Article 27
At Mt. Sinai, God
promised the children of Israel that He would make them a great nation…
if… they obey His voice and keep His covenant. The people replied,
"All that the Lord hath spoken we will do…" (Exodus 19:8).
The old covenant was based on the people's promise, which they did not
keep.
The new covenant is based on "better promises" (Hebrews 8:6);
not man's promise to obey, but rather Christ's promise to obey for man:
"Here I am - it is written about me in the scroll - I have come to
do your will, O God" (Hebrews 10:7, NIV). See Psalm 40:7.
God promised Abraham that through his seed, all the peoples of the earth would be blessed. This promise of the Messiah was not conditional. It was not based on Abraham's obedience, although he did obey God and commanded his children after him.
The promise was not made on the condition that man would do something or anything to meet some requirements set by God. Man does not keep his promises. Man cannot meet God's requirements.
It is God who keeps
His promises. "Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without
wavering; (for He is faithful that promised)", Hebrews 10:23.
Of the two factors in religion, God and man, God should be the center,
the focal point. However, fallen, finite, fallible, egocentric, self-centered
man has a strong, almost overpowering tendency to take center stage and
make himself the center of attention.
The medieval church taught that man was made acceptable to God (justified) by God's work of grace in man's heart, thus putting the spotlight on man and his heart.
The Protestant Reformers said, "No! A man is justified by God's work of grace IN Jesus Christ, putting the focus on the spotless purity and saving sacrifice of God's dear son, and taking away man's focus on his own heart, which Jeremiah says "is deceitful above all things" (Jeremiah 17:9).
Peter promised Jesus to never forsake Him, yet Peter did three times. Man does not keep his promises; man cannot keep his promises.
There is a case in the Bible where man kept a promise. Jeptah won a great victory for Israel and promised God that he would sacrifice the first thing he saw when he arrived home. It was his daughter and he sacrificed her (Judges 11).
Isn't this something to brag about? Man kept a promise!
Our attention needs to be on the God of Abraham, of Isaac and Jacob, who is THE PROMISE KEEPER.