” For all the promises of God find their Yes in [Christ]. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.”

II Corinthians 1:20

   It is a marvel to consider the truth that the whole of Scripture testifies to this verse. If you would ask me why I believe the Bible and that it is inspired and inerrant, one of the foundational reasons I would have to give is this verse. All of the promises of God, of blessing and of judgment, fulfilled and yet to be fulfilled, find their “yes” in Christ.

     The list is exhaustive but as we stroll through the ages of redemptive history we can find ourselves catching our breath as we behold the truth of this verse in some of the prominent stories and promises of the Bible.

     In Christ, God fulfilled his promise to Eve and to the serpent. “I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise you head, and you shall bruise his heel”. Christ, the offspring of the woman, faced temptation in the wilderness and was victorious, not being swayed by the Devil’s twisting of the words of God as was Eve. And finally he suffered, died and rose again, triumphing over his enemies.

   In Christ, God fulfilled his promise to Abraham that through his seed “all the families of the earth shall be blessed”(Gen 12:3). A reflection of the kingdom reality that Christ ushered in and the mandate he left for his church, that the seed of Abraham, vaster than the sand in the sea would not be only of Abrahamic bloodline, but from the bloodline of Adam’s fallen race.

    In Christ, God fulfilled the Passover promise that he made to his people that “when I see the blood I will pass over you.” Giving them a symbol of the blood that would be shed one day and if applied to the heart by like faith would reckon that one righteous and spare that one from the wrath of God.

    In Christ, God fulfilled his promise that David would always have an heir on his throne (II Sam 7:16-17). Now the risen, glorified King, root of Jesse, reigns on an eternal throne which shall never cease!

    In Christ, God fulfills what he declared in Exodus 34 “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty”. For in Christ God is true to his unchanging character as both just and merciful. How can God be so merciful and yet still execute his justice by not clearing the guilty? The answer is by providing a substitute in Christ, who by his perfect life and dual nature as the God-Man, bore as man the sins of man in order that God might be just in justifying the wicked. Then he was resurrected as a proof that God was true to what he spoke through the prophet Isaiah that  “Out of the anguish of his soul He shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities“(Is 53:11).

   Many more are the promises that God declared to his people. God made covenants with his people, all pointing to an everlasting covenant of grace with Christ as the testator. In Christ, God made good on the promises he made in the old covenant and by sending Christ to live a perfect life and die, then raising him from the grave he made a guarantee that all that would live and believe in him would never die for the wages of death had been paid.

   In Christ, God fulfilled his promise that he would pour out his Spirit on mankind (Joel 2:28) and that he would write his law  on their hearts (Jeremiah 31:33). Christ did this by sending the Holy Spirit to dwell in his people (Jn 16:7), after he had ascended, who is now our guarantee, a down-payment, that God will finally make good, through Christ, on all his promises. For dwelling within us is the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead. That Spirit is “quickening our mortal bodies” so that we may be conformed into the image of Christ as we were chose to be before the foundation of the world and finally be raised by that same Spirit in the last day (Rom 8:11, Eph 1:4).

  

  If we look at the Scriptures we see that all of the promises of God find their “yes” in Christ because Christ is at the center of all of those promises, even the promises of judgment and wrath.Consider all of the promises that God has made, then consider how only in Christ is the fulfillment of that promise possible. Make a exercise of this and you will never ceased to be amazed at God’s marvelous dealings with his people! And with a sure hope you will be able to face every day with confidence in the God who out of his existence as Trinity makes promises (Father), fulfills them (through the Son), and guarantees them in the meantime (by the Spirit). Pondering on this is daily a huge encouragement to me and I hope it can be to you as well! Let us then read the word of God, face each day with its joys and trials, all the while uttering our amen to whatever comes, all to the glory of the God who keeps his promises.