EXCEEDING GREAT AND PRECIOUS PROMISES

"May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:2-4, RSV).

Devotion 3 of 10

YES AND AMEN!

ALL THE PROMISES ARE "YES" AND "AMEN" in Christ. "For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us" (2 Cor 1:20). "All" refers to every promise to be realized in Christ. "In Him" means that they can only be appropriated while we are with Christ, into Whose fellowship we have been "called" (1 Cor. 1:9). These are promises that bear upon eternity. Now, they are all "YES" in Christ. Jesus has opened up the way of blessing. The great promises of remission (1 John 1:9), fellowship (John 14:23), peace (Phil. 4:6-7), and strength (Psa. 27:14; 1 Pet. 5:10), are yours in Christ. By saying the promises are "YES," the Spirit confirms their applicability to us. "YES" is a strong affirmation, like "surely." "YES" is God's shout to us! In Jesus, the promised blessings become a reality. Every blessing conditioned upon a Savior belongs to those receiving that Savior. Just as "no good thing" will be withheld "from them that walk uprightly" (Psa. 84:11), so the precious promises are realized in Jesus. But "the promises of God" are also "AMEN unto the glory of God by us" (2 Cor. 1:20). When God makes promise, believers confess they would have it no other way. They say "AMEN" to the promises. They want them as they have been spoken. They testify to their reality and blessing. This is the kind of response John had to Jesus when he was exiled on Patmos. "He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus" (Rev 22:20). Blessed is the individual that can respond like that. The NIV provides an edifying view of the text: "For no matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in Christ. And so through him the 'Amen' is spoken by us to the glory of God" (2 Cor 1:20). The people of God are themselves the confirmation of His "exceeding great and precious promises." PRAYER POINT: Father I thank you for your exceeding great and precious promises. Give grace to ponder them, prefer them, and seek with all of my heart to obtain them. I want to be like You!

-- TOMORROW: THE OBJECTIVE OF THE PROMISES --