We’ve been trying to gain in the past few weeks what it means when the Scriptures teach that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s Old Testament promise. He is the one who is to crush the serpent’s head. He is the one who is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is the one who comes as David’s greater son to rule that which David was given only a down payment of. He is the one through whom all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. He comes to destroy the works of the Devil. He is the end of sacrifice because the promise of the sacrifice is fulfilled in Him. In Christ the garden of Eden is restored in principle and in Christ God’s Kingdom arrives.
He is the culmination of all that God promised in the Old Covenant.
Having looked at how Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s Old covenant promise we want to spend just a few minutes looking at how the concept of “promise” itself aids us in a better understanding of the Scriptures.
We should note first off that a promise is more than a “prediction.” We note that here because there are so many who want to see the Old Covenant as merely a book we rummage around in looking for predictions. However, if all we see are predictions in the Old Covenant w/o realizing that God’s promise is much more significant than a prediction we will not appreciate the depth of God’s work.
A Promise Involves Commitment to a Relationship
God’s promise is at the heart of God’s covenant w/ His people. The promise, as part of the covenant premises a relationship between two parties. We could go as far as to say that a promise cement’s or establishes the relationship between two parties.
Ill. — Marriage
We can clearly see this is much more involved than mere prediction. This is personal.
To say that the OT declares God’s promises, is another way of saying that at a particular time in history God entered into a commitment to a relationship between himself and a people which involved mutuality, blessing and protection.
However, as we have been emphasizing, this promise involved something else as well … it involved God’s unswerving commitment to bless all the nations through the Promise He made to His people. The promise was particular means (to Israel) to a universal goal (for the nations).
For example in Gen. 18:19, the immediate promise that Abraham and Sarah would have a son w/i a year is quickly subsumed under the much longer term and ultimate promise that God would bless all the nations through the community that was yet to emerge from the loins of Abraham.
So in light of this, we must understand that the Promise God makes to OT Israel is in reality a Promise that God makes to all mankind, not just to Israel. God’s promise is Global in its intent and this OT promise is why the NT writers can speak of Christ coming to save the “world.” Because God keeps His OT Promise to bless all the nations through Abraham God saves the world.
Because all this is so it is perfectly appropriate that when the NT authors speak of Jesus as the fulfillment of the promise of the OT, they think not just of Israel but see Jesus as the savior of the World, or rather see God keeping His promise to save the world through His vice regent Jesus.
Paul for example has his whole theology of mission hinged on his understanding of the crucial importance of the promise to Abraham. Paul sees this promise having universal significance,
Galatians 3:8
And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.”
Because of this Paul can say a few vs. later
Gal. 3:14
that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Then after further discussion of the relationship between God’s fundamental promise based on grace and other aspects of the OT, specifically the law, Paul concludes his words to the Galatian Gentile believers
Gal. 3:29
And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
So everyone hearing my voice today who enjoys his son-ship because of Christ enjoys it as living proof of the fulfillment of the OT promise in Jesus the Messiah.
We’re still talking here about the difference between a promise and a prediction. We’ve noted that a promise, unlike a prediction, is personal and involves a relationship. Now we want to mention that
This Promise requires a response of acceptance.
There is no evidence that Cyrus ever acknowledged Yahweh or that he knew anything of the predictions that God made concerning King Cyrus (Is. 40-45). Still, Cyrus fulfilled the predictions regarding himself remarkably even if unwittingly.
But Cyrus’ action carved out the historical and political space w/i which the promise of God for the future of His people could operate, and that called for the response of His people. Indeed the whole burden of Is. 40-55 is to stir up a response among a people who were fearful that they were finished forever as a people. There was no point in God having promised a return from exile if nobody actually got up to return.
This meant exercising faith in God’s Word, uprooting from a generation of settled life in Babylon, and setting out on a long journey back to Jerusalem. W/o faith and action, the promise that cements the relationship is pointless.
We find this pattern throughout scripture.
Abraham believes and leaves Ur
Israel believes during Exodus and embrace God’s promise by following Moses
The land is taken because based on response to God’s promise of the land
The promise comes at the initiative of God’s grace and always depends on his grace but that grace has to be accepted and responded to by faith and obedience.
And it will because what God’s Grace promises God’s Grace achieves so that we can say from the promise to the fulfillment of the promise God receives all the glory.
