Essay 8
Are You Standing or Staggering
on the Promises?
How many Christian parents spend most if not all of their lives in a state of anxiety over the spiritual destiny of their children? Can we enjoy the faith which our father Abraham had concerning his son Isaac; that what God had promised he was able also to perform? Can we place our children in faith on the altar of God with the assurance that it is God’s responsibility to change the hearts of his children? Or shall we stagger at the promises of God through unbelief, clinging to a ‘do-it-yourself’ gospel of salvation which makes the word of God of no effect?
That Ye Might be Partakers of the Divine Nature
There are those who would have us believe we are partakers of Christ’s divine nature because of some decision of the flesh, rather than because of God’s immutable promises made to our fathers and their seed. Peter, writing to the Isaac-sons in II Peter 1:3-4, reminds them, “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious promises: that by them ye might be partakers of the divine nature.”
When did God promise to the Isaac-sons that they would be partakers of Christ’s divine nature? Was not this the very heart of the new covenant? In Isaiah 59:21 we read, “As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord. My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever.”
The apostle Paul declares in Hebrews 9:15, “And for this cause he (Christ) is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.” Paul declared to the Isaac-sons dwelling in Corinth that this promise was fulfilled in them. “Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart.” (II Corinthians 3:3)
For the Promise is unto You and Your Children
When the Holy Spirit descended on the Isaac-sons at Pentecost, to seal the new covenant, Peter reminded them. “For the promise (gift of the Holy Spirit) is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” (Acts 2:39) Isaiah identifies those that were afar off as the scattered ten tribes of Israel. “I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.” (Isaiah 43:6-7)
To be a God to Thee and Thy Seed after Thee
In II Corinthians 7:1 Paul declares, “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.” What promises is Paul talking about? In II Corinthians 6:16 Paul quotes God’s promises made to the Isaac-sons in Leviticus 26:12. “I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.” The same promise was made to Abraham in Genesis 17:7. “And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.” In Romans 9:25-26, the apostle Paul also quotes that great promise from Hosea 1:10. “Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered, and it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them, ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.”
Christ Confirmed the Promises Made unto the Fathers
In Galatians 4:28 Paul reminds the Isaac-sons, “Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of the promise.” Does your Pastor remind you that you’re a child of the promise, or are you taught the traditions of men that ignore these sure promises of God? In Romans 15:8 we read, “Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers.” Do we not despise the blood of Christ when we set aside his election of the Isaac-sons and substitute our own theory of election which appeals to the carnal mind? Paul testifies in Romans 9:8, “They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise (Isaac-sons) are counted for the seed . . . that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth.”
Abraham Staggered not at the Promises of God
Do we stagger at these promises because we don’t have the faith to see how God can fulfill them? Abraham being childless, was also faced with believing a seemingly impossible promise; “that he should be the heir to the world” (Romans 4:13), and “a father of many nations.” (Genesis 17:4) In Romans 4:19-20 we read, “And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb: 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.”
As we look over the spiritually dry bones of the Isaac-sons today, do we consider them dead, or do we trust God in faith for his promises. “Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed.” (Romans 4:16)
“Blessed be the Lord, that hath given rest unto his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there hath not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant.” (I Kings 8:56)