The Promises in Christ

’ Partakers of His promise in Chkist by the Gospel.” — Eph. iii. 6. “For all the promises of God IN Him are yea, and IN Him AmeD, unto the glory of God by us.” — 2 Cor. i. 20.

GOD the Father is the great Treasure-house of Promises: — -the divine Fountain-head. But Christ is the channel through which the river, and every rill that swells it, flows — “All the promises of God,” with their boundless wealth and preciousness, “are in Him.” “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises “(2 Pet. i. 4). The Church, as the Bride of the Lamb, is dowered with these as her marriage portion, “glory, honour, immortality, eternal life,” The believer, in a spiritual sense, and with a spiritual telescope, can sweep the whole stellar firmament of promise, and say, “They are all mine, because Christ is mine.” “If ye abide IN Me,” are the valedictory words of the Saviour, “ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you “(John xv. 7).” In Christ,” everything within the compass of omnipotence to bestow, that is really good for us, becomes ours. “In Christ,” we are called “children of the promise: “” heirs of promise.” “The glory,” says Jesus, “which Thou gavest Me I have given themr In Christ — all the attributes of God are embarked on our side, and pledged for our salvation. This Prince of the kings of the earth, the true Ahasuerus, seated in His Royal banqueting-house, stretches out the golden sceptre of promise, asking, “What is thy petition, and it shall be granted thee, and what is thy request?” (Esther v. 6). Not more do the facets of the diamond derive their brilliancy from the light; not more do the planets in the solar system derive their glory, and the flowers which deck the earth their beauty and colour from the sun, than do the promises of Scripture borrow their heavenly lustre and loveliness from Christ, the true Sun of Righteousness.

I remember standing gazing on one of the sunsets in the Holy Land, near the shores of the Dead Sea. The side of a mountain sloping towards its leaden cavernous depths, and which shortly before seemed to partake of the sterility around, became all at once lit up like a sheet of living fire. It was the myriad clusters of red anemones, which clothe Palestine like a carpet in early spring, that were kindled and transformed into ruby splendour, as the flaming orb of day descended over the heights of Moab: Picture of the promises of God, which have a new beauty and glory imparted to them when seen in Christ, under the radiance of One “above the brightness of the sun;” — ay, and we may also add, reaching down to the very brink of humanity’s dead and deadest sea shores.

That one promise-word of the Saviour, in its comprehensiveness, embraces all that the sinner needs, all that God can bestow: — it is, as if the whole contents of the glorious casket were gathered up in one: — “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on Me hath everlasting life” (John vi. 47). “Great,” remarks a valued writer, “as Jesus is in the promise, He is greater in the fulfilment.” “Christ,” says Bunyau, “is not one jot the poorer for all the forgiveness that He has given away to great sinners. There is the same virtue in His merits to save now as there was at the very beginning. Oh! the riches of the grace of Christ.” The Apostle in one of our motto-verses further tells us that these His promises are not only exceeding great, and exceeding precious, but exceeding sure. “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ,” says he, in the immediately preceding context, “who was preached among you by us... was not yea, and nay, but in Him was yea” (2 Cor. i. 19). In another place, speaking of those who are “to obtain the salvation which is IN Christ Jesus with eternal glory,” he adds, “He abideth faithful, He cannot deny Himself” (2 Tim. ii. 1 3).

There are times, indeed, when His ways are mysterious. We cannot descry or discern the reason of His dealings: when, it may be, some cherished lights of life are suddenly eclipsed; — the cloud without either bow or silver lining: when, in the plaintive musing of the Psalmist, we are led in our misgiving to say — “Hath God forgotten to be gracious, and doth His promise fail for evermore?” But be it ours to hope on, and trust on. There may be needed discipline in the waiting. The noblest and rarest tribute and triumph of faith is contained in the words, “Though He slay me, yet will I t7mst in Him” (Job xiii. 15). It has been well said — “He doth purposely conceal His designs from His children, in order that they may live upon His absolute promises in Jesus.” The day at all events will come, when “in His light we shall see light:” when all the by-past pilgrimage will be revealed, spanned with the luminous * bow of God; ’ — the golden lettering gleaming upon it — “He is faithful that promised.”

Let us, then, pursue our appointed way, knowing that that way from first to last is paved with “promises IN Christ;” and that “what He hath spoken, He is able also to perform.” His promises are suited for every age, every diversity of circumstance, every variety of temperament, every changing experience: strength in weakness, light in darkness, comfort in sorrow, support in temptation, peace in unrest, hope and pardon in despair. And when ‘the supreme hour* overtakes, these become brightest, truest, best of all. The memorable incident in His own ministry of love is often reproduced when “in the fourth watch of the night,” the time when the darkness was deepest, He came to the tempest-tossed disciples, “walking on the sea.” They were troubled. They thought only at first of some demon-shape from the spirit-world. “They were afraid, and cried out for fear.” But, gentle, well-known accents stilled the storm without, and the storm within: “Fear not; it is I; be not afraid!”

Yes! as * in Christ ’ is a glorious word and reality to live upon, so it is a glorious word and reality to die upon. See how the promise (and the promise observe IN Him) lighted up the waning hours of the great Apostle. In the last letter his hand penned, in his Roman dungeon, it is beautiful to note its first, its opening sentence — “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is IN Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. i. i). The promise of eternal life was now, like a radiant beacon, within sight, close at hand; the last billows were bringing him into the desired haven. But it was a beacon light in Cheist. Life to him, we have often noted before, had no reality, no glory, apart from a living Saviour. So, neither would death, apart from the same, bring with it joy or peace. If he thought of it under the image of sleep, it was a sleep IN Jesus. It is remarkable that one, who, of all the champions of the faith, stood in moral heroism perhaps nearest to St. Paul himself, died literally with In Christo, as the word which alike last fell upon his ear, and which evoked the last assent from his lips. “Venerable Father,” said

Dr. Jonas to Luther, at his dying moment, “do you die trusting in Christ? “... He answered by an audible and joyful * Yes,

Meanwhile, alike for a living hour and a dying hour, let us be animated and quickened, as well as solemnised by the wondrous consummation of these * promises in Christ.’ The Apostle Peter, in the verse already quoted, represents them as so many golden ladder-steps conducting to the most unspeakable height of bliss and glory to which created beings can attain — “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. i. 4). It is the fulfilment of the Redeemer’s own prayer, the full realisation of His people’s mystical union in Himself (John xvii. 2 1 ). “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” (2 Cor. vii. i).

* Luther’s Watchwords, p. 355.