134 The Promises of God - Talk 15 - Responding to God’s Promises

Great Bible Truths Podcast Episode 134

The Promises of God Talk 15

Responding to God’s Promises

 

Welcome to the final talk in our series on the promises of God. I want to talk today about how we should respond to God’s promises, but first a summary of what we’ve been saying so far. Among the many things we have learned is that God’s wonderful promises are fulfilled in Christ and the salvation which he purchased for us by his death on the cross and which will be completed when he comes again. In understanding God’s promises we need to hold in tension both the present and future aspects of their fulfilment. It’s what is sometimes called the already/not yet of the kingdom of God.

 

For example, if we have accepted Christ as our Saviour, we have already received the promise of salvation, but there’s a sense in which our salvation is not yet complete until Jesus comes again. Our salvation is already/not yet. If you listen again or look back over some of our earlier talks, you will see that this is true of our righteousness, our sonship, and even our eternal life. We saw how there is both a present and a future dimension to each of these promises. We have them now, but we will have them completely when Jesus returns.

 

On the other hand, there are some promises which are guaranteed but which have yet to be fulfilled. These include the return of Christ, our final victory over death, and the wonderful inheritance we’ll receive as fellow-heirs with Christ. Meanwhile the gift of the Holy Spirit is made available to us as a foretaste of our inheritance and through the supernatural gifts of the Spirit we have tasted of the powers of the age to come.

 

For example, we experience healing through the work of the Spirit now, but the final fulfilment of God’s promises of healing will only be ours when we receive new bodies when Jesus comes again. And the same principle applies to answers to prayer too. If we’re praying according to God’s will our prayers will be answered - even if in some cases we may have to wait until Jesus returns before we see it!

 

So with all that in mind, let’s ask how we should respond to the promises God has made? How do we receive them? Did you notice that I didn’t use the word ‘claim’? Why not? It’s popular terminology in Christian vocabulary. But is it biblical? You may be surprised to know that nowhere does the Bible talk about claiming God’s promises! So can it be the right terminology to use when we talk about how we should respond to God’s promises?

 

Now I imagine that many of my listeners have been ‘claiming promises’ throughout their Christian lives, but if you’re one of them, please don’t switch off - at least until you’ve heard my reasons for saying this. I’m going to give you three reasons why I believe that claiming promises isn’t really biblical  before suggesting what the Bible actually teaches about how we should respond to God’s wonderful promises.

 

Why claiming is inappropriate

My three reasons for saying that the word ‘claim’ is not the best way to describe how we should respond to God’s promises are as follows:

 

Because the Bible talks nowhere about claiming God’s promises Because God is faithful Because God is our Father

 

Because the Bible talks nowhere about claiming God’s promises

Quite simply, of the seventy New Testament references to the word ‘promise’ (epaggelia), not one is used in conjunction with the verb ‘to claim’. Words that are used are believe, have, receive, obtain, wait and inherit. More about these later.

 

Because God is faithful

God’s promises are reliable. In Hebrews we’re told to hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful (10:23, cf. 11:11). Our hope is firm and secure (6:19), an anchor for the soul, because God’s purpose is unchanging (6:17).

 

So it seems to me quite unfitting that Christians are encouraged to ‘claim’ what God has promised. The appropriate response to a promise from someone who is totally reliable is surely a simple and implicit trust that he will do what he has said, not an insistence on one’s rights on the grounds that he has said it! God’s promises are obtained through patience (6:12)!

 

Because God is our Father

As we have already seen, the promise of sonship is one of the promises that we have already received. We are already God’s children. He is already our Father. And this is why I find difficulty with the idea of ‘claiming’ God’s promises. Let me give you a personal illustration. I enjoyed throughout my life a very warm and close relationship with my earthly father while he was alive. Ι knew from him nothing but love, even if in my younger days that love was sometimes tempered with discipline. I count myself privileged to be his son and, because he was the kind of father he was, I not only loved him but I trusted him and respected him.

