Harry Foster
"Through him the 'Amen' is spoken by us to the glory of God" 2 Corinthians 1:20
IT may perhaps be sensible and even spiritual to denigrate those old Promise Boxes which have now gone out of fashion. It is perfectly true that we need to read God's promises in their Scriptural context and it is equally true that we have no right to give exclusive attention to God's promises and at the same time neglect His commands and His warnings. Nevertheless, when all is said and done, we need the promises of God. And we seem to need them more and more as we progress in our spiritual pilgrimage.
Abram moved out of Ur of the Chaldees in the strength of a divine promise. It is true that according to the New Testament "he did not know where he was going", but he did know that he was going to "the promised land" (Hebrews 11:8-9). Surely we can say that every faith step of this great [97/98] pilgrim was a direct result of a new promise given to him by God. Of Sarah, too, it is reported that "she counted him faithful who had promised" (11:11).
In parenthesis may I suggest that Isaac's sad experience when he was deceived by Jacob would never have happened if he had kept in mind that initial promise of God made to Rebecca and himself before the twins were born (Genesis 25:23).
Jacob himself was the subject of divine promises of grace, but at times he ignored this and made his own plans. After much discipline, however, although he longed to see his beloved son Joseph, he would only journey on down into Egypt when he had a new promise from God on which to rely (Genesis 46:4). Moses most notably based his whole procedure on the promises. When he brought Israel out of Egypt he did so with a promise backed by a token: "Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be the token unto thee: when thou has brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain" (Exodus 3:12). This was followed by the greatest statement and the surest promise of all: "I AM THAT I AM". Moses had some wonderful revelations of God's power and God's presence which we cannot hope to enjoy, but basically his fruitful life was due to the fact that "by faith he endured as seeing him who is invisible" (Hebrews 11:27). In other words his spiritual fulfilment was not so much due to those visions as to his reliance on the promises of God. In that we can be like Moses.
Then came Joshua. In his last days he laid stress on the amazing faithfulness of God's promises: "You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises which the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled" (Joshua 23:14). Perhaps that was why he and Caleb survived when all their contemporaries failed to do so -- they majored on the promises of God.
David was such a man of the promises that the prophet was able to speak of "the sure mercies of David" (Isaiah 55:3). Now the primary and perfect receiver of these promises was, of course, the Lord Jesus, and Paul did not hesitate to apply this Scripture to Him (Acts 13:34), but the context in Isaiah suggests that those sure mercies are secured for all those who know Christ as their leader and commander. So we might go on. There are things in the prophetical books which we may find hard to understand, but how grateful we all are for the clear and unmistakable words of promise contained in them.
When we come to the New Testament we not only have rich promises but we have assurances that to us the Holy Spirit is "the promise of the Father" and is Himself called "the Spirit of promise". In the passage which so describes Him, Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit is not only God's promise, but also His seal and His 'earnest', all with the one objective, "to the praise of his glory" (Ephesians 1:13-14). This is in close accord with the heart-warming words on the subject which the apostle used to reassure the doubting and questioning Corinthians: "How many soever be the promises of God, in him is the yea; wherefore also through him is the Amen, unto the glory of God through us" (2 Corinthians 1:20).
"How many soever!" I like that! The A.V. and some other versions content themselves with the simple inclusive word 'All', which no doubt is adequate. The N.I.V. however, gives what may provide a better rendering of the thrust of Paul's words with its translation: "No matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in Christ ...". No matter how many! Has anybody ever tried to count them all? If so he has wasted his time, for the great thing to grasp is that the Lord Jesus guarantees that there is no divine promise which does not find its perfect fulfilment in Him -- not a single one.
Perhaps they may not be fulfilled in the way in which we had expected, but ultimately we will find that the divine answer was always better than what we had looked for. We might make the verse read, "No matter how great are the promises of God ..." for they are always greater than we had anticipated. It is true that they are not always implemented just at the time which we might have chosen but, however long the delay, in due season we will find that the 'Yes' was in Christ and that in fact the Lord's timing was better than ours would have been. God will never fail and He will always be on time. When this was written, Paul's critics were questioning his reliability, though they had no reason for doing so. He did not let [98/99] this worry him too much, but seized the opportunity to affirm that whatever may be said about His servants, God Himself is totally reliable. He cannot fail.
