Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Corinthians 1:20
For all the promises of God in him [are] yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.
20. For all the promises of God in him are yea ] Literally, for how many soever the promises of God be, in Him is the yea. The Apostle here, as elsewhere, reminds us that God’s gifts depend upon His promise. Gal 3:14-29. And this promise is an affirmative utterance, never to be withdrawn or explained away. Whatever gifts are received by the ministration of His servants are the same in their character.
and in him Amen ] This may refer either (1) actively, to the ratification by God of His own promises, see Heb 6:12-18; Heb 7:20-21; Rev 3:14; or (2) passively, to the security we may feel that His Divine Word will never fail us. But our security is ever in Him. Some editors read (with the Vulgate) ‘wherefore through him is the Amen,’ in which case the meaning would be that because God’s promises were unchangeable, they were to be depended upon.
unto the glory of God by us ] i.e. through our instrumentality, because by the first preachers of the Gospel these glorious promises were made known.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For all the promises of God in him – All the promises which God has made through him. This is another reason why Paul felt himself bound to maintain a character of the strictest veracity. The reason was, that God always evinced that; and that since none of His promises failed, he felt himself sacredly bound to imitate Him, and to adhere to all His. The promises of God which are made through Christ, relate to the pardon of sin to the penitent; the sanctification of his people: support in temptation and trial; guidance in perplexity; peace in death, and eternal glory beyond the grave. All of these are made through a Redeemer, and none of these shall fail.
Are yea – Shall all be certainly fulfilled. There shall be no vacillation on the part of God; no fickleness; no abandoning of his gracious intention.
And in him amen – In Rev 3:14, the Lord Jesus is called the Amen. The word means true, faithful, certain. And the expression here means that all the promises which are made to people through a Redeemer shall be certainly fulfilled. They are promises which are confirmed and established, and which shall by no means fail.
Unto the glory of God by us – Either by us ministers and apostles; or by us who are Christians. The latter, I think, is the meaning; and Paul means to say, that the fulfillment of all the promises which God has made to His people shall result in His glory and praise as a God of condescension and veracity. The fact that He has made such promises is an act that tends to His own glory – since it was of His mere grace that they were made; and the fulfillment of these promises in and through the church, shall also tend to produce elevated views of His fidelity and goodness.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
2Co 1:20
For all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.
All the promises
I. The dignity of the promises. They are the promises of God.
1. They were each one made by Him according to the purpose of His own will.
2. They are links between His decrees and His acts; being the voice of the decree, and the herald of the act.
3. They display the qualities of Him who uttered them. They are true, immutable, powerful, eternal, etc.
4. They remain in union with God. After the lapse of ages they are still His promises as much as when He first uttered them.
5. They are guaranteed by the character of God who spoke them.
6. They will glorify Him as He works out their fulfilment.
II. The range of the promises. All the promises. It will be instructive to note the breadth of the promises by observing that–
1. They are found both in the Old and New Testaments; from Genesis to Revelation, running through centuries of time.
2. They are of both sorts-conditional and unconditional: promises to certain works, and promises of an absolute order.
3. They are of all kinds of things–bodily and spiritual, personal and general, eternal and temporal.
4. They continue blessings to varied characters, such as–
(1) The Penitent (Lev 26:40-42; Isa 55:7; Isa 57:15; Jer 3:12-13).
(2) The Believing (Joh 3:16; Joh 3:18; Joh 6:47; Act 16:31; 1Pe 2:6).
(3) The Serving (Psa 37:3; Psa 9:40; Pro 3:9-10; Act 10:35).
(4) The Praying (Isa 14:11.; Lam 3:25; Mat 6:6; Psa 145:18).
(5) The Obeying (Exo 19:5; Psa 119:1-3; Isa 1:19).
(6) The Suffering (Mat 5:10-12; Rom 8:17; 1Pe 4:12-14).
