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Australia

As a child, my daughter Michelle loved Enid Blyton’s series The Secret Seven and The Famous Five. One bedtime, as I read to her, we came within a few chapters of the end of the book. She begged me to read on, but I insisted it was time for her to be tucked in and go to sleep. 

“Promise me you’ll read the rest of the chapters tomorrow night,” she pleaded. 

“I promise,” I said with a smile. 

The next evening, there was a faculty meeting that was prolonged and went on until dark. Michelle was sound asleep when I got home. The next morning, as I was eating my breakfast, a very irate child confronted me. “You didn’t keep your promise; you lied,” she blurted out.

“I didn’t lie,” I explained, “I was unable to keep my promise due to other circumstances.” 

Unpersuaded by my subtle distinction, she emphatically repeated her charge. “You broke your promise; you lied,” she said and stomped off. 

I went to work that morning with a heavy heart and regret that I had not left the faculty meeting earlier. Michelle has forgotten this incident, and now, with three children of her own, was quick to forgive me when I recently shared with her how her dad had once disappointed her childhood trust in him.

The God Who Cannot Lie

Mercifully, God’s promises are more trustworthy than mine are. “Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things [the promise and the oath] in which it is impossible for God to lie, we… may be greatly encouraged” (Hebrews 6:17,18, NIV)1. Therefore, God keeps His word—or, if you like, He remembers His covenant—that is, His sworn promise. That’s what a covenant is: a sworn oath or promise.

Notice the parallels in the following passages: “Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors, and has remembered his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham” (Luke 1:72, 73); “the covenant that he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac, which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, ‘To you I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance’” (Psalm 105:9–11).

God’s Promises to Abraham

God made four promises to the childless and aged Abram and Sarai. First, they would have their own son, and Isaac was born. More than that, God “brought [Abram] outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your descendants [i.e., seed] be’” (Genesis 15:5). 

That’s God’s promise; then came the result: “But the Israelites were fruitful and prolific [in Goshen, Egypt]; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them” (Exodus 1:7). “The LORD your God has multiplied you, so that today you are as numerous as the stars of heaven” (Deuteronomy 1:10). Thus, God kept His promise, for He is the God who cannot lie.

Second, God promised Abram that “all the land [of Canaan] that you see I will give to you and to your offspring [i.e., seed] forever” (Genesis 13:15). Abram trusted God’s promise of an heir (see 15:6), but now he wavered at the assurance that he and his seed would possess the land of Canaan. It was then that God confirmed His promise with a binding covenant. “On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates…’” (Genesis 15:18ff).2 

It took several centuries, but finally, the promise was realized: “Thus the LORD gave to Israel all the land that he swore to their ancestors that he would give them; and having taken possession of it, they settled there” (Joshua 21:43). Hence, again, God kept His promise, for He is the God who cannot lie.

Third, God promised Abraham “to be God to you and to your offspring after you” (Genesis 17:7); “I will take you as my people, and I will be your God” (Exodus 6:7); “I will walk among you, and be your God, and you will be my people” (Leviticus 26:12). Patrick Miller notes that this promise of a special relationship between God and Israel is the “heart of the covenant”.3 

And it, too, came to pass: “Keep silence and hear, O Israel! This very day you have become the people of the LORD your God” (Deuteronomy 27:9); “yet the LORD set his heart in love on your ancestors alone and chose you, their descendants after them, out of all the peoples, as it is today” (10:15; see also 29:12, 13). Thus, once more, God kept His promise, for He is the God who cannot lie.

Fourth, God promised Abraham that through him and his seed, all nations would be blessed: “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3; see also Acts 3:25); “all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in [Abraham]” (Genesis 18:18); “and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed” (22:18, 26:4, NIV); “all the families of the earth shall be blessed in [Jacob] and in [his] offspring” (28:14).

It is this fourth element of God’s promise to Abraham that attracted Paul. “The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed,” Paul argued. “Scripture,” he noted, “does not say ‘and to seeds,’ meaning many people, but ‘and to your seed’, meaning one person, who is Christ” (Galatians 3:16, NIV). Of course, “seed” is a collective singular referring to the whole nation, as is clear from the images used (“stars of heaven”, “sand of the seashore”, and “dust of the earth”). Paul was ignoring the context of Genesis 17, which uses “seed” six times, and concentrated on the word “seed” itself, which allowed him to apply the term to Jesus.

“And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘All the Gentiles shall be blessed in you’” (Galatians 3.8). Note that the “gospel” here focuses on the inclusion of the Gentiles into the people of God. 

“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (vs. 26–29, NIV). “Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all” (Colossians 3:11, NIV). This inclusiveness is a crucial part of Paul’s gospel, yet we still struggle to accept it.

Christ died a cursed death so that in Him, “the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Galatians 3:14). This was not revealed to past generations but is now made known, “that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 3:6, NIV). 

This blessing of the Gentiles or nations is a crucial part of God’s promise to Abraham and his seed—and the Sinai law, “which came four hundred thirty years later, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise” (Galatians 3:17). The Abrahamic-Mosaic covenants separated Jews from Gentiles, but the gospel of Christ unites them and thus fulfills the fourth promise that all the nations would be blessed in his seed, for He is the God that cannot lie.

Every year, on Australia Day (January 26), thousands of foreign-born and speaking persons are granted Australian citizenship, with all the privileges and responsibilities therein pertaining. This is an incredible gift that is undeserved and unearned. Nevertheless, to honor the gift, each recipient must observe the laws of the land. However, being an Australian citizen requires an ethos that cannot be defined by law but indeed goes beyond the law. 

So it is with the gift of being welcomed into the kingdom of God. The fruits of the Spirit are not against the law or limited by it: “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law [Mosaic or otherwise] against such things” (Galatians 5:22, 23).

With that said, “is the law then opposed to the promises of God? Certainly not!” (3:21); but neither is the law identical with nor able to implement the promise. If the law could give life, then being right with God would have been through the law, but that is the preserve of Christ alone. “For in him every one of God’s promises is a ‘Yes.’ For this reason it is through him that we say the ‘Amen,’ to the glory of God” (2 Corinthians 1:20).

Part two is coming in the November 6 issue of Adventist Record

This article was originally published on the website of Adventist Record

 

 

1. All references are from the New Revised Standard Version unless indicated otherwise.

2. The language is a traditional exaggeration (see 1 Kings 4:21). It is somewhat like the proverbial “from Dan to Beersheba” or our “lock, stock, and barrel.”

3. Patrick Miller, “Divine Command and Beyond: The Ethics of the Commandments” in William P Brown (ed), The Ten Commandments: The Reciprocity of Faithfulness (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004), 16.

 

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