1904AFC012519 – One Perfect Promise
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Luke 1:37 – 37 Not one promise from God is empty of power, for nothing is impossible with God! ~~ The Passion Translation®. Copyright © 2017, 2018 by Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ThePassionTranslation.com
Isaiah 61:1-2a – 1 The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners;
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
Luke 4:14-15 – 14 Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned* to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. 15 He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
*ὑπέστρεψεν from ὑποστρέφω (hupostrephó) {hoop-os-tref’-o} From hupo and strepho; to turn under (behind), i.e. To return (literally or figuratively) – come again, return (again, back again), turn back (again) return, turn back; go home; turn from, abandon (2 Peter 2:21)
Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and Peace to each of you from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus the Christ, in the Power of the Holy Spirit.
Today’s key verse is from the Gospel reading for the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time. In this passage, we see that – at the beginning of his ministry – Jesus was “knockin’ it outta the park.” He has returned to his home town, Nazareth. He got up to read from the Scroll of the Prophet Isaiah “where he had grown up, and went according to his custom, into the synagogue on the Sabbath day.” Here is that passage for your inspection:
Luke 4:16-21 – 16 When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
20 And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
This is one piece of the fulfillment of God’s covenant promise to Adam and Eve – call it the Adamic Covenant – and it is this One Promise that is the entire focus of everything God has ever done. He always knows what he’s doing, he always knows what we need, and his promise is to always meet that need – to be reunited with him.
From this Adamic Covenant, time passed and God continued to strengthen and “fill in” the end result of his One Promise – restoration of our relationship with him. The pattern looks like this:
Adamic (salvation will come) → Noahic (all righteous people can hope in salvation) → Abrahamic (Abraham’s descendants will be the source of salvation) → Mosaic (The Law will be the guide to salvation) → Messianic (fulfillment of the law will be salvation). Only in Christ is the law fulfilled. Salvation comes to us through Jesus because in him, and only in him, is the law fully satisfied. Jesus made this abundantly clear in Matthew 5:17-18 – 17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Each phase of this progressive revelation of God’s Covenant with humanity introduces more details to help us understand his Plan.
- In Adam, all share the same end: Death. But there is hope for restoration of Life.
- In Noah, death is still inevitable but the righteous can expect restored Life.
- In Abraham, death will continue to prevail, but the source of our expectations will be a descendant of Abraham.
- In Moses, we are given a process for gauging righteousness which strengthens our expectations for Life: The Law and eventually the Prophet who guide us in The Law
- In the Messianic Covenant, The New Covenant, The Law is fulfilled in Christ when our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees. (See Matthew 5:20) Salvation is ours through the Grace and Mercy of God in Christ Jesus.
Jeremiah gives us evidence of how God’s Plan to fulfill his Covenant would come about:
Jeremiah 31:31-34 – 31 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more. The New Covenant makes The Law to be “not too hard,” and “not too far away,” but in our mouth and our heart. (See Deuteronomy 30:11-14). When or how will this all come to pass?
There are successive covenant expansions, but only One Promise supported by every step in the covenantal progression: A Saviour will restore us into the presence of God. Now that I am an Old Man, I find that my patience for many things is either waning or missing altogether. I know and understand that this One Promise is the warp and weave of the whole fabric of my life. You’ve seen this phrase in many of these posts: Maran atha! Marana tha! Our Lord has come! Come Lord! This happens whenever I forget the best lesson I learned in Navajo Country. Wait patiently in patient waiting. Huh? Here’s what I nean:
Hebrews 6:15 – 15 And thus Abraham, having patiently endured, obtained the promise.
James 5:7-8 – 7 Be patient, therefore, belovéd, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.
2 Peter 3:3-9 – 3 First of all you must understand this, that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and indulging their own lusts 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our ancestors died, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!” 5 They deliberately ignore this fact, that by the word of God heavens existed long ago and an earth was formed out of water and by means of water, 6 through which the world of that time was deluged with water and perished. 7 But by the same word the present heavens and earth have been reserved for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the godless.
8 But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. 9 The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you*, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. * Some translations read “on your account,” or “for your sake” and YES, he is coming back!
We can find that ability to wait patiently in patient waiting by knowing he is coming back – not just returning – coming back – and bringing judgment with him: They should also be strengthened by the assurance of his foreordained parousia*, and by the fruits of faith that they have already enjoyed (Hebrews 10:19–39).
*This word is παρουσία. The word parousia is found in the following verses: Matthew 24:3, 27, 37, 39; 1 Corinthians 15:23; 1 Thessalonians 2:19; 3:13; 4:15; 5:23; 2 Thessalonians 2:1, 8, 9; James 5:7, 8; 2 Peter 1:16; 3:4, 12; 1 John 2:2, Philippians 1:26
He’s not waiting for someone else. He’s not waiting for everyone else. He may be waiting for anyone else, but the bottom line is, he’s waiting for me, so I’d best get my act together, right? And here’s the thing: I know – really, really know it’s worthwhile and doable because Not one promise from God is empty of power, for nothing is impossible with God! Not even me.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Belovéd!
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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Biblical languages inserts from Bible Hub (Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages) Visit at http://biblehub.com
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