5. They bring us the richest boons: pardon, justification, sanctification, instruction, preservation, etc. What a marvellous wealth lies in all the promises!
III. The stability of the promises. All the promises in Him are yea, and in Him Amen. A Greek word Yea, and a Hebrew word Amen, are used to mark certainty, both to Gentile and Jew.
1. They are established beyond all doubt as being assuredly the mind and purpose of the eternal God.
2. They are confirmed beyond all alteration. The Lord hath said Amen, and so must it be for ever.
3. Their stability is in Christ Jesus beyond all hazard; for He is
(1) The witness of the promise of God.
(2) The surety of the covenant.
(3) The sum and substance of all the promises.
(4) The fulfilment of the promises, by His actual incarnation, His atoning death, His living plea, His ascension power, etc.
(5) The security and guarantee of the promises, since all power is in His hand to fulfil them.
IV. The result of the promises. The glory of God by us. By us, His ministers, and His believing people, the God of the promises is made glorious. We glorify–
1. His condescending love in making the promise.
2. His power as we see Him keeping the promise.
3. Him by our faith, which honours His veracity, by expecting the boons which He has promised.
4. Him in our experience which proves the promise true.
Conclusion:
1. Let us confidently rest in His sure word.
2. Let us plead the special promise applicable to the hour now passing. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The promises
1. A promise is the antithesis of a threat. The Bible abounds in both.
2. When God more apparently guided the courses of man personally, promises were made to individual men. To patriarchs, prophets, and apostles; and by such they were upborne through trial. But when this became impossible the promises were made applicable to whole nations and generations.
3. Thus the Word of God is filled with assurances of blessings as no other book is. Promises cover the whole period of human life. They meet us at our birth; they cluster about our childhood; they overhang our youth; they go in companies into manhood with us; they divide themselves into bands and stand at the door of every possible experience. Therefore there are promises of God to the ignorant, poor, oppressed, discouraged, etc.; to every affection, to every sphere of duty, to all perils and temptations. There are promises for joy, sorrow, victory, defeat, adversity, prosperity, etc. Old age has its garlands as full and fragrant as youth. All men, everywhere, and always–have their promises of God.
4. They belong to mankind. There have been periods when, for special and beneficent reasons, Gods promises seemed to belong only to His own people.
5. And they are fresh with everlasting youth. The stars never wear out; the sun is not weary from the number of years. The heaven and the earth, however, shall pass away, but Gods word shall not pass away.
6. Not one promise has ever been unfulfilled. There is not a witness in Gods universe that can testify that he has leaned on a promise of God, and that God forgot to be gracious to him.
I. What are the uses to which we are invited to put Gods promises?
1. To make rude duties more attractive. It is affecting to see with what tenderness God has taken care of those that no one else cares for. How He goes down to the poor, and the ignorant, and the enslaved. How He goes down to those that can find no motive for right living in their ordinary experience, and says to them, Be faithful, if not for the sake of your master, then for My sake. And once let us know that We are serving One that we love, and One that loves us, and love vanquishes difficulty.
2. To fortify our faith. Duty is often surrounded by peril or hardship, and is often apparently without adequate result. It is needful, therefore, that there should be some promise which shall assure us that a perilous duty well performed will bring down upon us the Divine blessing. You are oftentimes brought into trials when it seems as though everything would be wrecked, and the world says, Prudence: experience says, Draw back; policy says, Change a little; and expediency says, Compromise; but the Word of God, which is yea and amen, says, He that will lose his life for a right principle shall save it. And in the end, when you come to count the wrecks along the shore, you will find those men who would save their lives by losing their principles are the men that have lost their lives.
3. To equalise the conditions of life. Men are of different calibre, and, owing to this, men follow Christ in different ways. Now, if a party of men are going to California assured that each shall be the possessor, in five years, of one million dollars, the differences between them are annihilated while they are going across. One may have twenty-five dollars in his pocket, another a hundred; one may have almost no conveniences, and another all that heart could wish; and yet, if they are assured that in five years they shall each have a million dollars, they do not care for these inequalities. And let the promises of God rest on the poor mans lot, and he forgets the inequalities of life. For that man who is ere long to be crowned in eternity cannot find the road there so hard that he will complain of it.
