The Positive Promises of God

“For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in Him was yea.  For all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.”  II Corinthians 12:19-20

Paul’s reputation as a solid preacher of the gospel came from his reliance upon Christ whose word was always sure and true.  Christ never said “yes” when He meant “no” and vice versa.  Every word which was preached by Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy was the truth as spoken by Christ.  The word “yea” is translated from the Greek “nai” which means a strong affirmation or truth.  Every promise that God made for His Son to fulfill He fulfilled and will continue to fulfill until the end of time.  So be it (amen) unto the glory of God.  Paul, too, promised to fulfill all that the Lord had given him to do.  Humans, even the best and most committed of them, fail from time to time, but the Lord will never fail us.

God is the author of salvation.  It is He who provided the way of salvation through His Son.  It is He who called forth preachers of the gospel to deliver the message of redemption to all who will listen.  Paul was just one of these preachers who committed his life to reaching the lost for Christ.  That and glorifying God were his only goals.  Before Paul came to know Christ, he was not seeking Jesus, but Paul was seeking the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, just not in the way of salvation.  He assumed that he was already God’s man because he pursued those who followed Christ.  He considered Jesus to be an imposter, a cult leader and believed that it was his duty to eliminate all those who followed Jesus to preserve the sovereignty of God and His law.  Even with his background, God chose Paul to be His spokesman, in particular, to the Gentile world.  When Paul met Christ on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:308), he was overwhelmed by the presence of Christ.  No longer could he deny the reality of the Messiah, the Son of God.  God anointed Paul at that time, and he became probably the greatest preacher of the gospel after Christ.  Talk about a 180!  How could he not preach the truth of the gospel after his encounter with the living Lord?

Paul reminded the Corinthian church members that when Jesus saves a soul, it is sealed in the kingdom of God.  No one can snatch a soul out of the hand of God for it is God who captured that soul, and no enemy can pry the fingers of God open and take what belongs to God.  Another benefit of salvation is the gift of the Holy Spirit to every believer as an assurance of God’s promise of redemption.  When a buyer purchases a house, he or she puts down “earnest money” to hold it until such time as the sale is complete.  No one else can buy that home that has been secured by earnest money.  The Holy Spirit is God’s earnest money to keep us protected and secure until the time He calls us home.

Unfortunately, we have so-called preachers of the gospel who claim all sorts of promises they believe God will fulfill for His people.  There are the “prosperity gospel” preachers who claim that if one has enough faith or the right kind of faith then they will be blessed financially, never get sick, and life will just about be a bed of roses.  Some folks believe that, but I have never heard of any true Christian who had an easy and nearly perfect life.  Every Christian that I know has dealt with suffering and hardship at one time or another.  Jesus didn’t die on the cross so that we could live an easy life.  He suffered so that we could live a holy and righteous life.  Even suffering has a positive promise.  Paul wrote in II Timothy 2:12 that if we suffer, we shall also reign with Jesus.  I don’t know exactly what that entails, but it sounds like a tremendous promise for believers!  I think about perhaps a man, a true believer who lived for the Lord, but due to his appearance or some other reason, he was made fun of all his life, and then when he enters heaven, he is honored to receive a place beside Jesus, or perhaps the little Christian lady who spent most of her life in a wheelchair living in relative obscurity, with little attention from family and friends, yet when she crosses over into glory, she is received with great fanfare as a pilgrim who has come home.  Let’s all praise God for His marvelous and wonderful promises.