I have recently been trying to anticipate what will be my emotions when I find myself in the glorious presence of my Lord and have come to the conclusion that one of these will be to have an altogether new appreciation of the perfect fulfilment of every one of the Lord's promises. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul had to admit that life has its puzzling enigmas for us all, but he confidently asserted that one day we will see 'face to face'. "Now I know in part", he confessed, "but then I shall know even as I have been known" (1 Corinthians 13:12).Now we can only affirm our faith as to some of the promises, but then we will fully appreciate that not a single one has ever failed.
In that Day we will know. But although we may be helped by looking forward to the future, there are times when we desperately need to have the help of God's promises right now. That, I think, is why the apostle included in his statement about Christ's 'Yes' and 'Amen', the comforting words about the immediate aid of the Holy Spirit, who is given to us here and now as a foretaste of what is to be. By His presence we have a present and genuine proof of God's faithfulness. The 'earnest' is not all there is, but it is an actual part of that totality. Various translations are given of the word here described as an 'earnest'. We are told that it can rightly be called a deposit, in the sense of being a down-payment which guarantees the full honouring of the pledge at a later date. The point to be grasped is that this is not a substitute or an alternative, but the real thing. The Holy Spirit is given to us as an immediate and positive taste of God's faithfulness in the fulfilment of His promises. The first payment guarantees the rest, and this is what is done by the inner working of the Holy Spirit now. This is a Promise that we do not have to wait for.
We must not forget, however, that the Lord expects us to appropriate His promises. Unless I am mistaken, the implication of this Scripture is that when Christ has said 'Yes' for us, we must reply with our 'Amen' to God through Him: "And so through him the 'Amen' is spoken by us to the glory of God" (NIV). It is an interesting fact that the Lord Jesus always used the 'Amen' to introduce His statements, often doubling the word with His. "Verily, verily ...". He alone could do that. In our case what Paul calls 'the Amen' is to be said by us in understanding agreement and appreciation of the utterances of our Lord.
It should be said that in the first place all God's promises are given to His Son: they are a feature of the anointing and of His title Christ. He plans to include us in them, though, and has Himself done what is necessary to make possible the substantiation of those promises by putting us "into Christ", that is, into vital union with the anointed Inheritor of His Promises: "Now he that stablisheth us with you in (into) Christ and anointed us, is God; who also sealed us, and gave us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts" (vv.21-22). God in His grace has now stablished us into Christ and holds us in Him, so that we may share His anointing and find that the promises are valid for us also.
When God put us into Christ. He sealed us as His own possession. This is something that He has done, only requiring from us a truly committed 'Amen'. With due respect to those who teach that this 'sealing' is a subsequent work of grace after regeneration, I cannot doubt that when God puts people (even Corinthians!) into the Anointed One, He thereby brings them into the sphere of that anointing, seals them for His own possession and enters into them by His Holy Spirit to ensure that they can have the real and present benefit of all His promises. The potential is there for all to enjoy: our part is to claim the blessings by faith's utterance of the Amen.
This 'Amen' is not to be just a formal utterance but a real faith appropriation of the promise. To some the first crisis of such an appropriation seems to come as a second experience of grace, as though only then were they being sealed, but in fact it surely means that they are entering into what the Lord had already provided when His Spirit came to dwell in them and to establish them into Christ. If we are truly children of God then, whether we are penitent prodigals or self-righteous brothers, the Father graciously assures us: "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine" (Luke 15:31). It is for us gratefully to respond with our 'Amen' to that.
There is an element of humble kindness in the way in which Paul speaks of their shared blessing in Christ: "He that stablisheth us with you ", he [99/100] writes, speaking of himself as being a simple sharer with the Corinthians of God's grace. In fact, of course, as compared with these converts of his ministry, he could have claimed priority both in time and in position. He wrote, "us with you", but we would have expected him to write, "you with us." He might even have written (as some of us would undoubtedly have done), 'He has brought me into this experience, but I am not too sure about your position. However I wish you well and will pray that you may have the same experience of anointing which I have had.' He did nothing of the kind. In fact his manner of expression was modest and gracious and also true to Scripture. Had he not already written to these same people: "We have received that Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us" (1 Corinthians 2:12)?
His beloved brother Peter voiced similar sentiments when he wrote: "He hath granted to us his precious and exceeding great promises that through these ye may become partakers of the divine nature ..." (2 Peter 1:4). Our spiritual progress and fulfilment depend upon our saying 'Amen' to the precious promises of God.
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