We all make promises. Even though you may not say, “I promise” after every little thing, you promise many times throughout the day, like: “I’ll be right back,” “I’ll see you tonight,” “I’ll talk to you later,” “I’ll get back with you on that” or the notorious “I have read the terms and conditions.”
Then there are more formal promises we often make: signing a contract to pay your car, phone, and house bills, or saying “I do.”
I haven’t done any research on broken promises, but I would assume everyone breaks at least one a day. If you live an average age of 80 years, that would be approximately 29,200 promises broken. So if you were having a good day, allow that to make you feel like a failure.
There is Someone who has never broken a promise. He always follows up on His word no matter how “insignificant” His promises may sound. He is totally trustworthy of all things. Not one thing He has uttered has failed to be completed.
The Gospel is good news because it is the fulfillment of all of God’s promises.
For all the promises of God find their Yes in [Christ]. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory (2 Cor 1:20).
The Good News of a People of God
The first section of Genesis tells us of a God who is deeply personal with His creations. God needed no one to accomplish His tasks, but He chose men to be a part of His activities.
In Adam, God chose to create mankind.
In Noah, God chose to save mankind.
In Abraham, God chose to display His glory to all mankind.
“And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing… and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Gen. 12:2, 3b). This is called the Abrahamic Covenant. This was a promise made to Abraham by God that He would use him in the grand salvific storyline.
God could, at any time, appear in the sky and reveal Himself to everyone. That’s not how He works. He works through people. Mankind is such a favorite medium for Him that God the Son became one so that He could accomplish His work. To bless the nations, God chose to do it through a man. From that man would come a people that would bless every people group on Earth.
But they didn’t. Israel was not serious about their own psalm, “Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!” (Ps 96:3). They cared little, if at all, about declaring God among the nations. Israel was not the fulfillment of this promise.
“And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God's promise to Abraham belongs to you” (Gal. 3:29).
The Church is the people by whom God will fulfill His promise to Abraham. To us all the promises of Abraham belong. We are Abraham’s true children. Being a descendant of Abraham has nothing to do with his blood but his faith. That’s the argument Paul makes in Romans 4 and Galatians 4.
The good news is that we once were not a people, but now we are the people of God.
The Good News of Relationship with God
A few years passed after Abraham had left the scene and things didn’t look so great for the Hebrews. They had become enslaved by the Egyptians after Jacob had moved the whole family there because Joseph was in such good standing with Pharoah. The Hebrews were multiplying and getting very large in number. Most of whom had never heard the name of YHWH their Lord.
God led a man named Moses to free them from Egypt. Their first stop outside of Egypt was Mount Sinai. What happened here is called the Mosaic Covenant. God made a promise to the Hebrews to continue His relationship with them as long as they were obedient to the Law.
Most people today look at the Law as a bad thing. However, God reached out to the Hebrews time and again to show them His grace. He did not have to free them. He did not have to call them His people. All of it was done in grace and so was the law-giving.
This was not Him being a ruling dictator but a loving Father.
Once again, they could not hold up their side of the deal. They disobeyed continuously, and God forgave continuously. They failed to cherish their relationship with God.
Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matt. 5:17). Jesus came to fulfill the Law. This means that He came to complete the purpose for them. He came to make them do what they were supposed to do, connect God with man.
The good news is that through Christ, we have a perfect relationship with God.
The Good News of a King from God
David had a rocky start to becoming king of Israel, to say the least. Despite all of his failures, God gave him a promise, the Davidic Covenant:
“You shall not lack a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk in my law as you have walked before me” (2 Chro 16:6).
This was a conditional promise. Israel’s requirements were the same as the Mosaic Covenant: keep the law. As long as they keep the commands, a man from David’s lineage will sit on the throne. As we see throughout the Bible and as we discussed earlier, they did not. The Davidic line was cut during the Babylonian exile of Judah. Is God “legally” obligated to fulfill His side of the covenant then? Not at all. He has every right to leave the Israelites to their own demise.
However, He makes promise to another man, Ezekiel. He said, “And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them” (Ez 34:23-24).
Whoa whoa whoa… This promise is given around 400 years after David died. So will he be resurrected to reign? No. Not David. But another One was.
Jesus said in John 10:11 and 16, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep… And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”
This is why there are two chapters in the New Testament dedicated to the genealogy of Jesus. He is from the line of David. Just one problem though, is He reigning?
Someone who can say “All power and authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matt 28:18) seems to be King. He was prophesied by Daniel saying, “To him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed” (Dan. 7:13-14). Jesus’ kingdom is not of this earth. It cannot and it will not be destroyed. Ever.
The good news is Jesus is on the throne of the universe and rules with perfect justice and love.
The Gospel is good news because it is the fulfillment of all of God’s promises. We would be foolish to keep these great truths to ourselves.
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