What a Source!

Each of us has a limited amount of time on this earth. Even though I don’t know how much time I have left, I definitely want to pass along to as many as possible the greatest treasure I have found in my life. This treasure is actually free and available to every person. What am I talking about? I’m talking about the theme of this web-book: the precious and magnificent promises of God to man.

The compilation of this information into a web-book has been a sort of “finis coronat opus” (the end crowns the work) kind of project. Properly finishing it has been a major challenge and has taken many years! In many ways, it will always be in the process of being edited and improved, as we get feedback and learn to understand the Scriptures even better. That is one advantage of using this form of a web-book! (Making an improvement does not require a new printing. I intend to be continually fine-tuning it.)

My prayer is that this web-book will be maintained long past my graduation to heaven and be a blessing to many for many decades to come! Let’s start our examination of this section “What a Source!” by looking a little closer at the verse from which our title is taken:

This is how the book of 2. Peter starts out (1,1-4):

“Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: 2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; 3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.”

One thing that stands out to me from this passage is how humble Peter is. Peter is the primary spokesman out of all the disciples, the one chosen to be the Apostle to the Jews. And yet how does Peter present himself? He presents himself as someone who “has received a faith of the same kind” as those he is writing to! Peter knows that he is nothing special in and of himself. But God’s promises are special and they are for everyone of like faith!

God’s promises are described as both precious and magnificent! They have been granted to us by God’s own glory and excellence. In other words, you can count on them, they are excellent and 100% trustworthy. They are as sure as God’s character of glory and excellence!

Consider this with me for a moment:

IF the Bible is truly the inspired word of God (and God cannot lie) and

IF it has been adequately preserved

THEN in it we have a treasure of immeasurable value! That would mean that its truth is to be trusted and its promises (when properly understood) will never fail, because God cannot and will not lie!

My aim with this web-book is to demonstrate (both through external as well as through internal evidence) that the Bible is exactly that!

Over many years as a Christian my appreciation of the treasure we have in the promises clearly given to us in God’s Word has grown and deepened. This area is absolutely foundational to the Christian life.

From the very beginning of a Christian’s life (being born-again and becoming a child of God) it’s all about believing God’s promise of forgiveness for our sins and of eternal life through faith in His grace and not our own efforts or works (Ephesians 2:8-9). The whole of the Christian life comes down to believing promises, starting with our salvation.

1. John 2:25 “This is the promise we have from Him, eternal life.”

But we also grow and make progress in our faith as we live by His promises (2. Peter 1:2-5). By living out the precious and magnificent promises, we can actually experience His divine nature, and escape the traps of living in this fallen world. And our eternal future with Him in heaven will be an experience of His fulfilling all of what He has promised us.

Ephesians 2:4-7 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the boundless riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

What a future we have as Christians! God will spend the ages to come by showing us the boundless riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. I can’t wait! That is a future unconditional promise for every Christian!

The importance of God’s promises in the life of a Christian and indeed for any person who will believe them, cannot be overstated!

You are invited to browse through the menu above to read about how we define a promise, what our presuppositions are, how we categorize promises, many personal examples of how God has fulfilled His promises in our experience, and even try out our searchable database of all the promises of God to man in the Bible to help you find and live by His promises.