4. To redeem secular life from barrenness, and make it worth our while to continue faithful to the end. And while there are promises of God that run through our whole lower life, the promises grow broader and deeper as you go up to those spheres where a man is obliged to live by faith, and above the ordinary affairs of life. So the promises of God are in proportion to our exigencies.
II. What are the obstacles in the way of using the promises of God?
1. We are ignorant of them. There is many a man that lives on his farm years and years without knowing the different growths that it produces. Many a man is buried within a yard of plants that, if their healing properties had been known, would have saved his life. Many a field is capable, if properly tilled, of producing fourfold as much as it is made to produce. Gods Word is like such a field. There are promises in it that no man has ever tried to find. There are treasures of gold and silver in it that no man has taken the pains to dig for. There are medicines in it, for the want of a knowledge of which hundreds have died.
2. When men find them they do not know how to use them. Tea was first served in England as greens. The people rejected it, and thought it rather an imposition. When potatoes were first introduced into Ireland they were rejected there, because they did not know how to use them. And many and many a man rejects, or fails to profit by, the promises of Gods Word, because he does not know how to gather them, and cook them, and use them.
3. We are afraid to venture upon using them. There is many and many a man that would be afraid to trust himself upon a single plank stretched across a deep chasm, though others had walked over on it often without accident. There is many a promise of God that is strong enough to carry men across the abyss of this life, but they do not dare to try it. In an emergency the promises of God are to many men what weapons of defence are to a man who does not know how to use them when he finds that he must fight for his life.
4. We wish the result without the fulfilment of the conditions attached. Many a child that is promised a vacation on condition that he will perform a certain amount of labour, would like the vacation, but does not like the condition on which it is promised. So many of the things promised we would like to steal, instead of working for them.
5. We do not appropriate them. The promise of grace to help in time of need comes to men thousands of times without benefiting them for this very reason. Many carry the promises as a miser carries bank bills, the face of which calls for countless treasures, but which he does not carry to the bank for presentation. Many a man holds bills for blessings of God, but does not present them. They enter upon a philosophical inquiry as to whether there is a presumptive argument in favour of prayer, and whether God will stop the laws of nature for our benefit, or so use them as to fulfil His promises to us. But the way to employ a promise of God is to comply with its conditions, and then wait for its fulfilment.
6. Many are afraid of presumption. Well, it may be presumptuous for you to go into a strangers house without an invitation; but if a man has invited you to come and see him it is presumptuous for you not to take him at his word. And to be afraid to appropriate the promises of God is to charge Him falsely.
7. Many would like to take the promises of God, but they fear they may be self-deceived. You may be, but God is not; and therefore you may rest upon the promises.
8. There are others that have a fear about their own unworthiness; which is as if a man should advertise that he would cure the infirmities of men free of expense, and a blind man should say, I would go to this physician if I were not so blind. Therefore plead the promises because you are sinful; the nature of goodness is to relieve want, even though that want be founded on sin.
9. Much of the want of faith in the promises comes from a neglect on the part of Christians to bear witness to the fulfilment of those promises in their own experience. There are hundreds of men whose life God has made significant and memorable, and they have never uttered a word about it to those around them. (H. W. Beecher.)
The promises, how they become ours
I. By us as ministers–publishing, explaining, applying them. A promise is often like a box of ointment, very precious; but the fragrance does not fill the room till the preacher breaks it. Or it is like the water that was near Hagar, which she saw not till God opened her eyes and showed her the well.
II. By us as relievers realising the excellency and efficacy of them in our character and conduct. It is when these promises are reduced to experience–when they are seen cleansing us from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, making us partakers of the Divine nature, leading us to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called, filling us with kindness and supporting us in trials–it is then they glorify God by us. (W. Jay.)
