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The Promises of God

There are many questions, and also misconceptions, about what the promises of God are. There are questions such as: “For whom are they?” or “Are they conditional or unconditional?”

These are very important and essential questions. Rev. G. H. Kersten says in his catechism sermons that “a superficial confession seems enough for many, and especially the doctrine that the promises are for all people causes many to rest in a fancied faith, by which they appropriate these promises.”

Therefore, upon request, I will try to write something about this subject.

What are the promises of God?

Rev. Charles Buck (1771-1815) says, “The promises of God are the kind declarations of His Word, in which He hath assured us He will bestow blessings upon His people” (Theological Dictionary). It is necessary to make a clear distinction between that which God proclaims, offers, or presents unto every sinner, and that which, in the covenant promises, He says He will give to and work in His church. When this distinction is taken away, we get much confusion.

By the covenant promises we mean the promises of the covenant of grace. It is important to realize this, for also the covenant of works, which was established with Adam before the fall, had a promise: Upon perfect obedience the Lord would give unto Adam eternal life.

The covenant which the Lord made with Noah had a promise as well. We read in Genesis 8:22, “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”

Scripture speaks clearly of conditions as well as of promises in a covenant relationship. But there are promises which specifically belong to the covenant of grace. Rev. Kersten speaks of those promises in his Reformed Dogmatics. He mentions there:

The promise of the Holy Spirit :

“I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed” (Isaiah 44:3).

The promise of quickening :

“And [I] shall put My Spirit in you, and ye shall live” (Ezekiel 37:14).

The promise of faith :

The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of faith.

The promise of justification :

“By His knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities” (Isaiah 53:11).

The promise of sanctification :

“And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 11:19).

The promise of perseverance :

“And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good” (Jeremiah 32:40).

The promise of communion with God :

“And I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God” (Hosea 2:23).

All the heavenly benefits are promised to them, but God has also promised everything that belongs to the temporal life of God’s people: “He shall dwell on high: his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure” (Isaiah 33:16).

Such are the precious promises which are given to them in that unchangeable covenant of grace. These are promises which are certain and for which fulfillment does not depend on the response or willingness of man, but they are in Christ “yea, and in Him Amen” (2 Corinthians 1:20). Of these promises Thomas Brooks says:

1. That they are truly propounded and stated by God (Mark 10:30).

2. That they shall certainly be performed (2 Corinthians 1:20), being all made in and through Christ. They are made first to Christ, and then to all that have union and communion with Him.

3. That they all issue from free grace, from special love, from divine goodness (Hosea 14:4).

4. That they are all as unchangeable as He that made them (Jeremiah 31:3).

5. That they are all rooted and founded upon the truth, faithfulness, and all-sufficiency of God (Malachi 3:6).

6. That they are pledges and pawns of great things that God will do for His people in time (Hebrews 13:5).

7. That they are most sure and certain evidences of divine favor, and a declaration of the heart and good-will of God to His poor people (Hebrews 6:12; Numbers 23:19).

8. That they are the price of Christ’s blood.

What a comfort that is for a people who learn that they would sin everything away, and thus forfeit all that is promised to them, if it were not sure in the Head and Mediator of the covenant.

Those covenant promises are for the children of the covenant, for the chosen ones of God. The promise in the tent of Isaac was for Jacob, not for Esau.

Yet this does not mean that no hope is given in God’s Word for unconverted people. We don’t know who the elect are, in whose life these covenant promises will be fulfilled. There are elect ones who will still be converted. We do know, however, that God remembers His covenant as He promised in Psalm 72:17, “His Name shall endure for ever: His Name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in Him: all nations shall call Him blessed.”

We also know that God’s Word clearly testifies of the excellent invitation of the Supreme Wisdom in Proverbs 9:4-5, “Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled.”

Each true minister of the gospel must not only mourn unto the hearers in the preaching of God’s judgments, but also pipe unto them with the song of the gospel, of the crucified Mediator. “And saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented” (Matthew 11:17).

They are called to preach Him who is fairer than the children of men to whoever comes under the preaching. The gospel net has to be cast out into the midst of the congregation, for the Lord has called them to be fishers of men. “Now when He had left speaking, He said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. And Simon answering said unto Him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at Thy word I will let down the net” (Luke 5:4-5).

What a precious task they have, to preach life and salvation in Jesus Christ, the Head and Mediator of the covenant of grace. The Westminster Confession speaks of that covenant so beautifully in Chapter 7, Article 3, “Man, by his fall, having made himself incapable of life by that covenant [of works] the Lord was pleased to make a second, commonly called the covenant of grace: whereby He freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in Him, that they may be saved; and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto life His Holy Spirit, to make them willing and able to believe.”

What a clear distinction is made in this article between the proclamation of the gospel, the offering of grace, and the promises of the covenant.

The proclamation of the law, but also of the gospel, is the solemn task, but also the delight, of each called minister of the Word. This gospel, or the promise of the gospel, must be proclaimed to all the hearers. That gospel must be brought to all nations, to all people. As our fathers stated in the Canons of Dordt, Chapter II, Article 5,

Moreover, the promise of the gospel is, that whosoever believeth in Christ crucified shall not perish, but have everlasting life. This promise, together with the command to repent and believe, ought to be declared and published to all nations, and to all persons promiscuously and without distinction, to whom God out of His good pleasure sends the gospel.

This is evidence that this promise of the gospel comes to all who hear it; also that it is accompanied with a condition, a command: to repent and believe. It is the task of God’s servants, as ministers of the gospel, to bring this gospel, to proclaim the promises of the gospel, with boldness and earnestness to all the hearers.

God’s servants are to proclaim Christ as the Savior, appointed and authorized by God, in whom everything can be found that is necessary to obtain salvation. We can never speak too highly or too freely of Him who came to seek and to save those who were lost. We read of the shepherds in Luke 2:17, “And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.”

What a precious task it is when we are enabled to lift up Christ in the preaching as the God-given Way of salvation and to call sinners to repent and believe in Him. How this gospel preaching also increases our responsibility. If we have heard and known the way and not walked in it, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon: “But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you” (Matthew 11:22).

It is a great responsibility, but also a great privilege to have heard of this only Name. For in Him there is hope for the most hardened and wicked sinner.

The promises of the covenant of grace, however, may not be confused with the gospel preaching of the promise of the gospel to all. These promises of the covenant are sure in Christ and will certainly be fulfilled in all those who are given unto Him. We do wrong when we make these promises general and make of the covenant of grace a sort of offer of grace. For, by doing so, we undermine the certainty of God’s covenant and make it dependent upon the response of men.

We maintain the responsibility of man in hearing the proclamation of the promises of the gospel, but we believe that God’s covenant promises are unconditional and will be accomplished in all those whom He bought with such a precious price. All the conditions of that covenant have been fulfilled by the blessed Mediator of the covenant.

May the Lord keep us from neglecting such a great salvation, from rejecting such a precious Savior, freely proclaimed to us. May He also keep us from taking, or assuming to have received, that for which room has never been made in our heart.

We and our children need to be born again. We need to be led into the truth of our total depravity, and our enmity against free grace has to be broken. We need a Christ revealed unto us and glorified in us by the Spirit’s instruction.

What a precious covenant promise there is in John 10:28, “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.”

May that be the blessed portion of us and our children.

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