The Promises of God

           Everything we have is built upon the promises of God.  Our very existence is built upon the promises of creation itself.  Our eternal existence is built upon the covenant promises that God has given to us throughout the Bible.  We can enumerate those covenants, but the one that rules our relationship with God is the covenant of Christ.

          What are the promises?  That God will be our God.  That God is love.  That, in Jesus Christ, our sins our forgiven.  That, by the grace of God, we have life eternal.  These are the promises of the covenant.  What is the promise of creation?  That we have existence.  It will not end at the return of Jesus, but instead will be renewed to the New Heaven and the New Earth.

          Our actions are built upon those promises.  Our actions are not a call to work for our salvation, the so called “works righteousness”, we do not do good works to gain these promises, but these promises are for us then to do good works.  It is a subtle consideration of human nature that is built in here.

          The idea of works righteousness presumes a people perpetually, intentionally at odds with the Almighty.  Thus, we have to do these things to prove ourselves, by action and intention, that we are, if not worthy-which we are not-at least trying to do what we can.  It is an assumption that sin turns us all from God and we are nothing but self-serving greedy-guts. 

          But to look to Adam and Eve, to look at their fall into sin, is to see something a little different.  Yes, they turned from God, but for them, it was with the best of intentions.  They wanted to be more like God.  It served their desires of course, but it also was a ‘favor’ they were doing for God. 

          I am not entirely sure how to define this, but I think the bible teaches that while we are innately sinful, we are not innately evil.  The divine spark still exists within us.  Discussions could be held about those who are the most evil in the history of humanity to seek out that bit of love, that one place of decency, in their otherwise horrible existences.  Usually someone like Hitler is put into this context.

          What is the measure of this?  The possibility of redemption.  The devil is evil, to my Biblical understanding, beyond the possibility of redemption and so the devil seeks to bring us down as well.  So the promises of God have no place in the context of Satan.

          But we, who are sinful, have that possibility.  We have the ability to do good, but that ability has been warped and redirected to serving our own interests instead of God and Neighbor.  So, to look to Paul, all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. 

          But God’s promises are established to bring us back into God’s Glory.

Peter Hofstra