Galatians 3:18(NKJV) 18For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
This week we have been looking at the power the Lord invests in the idea of promises. In 2 Peter 1:4 we read that it is by exceedingly great and precious promises we become partakers of the divine nature. All of the benefits of salvation belong to us because of the death burial and resurrection of Jesus, but it is by the promises in the Word of God that we access them.
We also found that all of the God’s dealings with man are based on promise. In the Old Testament, we saw in Genesis 3:15 that God began with a promise to redeem man from the curse of the fall. In Genesis 12:2 God promises Abraham that the whole world would someday be blessed by his descendents. In Genesis 17 we see God making the covenant of promise with Abraham that guaranteed that the promise of redemption would come to pass.
In the New Testament, our salvation is both a product of a fulfilled promise as well as a promise for the future. We are born again as a present reality because God fulfilled his promise made to man in the Old Testament. However, salvation is also a promise of eternity in the presence of God. No one living has experienced heaven. This promise can only be fulfilled at the death of a believer. We live our lives as we do because we choose to believe that promise.
Finally, we see the parallel between faith and promise. Without faith the promise has not power. However, without a promise, faith has nothing to believe. We must have faith to please God, but that faith can only be in a promise. A promise is something that has not come to pass. Faith is the substance of things hoped for (future) and the evidence of what we have yet to see.
Let me share a few final thoughts on the importance of promise to a believer. In Galatians, we see that our inheritance did not come based on law but based on promise. It is important that we realize we cannot live contrary to the Word of God that carries the promises and still obtain the promises themselves. However, it is also important to understand that our relationship is not a product of keeping laws; it is a product of a promise.
We must obey what the law teaches. When it says we cannot do something, we cannot do that thing. When it says we must do something, we must do that thing. There is no question about that. However, when we see the law as the source of relationship we miss the point of salvation.
Israel had the law. It governed every aspect of their behavior. However, their identity was not the law but the promise. Look at another section of scripture from Galatians.
Galatians 3:17(NKJV) 17And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God £in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect.
The covenant and the promise it represented predated the law. The law was added to the equation so that Israel could walk in the benefits of the promise even before the promise was realized. However, in Christ the promise has been realized. We walk in godly behavior because of the promise not because of the law. The law defines what is right or wrong outwardly, but the promise is the source of inward life.
Paul sums up what he is saying this way.
Galatians 3:21-25(NKJV) 21Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. 22But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. 24Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
In the book of Jeremiah, the Lord tells us how the fulfilled promise changes the way the principles of the law should be kept.
Jeremiah 31:33(NKJV) 33But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
The promise is that we will have the laws of God written on our hearts. The Law, as Israel walked in it, was an outward thing. They read the requirements written down for them and kept those requirements. It was designed to enable relationship, but it was not relationship per se. It was a legal requirement to be kept.
The promise was that the requirements should not be written in a book, but in our hearts. It is no less necessary that we keep them, but the reason for keeping them is different. We do not keep the law in order to have relationship. We keep the law because we already have relationship. We keep the law as a result of that relationship.
I believe we need to increase our understanding of and dependence on the promises of God. I believe we need to look at the promises, not as an addendum to our faith relationship with God, but its source. I believe we need to make it a priority to find promises that speak to whatever need we face and stand on them. In this way, our faith will become more sure than ever before. We will have something to believe that is unshakable.
The promises of God may have been written thousands of years ago, but in those thousands of years multiplied millions of people have stood on them and seen them meet every conceivable need of life. They are tried and true and we can depend on them.
Let me close this week by quoting one more scripture from the book of Hebrews.
Hebrews 10:23(NKJV) 23Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
Why should we put our trust and expectation in the promises of God? There is one reason above all others. That reason is that we can trust the one who made the promise. He is faithful. Trust in him and in his promises and you will see that faithfulness in your life.
Leave a Reply