Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Things Great & Precious


Things Great & Precious
“exceeding great and precious promises”

Some words are over-used to the point that they become almost meaningless to us. Great is one such word. Precious is another. Seeking to express ourselves, we often fail to say much of anything while using words that should be full of weighty meaning each time they are spoken. Great & Precious. Two words that deserve better.

In the opening words of Simeon Peter’s second letter we find both of these words and each has rich meaning. He uses them to describe the promises of God, calling them “exceeding great and precious promises” (v4a). He means to fix our minds on those promises and on the gracious God who authored them.

To everyone who believes the gospel of His Son, God gives His Word. His Word amounts to His promise; it is true and reliable beyond all other things. The Psalmist exalts the reliability of His Word, His promise, saying, “Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name” (Ps 138:2c). Indeed, God’s Word is His promise. It cannot be broken. What a comfort to every believer! What a terror to every rebel!

Which of the “exceeding great and precious promises” did the Apostle have in mind? We cannot be entirely sure since he did not specify. But it is no stretch of the imagination to assume that Simeon Peter had in mind those “exceeding great and precious promises” that stem from coming to Christ and being reconciled to God. After all, these are at the very heart of the gospel and the gospel is the heart of his message—forgiveness, reconciliation to God, justification by naked faith, life from the dead by the power of God, even eternal life.

Consider two viable avenues. First, those “exceeding great and precious promises” Jesus uttered during His ‘Farewell Discourse’ recorded in John, chapters 13-16. Secondly, the promises attached to the “new covenant” that God promised and has fulfilled in the Person and work of Christ (Jeremiah 31).

·        Promises from Jesus’ Farewell Discourse
“exceeding great and precious promises”

The promise of Christ’s second coming and the promise of a happy eternity in His presence in His “Father’s house”—a beautiful way to speak of heaven.

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:1-3).

The promise of the Holy Spirit. Through His indwelling, Christ’s followers experience peace in this troubled world.

“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:26-27).

The promise of hatred and persecution; the world will hate Christ’s disciples and will persecute them, even as it hated and persecuted Him.

“If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, ‘The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.’ But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me” (John 15:18-21).

The promise of answered prayer.

“Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father. At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God” (John 16:24-27).

·        Promises of God in the New Covenant
“exceeding great and precious promises”

The promise of a new and different covenant, dissimilar to the breakable covenant enacted in the days of Moses.

“Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD” (Jeremiah 31:31-32).

The promise of one people of God. “The house of Israel”…and the distinct “house of Judah” become one under the new covenant. Divisions are done away with. There is also the promise of the law of God being inscribed on the hearts of the new covenant people. This involves another promise of God: to claim as His own every gospel believer. Another promised reality arises: every new covenant believer will openly acknowledge their love for the Lord their God.

“But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jeremiah 31:33).

The promise of complete covenant success: every “new covenant” member will savingly know God. Therefore, the promise of the new covenant is forgiveness of sins, reconciliation and experiential union with God for every redeemed person.

“And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:34).

“exceeding great and precious promises” Indeed! –TSA