceeding great and precious promises of God. Nay, they
who have entered into rest, whose tongues are attuned to the lofty and
rapturous eloquence of cherubim and seraphim, even they can never tell
the height and depth, the length and breadth of the unsearchable riches
of Christ which are stored up in the treasure house of God – the
promises of the covenant of His grace.”
Indeed, Christians can
find their most assured help in God’s promises. When doubts and fears
assail our hearts, God’s people must firmly stand upon the promises of
God.
It is wrong to allow
doubts and anxiety to prevail within our hearts. Jesus taught us,
“Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we
drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things
do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have
need of all these things” (Matthew 6:31-32). The Lord’s instruction to
us is that we should have confidence in His promises toward us rather
than be troubled by various anxieties.
When anxious moments
arrive, we must recall the promises of God. We must learn to appropriate
the message of Kelso Carter’s favourite hymn, “Standing on the
Promises”:
Standing on the promises that cannot fail,
When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
By the living word of God I shall prevail,
Standing on the promises of God.
Exceeding Greatness of God’s Promises
The greatness of the
promises in the Scriptures is the greatness of Him that made those
promises. As God is great, so are His promises.
The Apostle Paul said,
“For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the
glory of God by us” (2 Corinthians 1:20). The promises of God are
established in Himself, upon His marvellous attributes. He shall keep
them to every letter for His own glory. He shall fulfil them in us that
His glory may be seen through us.
His great power to bring
about all His plans and promises, is our great source of strength and
confidence in life. The prophet Jeremiah wrote, “Ah Lord GOD! behold,
thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched
out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee” (Jeremiah 32:17). Our
Lord Jesus Himself said, “With men this is impossible; but with God all
things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).
When God has promised, He
will perform, because it is His word of truth and of power. Every
biblical promise from God is absolutely trustworthy because the Promiser
is unchanging, faithful, evertrue, all-powerful, and all-wise.
The promises of the Bible
are an expression of the fulness and all-sufficiency of God. He performs
all that He utters. We can trust Him to keep His promises.
Channel for Receiving God’s Promises
The writer of Hebrews
exhorts us, “That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through
faith and patience inherit the promises” (Hebrews 6:12). Promises are
like the pages of a chequebook that are to be signed to receive the
blessings. We are to sign it with prayers of faith made toward God who
has given the promise. We read about Abraham, “He staggered not at the
promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was
able also to perform” (Romans 4:20-21).
To a child of God, the
divine promises are a great motivation to live out his life with
patience and endurance. He is persuaded to press on, though with
trembling legs of faith, till he finds all the golden fulfilment of the
promises he obtained from his God. The more he believes the promises,
the more he finds in them to believe.
Spurgeon once wrote,
“Faith has to bring all the faculties of the child of God upon their
knees, and say to them, ‘be quiet; listen while God speaks.’ . . .
‘Wait, I say, on the Lord.’ May that which is written with the ink in
the Bible be written with grace on our hearts. May the public promise
become a private promise to each one of us by the living experience of
our own soul.”
The Great Purpose of God’s Promises
Peter told us in 2 Peter
1:4 that God’s exceeding precious and great promises are given that “ye
might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust.” Likewise the Apostle Paul wrote in 2
Corinthians 7:1, “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let
us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit,
perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” The one great purpose of God’s
promises is that we may perfect the holiness of God in us. It is
impossible to live a godly life without having full assurance in His
promises.
Firstly, God promises us
His forgiveness if we repent (1 John 1:7-9) that we may leave the
darkness of sin and walk in His light. His promises are broader than all
our sins and deeper than all our guilt. He who moves deeper by
experience into God’s promises shall be fully aware that there is yet a
lower depth of God’s unfathomable grace and love in His promises.
Secondly, God’s promises
are given to prevent us from the quick pleasure that sin offers. If we
take time to study the promises of God, we shall see that the glory of
His promises surpasses the attractions of this world and sin. Promises
of God provide a greater pull to the holiness of God than the pull of
the world to sin.
Thirdly, God’s promises
make His precepts easy, His yoke is not just tolerable, but pleasant,
sweet and comfortable. We will prosper in our faith and spiritual walk
if we are able to quote the promises of God to defend ourselves against
the fiery darts of the devil.
Conclusion
Isn’t it great that our
heavenly Father has no difficulty keeping all His promises to His
children? He never leaves us in the lurch. He has all the time, energy
and ability to bring to pass His promises. There is no shadow of turning
with Him.
All that we needed His
hand has provided; and all that we will need in the future will come our
way according to His precious promises. Let us be fully persuaded that
He is able to perform all that He has promised.
Rev. Prabhudas Koshy is the pastor of Gethsemane Bible-Presbyterian Church
and he also lectures at the Far Eastern Bible College.
- Published in
Bible Witness, July - September 2001
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