The promises of God
Note–
I. That they are the promises of God. Because they are His promises they are utterly incapable of any failure. God is not a man that He should lie, etc. In our presumptuous readiness to liken the Almighty to ourselves, we may imagine instances in which Divine promises have failed to be accomplished. But–
1. There may have been an incorrect apprehension as to the subject of the promise; and in the error cherished thereupon, something has been imagined and expected which has not been promised. The Jews misapprehended the meaning of prophecies concerning the Messiah.
2. There may have been some mistake or negligence on our part as to the condition on which the promise was suspended, and the circumstances under which it became actually due.
3. The time for its accomplishment may not be fully come. For the promises of God, though sure, are not in every instance designed for immediate fulfilment.
II. The truth and faithfulness of these promises as resulting from their connection with Christ. They are in Him yea, and in Him Amen, as He is the great foundation of the promises. God sees in Him, as our once suffering but now exalted Mediator, an unchangeable and everlasting reason why all His other promises should be fulfilled.
III. They are to the glory of God by us.
1. In the very circumstance of their original annunciation.
2. As they constitute a new and separate manifestation of His own character and attributes.
3. As in that very act of faith by which those promises are accepted and become available, God is glorified in that particular, in reference to which His glory was, in the first instance of mans sin, insulted and invaded.
4. In the accomplishment of the promises.
5. As furnishing, to all who may be interested in it, an additional encouragement to exercise that faith, by means of which the God of the promises is glorified, and the result of which must be the reiterated accomplishment of the same promise.
Conclusion: Learn–
1. The true character of unbelief. It is–
(1) Unreasonable.
(2) Wicked.
2. The means by which alone the soul can rise to the exercise of that faith in the promises which is required as the condition of their accomplishment, and that it is only when, and in proportion as, we view them in their connection with Christ, that we can so believe them as to receive experimentally and savingly the benefit and comfort of them. (Jonathan Crowther.)
All Gods promises Yea in Christ
Gods promises are His declarations of what He is willing to do for men, and in the very nature of the case they are at once the limit and inspiration of our prayers. We are encouraged to ask all that God promises, and we must stop there. Christ Himself, then, is the measure of prayer to man; we can ask all that is in Him; we dare not ask anything that lies outside Him. How this should expand our prayers in some directions, and contract them in others! We can ask God to give us Christs purity, simplicity, meekness, and gentleness, faithfulness and obedience, victory over the world. Have we ever measured these things? Have we ever put them into our prayers with any glimmering consciousness of their dimensions, any sense of the vastness of our request? Nay, we can ask Christs glory, His resurrection life of splendour and incorruption–the image of the heavenly, God has promised us all of these things, and far more; but has He promised all that we ask? Can we fix our eyes on His Son, as He lived our life in this world, and remembering that this, so far as this world is concerned, is the measure of promise, ask without any qualification that our course here may be free from every trouble? Had Christ no sorrow? Did He never meet with ingratitude? Was He never misunderstood? Was He never hungry, thirsty, weary? If all Gods promises are summed up in Him–if He is everything God has to give–can we go boldly to the throne of grace, and pray to be exempted from what He had to bear, or to be richly provided with indulgencies which He never knew? What if all unanswered prayers might be defined as prayers for things not included in the promises–prayers that we might get what God did not get, or be spared from what He was not spared? The spirit of this passage, however, does not urge so much the definiteness as the compass and the certainty of the promises of God. There are so many that Paul could never enumerate them, and all of them are sure in Christ. And when our eyes are once opened on Him, does not He Himself become, as it were, inevitably the substance of our prayers? Is not our whole hearts desire, Oh, that I might win Him! Oh, that He might live in me, and make me what He is! Do we not feel that if God would give us His Son, all would be ours that we could take or He could give. (J. Denney, B. D.)