 

Such was my relationship with him that I knew that, if he promised me something which was in his power to perform, he would certainly do it. To claim such a promise by saying, Father, I insist that you give me what you have promised me.  Give it to me now. Ι demand it as my right, would have been to doubt his love, impugn his integrity and question his faithfulness. But because Ι trusted him and respected him I would not have dreamed of talking to him like that! So maybe, if we feel the need to ‘claim’ God’s promises we have not yet fully understood how much our Father loves us.

 

So how should we respond to God’s promises?

Perhaps the best way to answer this question is to consider the words the Bible itself actually uses in connection with this. If the word ‘claim’ is never used, what words are used?  As we said earlier, words that are used are believe, have, receive, obtain, wait and inherit. Let’s now look at how these words are used in the New Testament and see how we can apply them to our lives.

 

Believing God’s promises

The Greek word is pisteuo. There are numerous examples of the use of this word in the New Testament. We’ll mention just a few examples where it’s used in connection with God’s promises.

 

Mark 11:24

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

 

Mark 16:17-18

And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.

 

John 14:12

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.

 

So the promises of answered prayer and the power to perform signs and wonders are made to those who believe. But it’s important to understand that this is no mere academic belief. Pisteuo is used in the New Testament to refer to a confident trust which is based on a relationship with God who is always faithful. Consider the following verses:

 

The LORD is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does (Psalm 145:13 NIV).

 

He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it (1 Thessalonians 5:24).

 

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful (Hebrews 10:23).

 

By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised (Hebrews 11:11).

 

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

 

We have faith (pisteuo) that God will keep his promises because we know that God is faithful (pistos). And because God is faithful, if he has promised us something, there’s a sense in which we already have it.

 

Having God’s promises

Paul uses this word in 2 Corinthians 7:1:

 

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

 

The promises referred to are cited in the previous chapter (vv. 16-18):

 

I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God and they will be my people (v.16, cf. Leviticus 26:12)

 

and

 

I will be a Father to you and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty (v. 18, cf. 2 Samuel 7:14).

 

These promises, like all God’s promises, are fulfilled in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20), and it’s because we now ‘have’ them that Paul encourages us to act upon them by living holy lives. Because of Christ, God does live with you, he says you are his people, he is your Father and you are his sons and daughters. So live accordingly, be holy.

 

So the promises referred to here are not be claimed because we already ‘have’ them. There is nothing further that could possibly be done to bring them to pass, for they are fulfilled in Christ. Rather, accepting that this is so,  we must live as what we are, God’s chosen people.

 

 

 

Receiving God’s promises

This word is used particularly in connection with receiving the promised gift of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 2:33 Peter tells us that Christ received from the Father the promise of the Spirit and he told the congregation at Pentecost to repent and be baptized and they will receive the gift of the Spirit for the promise is to you... (Acts 2:38-39). As we saw in a previous talk, the promise of the Spirit was made in Joel 2:28, and in Acts 2 at Pentecost the promise was fulfilled. The promise was now a gift - a gift available to all who repent and believe, and a gift that had to be received by faith (Galatians 3:2, 14). (For more on this please listen to the podcast dated 28/12/2018).

 

 

Obtaining God’s promises

In Hebrews 6:15 we’re told that Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise that God would bless him and multiply him. But please notice that Abraham did not obtain the promise by claiming it. He patiently waited for it. But that brings us to the next word connected with the word promise - wait.

 

Waiting (with patience) and inheriting God’s promises

 

Hebrews 10:35-38 tells us:

Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith...”

 

 And 2 Peter 3:12-13 says:

waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God... But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

 

And Hebrews 6:12 tells us to be imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises (Cf. Hebrews 11:9).

 

These verses clearly indicate that for the fulfilment of some of God’s promises, including our wonderful inheritance, we may have to wait until Jesus comes again. Meanwhile we are to live by faith and do the will of God.

 

So, to summarise, how should we respond to God’s promises?

 

We should:

Believe all of them because God is faithful

 

Recognise that we already have some of them and live accordingly

 

 - e.g. salvation, sonship, God’s presence with us

 

Receive those that are available to us now

 

- e.g. Forgiveness, the Holy Spirit

 

Wait patiently in faith for those that have yet to be fulfilled

 

- e.g. prayers that are not answered immediately (including healing), the return of Christ, a wonderful inheritance, new heavens and a new earth.