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Excerpts from the upcoming book by

Bruce S. Bertram

Hidden In Plain Sight

Unmasking Riches in The Word

            A promise is another name for a covenant. There are times when God says ‘I will do such and such’ and other times when He says ‘I will do this if you do that.’ Some people call the one-sided covenant or promise an ‘unconditional covenant’ meaning that man doesn’t have to do anything. God just says He’s going to do something, as in Genesis 3:15. The two-sided version of a covenant, the one where God says ‘I will do this if you do that,’ is called by some a ‘conditional’ covenant. The reason this is important is people will tell you that the ‘conditional covenant’ (the Law) was broken by Israel and therefore is not in effect anymore. Again, this is another big presupposition that is not supported by Scripture.

            Because if we think about it long enough it doesn’t really matter whether something seems to be conditional from our point of view or not. Participation with God in anything is always conditioned on accepting what He says and living by it. And if we don’t follow through on our end, God still follows through on His. God will still do His part of everything He covenants or promises. Whether it’s a conditional or unconditional covenant God’s side of it is always a promise, and man’s side is always a response to His promise. Sometimes men don’t do what He says, and forfeit the blessings that come with obedience, but God’s promises continue. Man is not allowed the privilege of negotiating with God what is and is not acceptable to Him. It is all God or separation (Proverbs 1:20-33). In addition to many other people in the Word, Jesus teaches that if a person will not accept what God says they will spend eternity apart from the God they reject.

            The giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai was a continuation of the first promise (see for instance Exodus 19:5) because He is setting up a kingdom which would eventually be ruled by the ‘seed of the woman.’ (Jesus). Way after Sinai, David (2 Sam. 7:11-16) was given even more detail about the promise, being told by God that his descendant (the ‘seed of the woman’ again) would be God’s agent for establishing God’s Kingdom (or dwelling with men) forever. The prophets continued to call God’s people back to the Promise (or covenant), and filled in many details of the coming King, His kingdom, and ultimate victory.

            More clarification concerning the promise is added through the Apostles and Paul. Such things as Gentile inclusion in the promise (which has always been true) and the fact the promise is received ‘by grace through faith only’ are reinforced for us in their writings. This promise of blessing is the focus of the written Word, and is also the glue that holds it together.

³⁸Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹“For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” (Acts 2:38-39 NASB95 italics added)

²³“From the descendants of this man, according to promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, ²⁴after John had proclaimed before His coming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. (Acts 13:23-24 NASB95 italics added)

¹Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, ²which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, ³concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, ⁴who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, (Romans 1:1-4 NASB95 italics added)

¹⁶For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, (Romans 4:16 NASB95 italics added)

¹⁷What I am saying is this: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. (Galatians 3:17 NASB95 italics added)

²⁹And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise. (Galatians 3:29 NASB95 italics added)

¹²remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. (Ephesians 2:12 NASB95 italics added)

⁹The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9 NASB95 italics added)

²⁵This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life. (1 John 2:25 NASB95 italics added)

            The promise, starting with the seed of the woman in Genesis 3:15, is ‘God with us’ or eternal life, for those who want it. We call it the gospel. In the beginning the Word of promise was spoken directly to various individuals, and only after about 2,700 years or so was it written down. When it was probably first written, it was God who did the writing on the tablets of stone. Later Moses fleshed out the tablets with God’s viewpoint of history from the beginning to the time of Joshua. And Jesus is the actual ‘fleshing out’ of God’s Word, literally (John 1:14).

            As writings were added, they all revolved around God’s unified message of promise. The wisdom literature extols the virtues and benefits of living according to God’s promise (a.k.a. ‘the covenant’). The prophets continued telling the people of God’s promise, and called people to repent and turn back to a relationship with Him through His promise. The gospels record the incarnation of the promise (Jesus) and fuller realization of His benefits, while the apostles contributed to the expansion of the promise through clarifications and renewed emphasis. This is another doctrine that needs a whole book to properly explore it, and cannot be covered completely here. However, enough is given that you should be able to get a handle on the general drift of the whole Bible thinking as regards the unifying Promise of Scripture.

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