Gods certainties and mans certitudes
Yea and amen are in the A.V. nearly synonymous, and point substantially to the same thing–viz., that Christ is, as it were, the confirmation and seal of Gods promises. But the R.V. indicates two different things by the yea and the amen. The one is Gods voice, the other is mans. When we listen to God speaking in Christ, our lips are, through Christ, opened to shout our assenting Amen to His great promises, Consider–
I. Gods certainties in christ. Of course the original reference is to the great promises given in the O.T.; but the principle is good on a wider field. In Christ–
1. There is the certainty about Gods heart. Everywhere else we have hopes, fears, guesses, inferences. Nothing will make us sure here but facts. We want to see love in operation if we arc to be sure of it, and the only demonstration of the love of God is to witness it in actual working. And you get it where? On the Cross. Herein is love, not that we loved God, etc.
2. In Him we have the certainty of pardon. Every deep heart-experience has felt the necessity of having clear knowledge about this. And the only message which answers to the needs of an awakened conscience is the old-fashioned message that Jesus Christ the Righteous has died for us sinful men. All other religions have felt after a clear doctrine of forgiveness, and all have failed to find it. Here is the Divine Yea! And on it alone we can suspend the whole weight of our souls salvation.
3. We have in Christ Divine certainties in regard of life. We have in Him the absolutely perfect pattern to which we are to conform our whole doings. He stands the Law of our lives. We have certainties for life, in the matter of protection, guidance, supply of all necessity, and the like, garnered in Jesus Christ. For He not only conforms, but fulfils, the promises which God has made. Christ is protean, and becomes everything to each man that each man requires. And in some of those sunny islands of the Southern Pacific one tree supplies the people with all that they need for their simple wants, fruit for their food, leaves for their houses, staves, thread, needles, clothing, drink, everything–so Jesus Christ, this Tree of Life, is Himself the sum of all the promises, and, having Him, we have everything that we need.
4. In Christ we have the Divine certainties as to the future, over which, apart from Him, lie cloud and darkness. Here again a verbal revelation is not enough. We have enough of mans peradventures. What we want is that somebody shall cross the gulf and come back again. And so we get in the Resurrection of Christ the one fact on which men may safely rest their convictions of immortality.
II. Mans certainties, which answer to Christs certainties. The latter are in Christ, the former are through Christ. The only fitting attitude for Christians in reference to these certainties is that of unhesitating affirmation and joyful assent.
1. There should be some kind of correspondence between the assurance with which we believe these great truths, and the firmness of the evidence upon which they rest. It is a poor compliment to God to come to His affirmations, and to answer with a hesitating Amen. Build rock upon rock. Be certain of the certain things; for it is an insult to the certainty of the revelation when there is hesitation in the believer. The Christian verb is we know, not we hope, we calculate, we infer, we think, but we know.
2. I need not speak about the blessedness of such a calm assurance, about the need of it for power, for peace, for effort, for fixedness in the midst of a world and age of change. But I must point to the only path by which that certitude is attainable. Through Him is the amen. He is the Door. The truths which He confirms are so inextricably intertwined with Himself that you cannot get them and put away Him. Christs relation to Christs gospel is not the relation of other teachers to their words. You may accept the words of a Plato, whatever you think of Plato. But you cannot separate Christ and His teaching in that fashion, and you must have Him if you are to get it.
