March 5: Knowing God’s Good Promises — by Faith
March 5: Knowing God’s Good Promises — by Faith
Intimacy with God and new spiritual life is God's promise to us — but as Jesus teaches, we must be born again by receiving Him into our hearts as Lord
This is The Living Word for Sunday, March 5, 2023, based on the following Bible readings set for this Sunday in the interdenominational scheme shared by many churches and chapels:
Genesis 12:1-4 — God promises Abram to make a nation through him
John 3:1-17 — Even 'the teacher of Israel' needs to be born again
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17 — Like Abraham, faith makes us right with God
Theme: Knowing God's Good Promises — by Faith
Psalm 121
1-2 I lift up my eyes to the mountains — where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
3-4 He will not let your foot slip — He who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
5-6 The Lord watches over you — the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
7-8 The Lord will keep you from all harm — He will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.
Genesis 12:1-4 — God promises Abram to make a nation through him
• Taking God at His word he set off in faith for a new and unknown land
1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
“The Lord” — Yahweh, explained later in Moses' encounter, Exodus 3:14-15.
“Go from your country” — God spoke to Abram about leaving “while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran”, Acts 7:2. His name occurs in other ancient texts from 20th-19th centuries B.C.
2-3 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
I will make... I will bless...” — expanding the LORD's original blessing of the whole human race, Gen. 1:28 into a sevenfold perpetual covenant which (unlike later covenants) is largely promises just on God's side.
4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.
“Abram went” — with limited understanding of what God was saying; a model of faith which obeys, and trusts that understanding will follow.
Reflection
SUMMARY God speaks to Abram in Mesopotamia, giving him a faith challenge to leave his people and all he knows, to set out for a distant destination that He would show him.
APPLICATION Faith is how we relate to God and that always involves stepping into what we do not know. There was much Abram didn't understand about his unique call — but in faith he was able to trust God with the details — and go.
QUESTION We trust people we know — how does this work with God?
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John 3:1-17 — Even 'the teacher of Israel' needs to be born again
• Nicodemus learns that spiritual regeneration is the way into the kingdom
1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council.
"Nicodemus" — an influential, educated and genuine-hearted lay representative of the Jewish religious establishment. Other Jewish sources of the period mention a wealthy person of this name.
2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
"He came... at night" — for a more private and longer discussion than crowds would allow and (John's double meaning) coming out of the prevailing spiritual darkness.
"Rabbi" — remarkable respect from a renowned and high status teacher, v.10, to a Galilean without formal training.
3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
"See" — perceive, recognise, or simply enter.
"Born again" — also "born from above" (The Message) in a spiritual birth, a transaction by faith and choice in which the human spirit is kindled into spiritual life by the Holy Spirit, vv.5-6.
4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
"How..." — difficult to understand from human perspective.
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.
"Born of water and the Spirit" — made clean, and made spiritually alive, a spiritual regeneration that comes about only as a result of an intentional decision to trust Christ. In Paul's letter to Titus is the "trustworthy saying" describing rebirth as washing, Titus 3:4-7.
6 "Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
7 "You should not be surprised at My saying, ‘You must be born again.’
"You (singular) should not be surprised at My saying, 'You (plural) must be born again.' " — Jesus is saying that Nicodemus and all the Jewish ruling council he represents need spiritual rebirth to see the kingdom of God, and grasp the nature of Jesus' call — and applies this to all people.
8 "The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
"Wind blows wherever it pleases" — Heb. Ruach and Gk pneuma means both wind and Spirit. We cannot control how the wind blows; nor the new birth. Being born again is letting go of control to God.
9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things?
"Do you not understand" —the new birth allusions in the breath (Spirit) entering the dry bones of Ezekiel 37, and the heart of stone replaced by a new spiritually living heart in both Ezekiel and Jeremiah.
• For further study, see Deuteronomy 30:6, Jeremiah 31:33, Ezekiel 36:26-27, Ezekiel 37.
11 "Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony.
"We speak of what we know" — not hearsay. Jesus focuses on how believing faith, more than intellect, is needed to receive this teaching.
12-13 "I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven — the Son of Man.
