Epaggelia

When we approach the subject of God’s promises, we should start at the beginning. Firstly, Peter tells us that God foreordained Christ as providing a Covenant in His blood, and He did this before the foundation of the world (1st Peter 1:19-20).  Isaiah knew of this ancient Covenant and claimed it applied to all humanity (Isaiah 42:5-6). Even Hosea mentions God’s covenant with Adam (Hosea 6:7). In the garden of Eden, God prophesied that a descendent of Eve would victoriously crush the head of the serpent’s descendant (Gen. 3:16). What does Peter, Isaiah, Hosea and Adam have in common? God’s covenanted promise to provide a Christ who would rescue us from sin, death & the devil. This is good news! We praise God because He has always wanted to save us and bless us, even though we continually play into the hands of Satan and sin against Him. This covenant and promise to save us is first and more important than any other covenant God has ever made. All the other covenants hang on this one primary promise, to save us.

Let’s view them.                                                                              

Noah: God covenanted a promise to Noah regarding humanities maintenance with seasons, never to destroy it again with water. This is still in effect with His promising sign of a rainbow. This will only end at the appointed Day, when God will send Jesus and destroy the earth by fire (Genesis 6:18 & 8:15-9:17). Peter understood how this covenant was still effective and how it will come to an end (2nd Peter 3:4-13).                                             

Abraham: God covenanted a promise to Abraham with the solitary agreement of acceptance by Abraham, being circumcision.  It was kind of like getting into a movie, with a ticket that didn’t cost you any money, you just had to obtain the ticket and present it at the door. Remember, you couldn’t see the show without having the ticket!  Read all of Genesis 15 through 17, it was God who passed through the blood of animals. It was God who would do the blessing, God would provide Abraham’s descendant through a barren wife, and God would provide His descendants with an inherited land through a miraculous journey of freed slaves out of Egypt. This was based solely on God’s gracious power to perform the fulfilment of these promises, on ONE condition, that Abraham and his descendants would accept the ‘ticket’, circumcision. Circumcision was the sign. Inside this covenant is the promise of BLESSING the whole world through Abraham’s seed (descendant), which turned out to be Jesus Christ, (Gen. 12:3 & 17:3-14 & Galatians 3:15-18, 3:27-29). Originally Abraham thought his descendant to be Ishamael, then Isaac, but finally he realized it was Jesus Christ, See John 8:56.                                                                           

The Christian: Both Peter & Paul teach on the subject of circumcision as having been replaced in significance with baptism. Read Colossians 2:10-12 & 1st Peter 3:18-21. The new covenant which ensures God’s promise of salvation with a Christian is prophesied by Jeremiah 31:31-34. The human heart is to have God’s law written upon it, and that is what God’s Spirit of Christ does today, 2nd Corinthians 3:3. Remember it was Peter who proclaimed to circumcised Jews admitting their guilt of sin,  that if they were not repentant and baptised, then God’s wrath was upon them, Acts 2:37-41. The beauty of this covenant is that it’s power to provide the blessing of forgiveness and eternal life, lay in the blood of Christ, which we get applied to our heart by faith in the watery grave of baptism,  by the Holy Spirit of Christ, Roman 6:1-7 & 1st John 1:7, Hebrews 10:15-22. Do we have the seal of God’s Spirit in our spirit? Read Romans 8:9. In the new covenant, the sign is the blood and it is sealed with His Spirit on our heart, Eph. 1:13. For these three testify, the Spirit, the water & the blood, 1st John 5:7-8.