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
