23 -The Concept of PROMISE (1)

If God had left some verses out of the Bible, it would be easier to ignore His GRACE as a power principle. Just the word "grace" itself is quite a concept - which I have labeled in my own mind as "one of those things man just couldn't think up on his own". Man on his own can come up with "gods" and "power" and "fear" and "dread". However - us humans have to be informed of ideas and concepts like "unconditional Love" and "God dying for people" and "salvation as a gift". So - when ideas like "God wanting to show off His grace, stepped into our race and saved us while we were still enemies and did it without our help and presented it as a total gift" (check out Ephesians 2:1-10; Romans 5:6ff.) it just isn't the kind of conceptual construct in which humans' minds generally wander.

Similarly, the whole system we call the New Covenant, spoken about by Jeremiah and referred to by the author of the letter to the Hebrews - is just filled with ideas about which my feeble mind cannot fathom, and about which I can only "receive" - and barely comment. John seems to refer to it in 1 John 2:25 when he wrote "And this is the Promise He Promised us - eternal Life". That Promise is relegated to a person and a place - Jesus and being in Him.

The concept of a Promise Covenant in Jesus forces us to consider what promise actually means. After all when God "promises" He must deliver so if our "total hope" rests on God's promises" - then it simply MUST happen. Sometimes we don't realize that this is the only way to have total assurance - by simply trusting Him to keep His promises. However, many Christians don't realize that God set up His relationship structure with us so that He takes responsibility totally for those who put their trust in Him. No pagan religion ever comes up with that concept.

Don't forget though - all pagan religions came from a twisted understanding of God's real structure to a great degree. Obviously, twisted ideas can and do come out of pockets of ignorance, but very few humans are totally ignorant. Like Adam and Eve, humans wish to be "god" in their own realm and that cancels out some of God's story and some of God's reality in human life. God always breaks back into human history with a Promise of one kind or another. Ultimately, The Promise refers to Jesus and to those who trust God because of Him.

That boils down to a "one-time" historical event. "God spoke to us in 'son-language' by Jesus" Hebrews 1:1-2. Jesus was the Message. Jesus was God's focus of ALL His messages throughout history. So - if we leave Jesus out of the concept, we've just canceled the main focus.

One small illustration may help: We may notice a phrase which was quite common in Hebrew thought - I call it the "son of" concept. Jesus called some of the Hebrew leaders "offspring of vipers" - and we realize that offspring of vipers are vipers ! Hebrews used many figures of speech to express important thoughts and this is one. If I have a son - he is "me" in a new generation - we might say "not literally me" but they would claim - YES - LITERALLY ! So we have to see the concept a little differently. The son is the father in a fresh expression - bringing about perpetuity. So - when Jesus said, "I and The Father are ONE" - He had a literal concept in mind. Modern man doesn't think much differently, but has lost some of the concept. That's why the continual argument over "Is Jesus actually God ?" doesn't seem to get solved - since we just do not think as "Hebrew mind" people to that extent - all the while we are trying to understand statements made by Hebrews ! The other side of the coin - we say "Well, that was a Hebrew concept" and we just ignore it like it means nothing - that doesn't help at all.

What DOES help ? Well - can we say "literally but not ultimately" ? Jesus as Son of God - is God in every way possible except He is not "The Father". Many times we refer to God when we don't realize that the God we have in mind is Jesus - for instance - some pray - "All-wise Creator God" - not realizing Jesus created the world (Colossians 1:16). What we do not realize about the God-head makes us try to limit it to our own understanding of how it simply must work. Not a good decision. Why ? Because that is not simply how it must work. It must work how God decides for it to work - and He is able to make it work without our total or even partial understanding.

PROMISE - might give us some of those same "partial understandings" - so receive what you can - and trust God for the rest. Peter taught his audience that God's design was so "your faith and hope are in God" 1 Peter 1:21 - in fact the whole of chapter 1 of Peter's book teaches on the structure of God's plan - check out the context.

For today - note the following verse - "since God could swear by none greater, He swore by Himself" (Hebrews 6:13-20 gives the context.) And - that whole section is meant to give the reader assurance that our confidence (or our "sure and steadfast anchor - a hope") is in what God did - period. We trust Him to keep His promises - that was the dynamic concept of Abram's righteousness-producing-faith - and it is the only Biblical concept given for ultimate hope in this life which helps us look to the next Life. But - if our "faith and hope are in God" we know it is biblically harmonious - plus we also know it is exactly as solid as God himself. That seems to be a cogent approach to ultimate concepts - and a solid place to stand. More to come