"Gone into heaven... came from heaven" — like Proverbs 30:4, "Who has gone up to heaven and come down... what is His name?" Only Jesus descended from heaven and then returned there (on His ascension, Luke 24:51, Acts 1:9).
14-15 "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in Him.”
"Lifted up" — the Israelites were commanded to look up at the bronze serpent and believe that God would save them from the snakes in the desert; so we look up at Christ, "lifted up" on the Cross to believe what He has done for us, and gain life spiritually and eternally.
For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
"God... loved the world" — a truth at the foundation of Christian faith. God's love is without condition and extends to "so loving the world"; this must include "whoever" does not know Him, or who opposes Him, before they come to believe: He loves us first, 1 John 4:9-10.
17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.
"Not... to condemn the world" — Jewish people believed that the end of the age would bring both judgment and salvation with eternal life. But in Jesus, those promises start to take effect, with salvation and new life starting in the present, through new spiritual birth.
Reflection
SUMMARY Jesus explains to an older, renowned Bible teacher that knowledge of the Scriptures doesn't change us, but a faith decision to believe and receive Him as Saviour does. It is the spiritual transformation of being reborn from above.
APPLICATION Keeping rules, following rituals, receiving sacraments and doing what God says are good — but none results in the renewal of new birth which brings intimate relationship with God.
QUESTION Have you experienced new birth? What is your story?
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Romans 4:1-5, 13-17 — Like Abraham, faith makes us right with God
• The gift of God comes only by believing, not by any merit from good works
1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter?
"Abraham, our forefather" — now father of faith to all believers.
2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God.
"Justified by [good] works" — over the centuries the faith of the patriarchs degenerated into a 'works-righteousness' of rule-keeping. In non-canonical Jewish writings known by Paul's contemporaries, Abraham had been wrongly portrayed as justified by his good works.
3 What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
"Abraham believed God" — quoting Genesis 15:6, where nothing is mentioned about works, Paul shows Abraham to be the example of righteousness to follow, because of his relationship with God. Abraham kept no law, carried out no service and performed no ritual but believed God in a close relationship.
4-5 Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.
"The one who works... the one who... trusts God" — wages received for work are earned, not a gift. By contrast, what God makes a gift of, is gracious, unearned and undeserved. Good works cannot count towards righteousness.
"Credited"— meaning to add to the account something that belongs to another. In God's accounting He breaks the world's rules and justifies — grants faith to —His ungodly enemies for turning to Him in faith.
13 It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.
"Abraham... received the promise" — of Genesis 12:2-3 (above), not by fulfilling any condition, but by believing and acting on it.
14-15 For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.
"Depend on the law... [depend on] faith" — good works and believing faith are mutually opposed. Faith trusts in God's work, not ours.
"Law brings wrath" — 'wrath' in the Bible means 'God's just judgment'. The law (unlike grace) flags up every transgression for judgment.
16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring — not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.
"By faith... by grace" — faith and grace go together, as do the opposites, law and judgment.
"Of the law... also...those that have the faith of Abraham" — Abraham, historic father of the Jews and also all those who share his faith but not the law.
17 As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed — the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.
"Gives life... and calls into being things that were not" — Isaac's birth to Abraham and Sarah, two people well past childbearing; Christ crucified and dead, then called into being in resurrection; on those spiritually dead in sin, spiritual life is called into being in the new birth.
Reflection
SUMMARY Abraham trusted and knew God through many trials; he is the pattern for our believing God and taking God at His word today. This, not our efforts or works, is what counts with God as our righteousness.
APPLICATION Difficult though it is, we must root out any sense of entitlement; medieval religion emphasised earning salvation by religious actions and other good works, but we must remind ourselves that, by definition, a gift cannot be paid for!
QUESTION Is the church gathering our path to salvation or the place to celebrate it and give it away to others?
PRAYER Father, I thank You for Abraham, a giant of faith who continues to coach me by his example. And I thank You for giving us what we do not deserve and could never earn — by revealing who Jesus is and what He has done in our place.
Once again I surrender my unbelief and my pride and accept your gift, graciously given — for me to be able to invite Jesus to be my Saviour and my Lord. Amen.