3. If thus we keep near Him our faith will bring us the present experience and fulfilment of the promises, and we shall be sure of them because we have them already. And whilst men are asking, Do we know anything about God? Is there such a thing as forgiveness? etc., we can say, One thing I know, Jesus Christ is my Saviour, and in Him I know God, and pardon, and duty, and sanctifying, and safety, and immortality; and whatever is dark, this, at least, is sun-clear. Get high enough up and you will be above the fog; and while the men down in it are squabbling as to whether there is anything outside the mist, you, from your sunny station, will see the far-off coasts, and haply catch some whiff of perfume from their shore, and see some glinting of a glory upon the shining turrets of the city that hath foundations. So live near Jesus Christ, and, holding fast by His hand, you may lift up your joyful Amen to every one of Gods yeas; and when the Voice from Heaven says Yea! our choral shout may go up, Amen! Thou art the faithful and true witness. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 20. For all the promises of God] Had we been light, fickle, worldly-minded persons; persons who could only be bound by our engagements as far as comported with our secular interest; would God have confirmed our testimony among you? Did we not lay before you the promises of God? And did not God fulfil those promises by us-by our instrumentality, to your salvation and his own glory? God is true; therefore every promise of God is true; and consequently each must have its due fulfilment. God will not make use of trifling, worldly men, as the instruments by which he will fulfil his promises; but he has fulfilled them by us; therefore we are just and spiritual men, else God would not have used us.
In him are yea, and in him amen] All the promises which God has made to mankind are yea-true in themselves, and amen-faithfully fulfilled to them who believe in Christ Jesus. The promises are all made in reference to Christ; for it is only on the Gospel system that we can have promises of grace; for it is only on that system that we can have mercy. Therefore, the promise comes originally by Christ, and is yea; and it has its fulfilment through Christ, and is amen; and this is to the glory of God, by the preaching of the apostles.
From what the apostle says here, and the serious and solemn manner in which he vindicates himself, it appears that his enemies at Corinth had made a handle of his not coming to Corinth, according to his proposal, to defame his character, and to depreciate his ministry; but he makes use of it as a means of exalting the truth and mercy of God through Christ Jesus; and of showing that the promises of God not only come by him, but are fulfilled through him.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
As Christ was yea, and all his doctrine certain and uniform, so all the promises of God are yea; the promises of the Messiah have their yea and Amen in him; all the promises of grace, whatsoever is promised to believers, shall be verified by him, that so God may be glorified, and have from men the honour of being always esteemed a true and faithful God, one that cannot fail and falsify his word. But how are the promises of God yea and Amen in Christ by us?
Answer. As the ministers of the gospel are the ministers of Christ for the explication and application of them. The promises are from the Father, through Christ as the meritorious cause, and internally applied by the Holy Spirit, while they are more externally applied by the ministers of the gospel.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
20. Rather, How many soever bethe promises of God, in Him is the “yea” (“faithfulnessin His word“: contrasted with the “yea and nay,”2Co 1:19, that is, inconstancyas to one’s word).
and in him AmenTheoldest manuscripts read, “Wherefore through Him is theAmen”; that is, In Him is faithfulness (“yea”)to His word, “wherefore through Him” is the immutableverification of it (“Amen”). As “yea” is Hisword, so “Amen” is His oath, which makes ourassurance of the fulfilment doubly sure. Compare “two immutablethings (namely, His word and His oath) in which it was impossible forGod to lie” (Heb 6:18;Rev 3:14). The whole range of OldTestament and New Testament promises are secure in their fulfilmentfor us in Christ.
unto the glory of God byusGreek, “for glory unto God by us” (compare2Co 4:15), that is, by ourministerial labors; by us His promises, and His unchangeablefaithfulness to them, are proclaimed. CONYBEAREtakes the “Amen” to be the Amen at the close ofthanksgiving: but then “by us” would have to mean what itcannot mean here, “by us and you.“
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For all the promises of God in him [are] yea,…. This is a reason or argument proving what is before said, that “in” Christ “was yea”, since “all the promises of God in him are yea”; and shows, that God has made many promises to his people: mention is here made of “promises”, and of “all” the promises; or, as the words may be rendered, “as many promises of God”. There are some which concern the temporal good of the saints; as that they shall not want any good thing; and though they shall be attended with afflictions, these shall work for their good, and they shall be supported under them. Others concern their spiritual good; some of which relate to God himself, that he will be their God, which includes his everlasting love, his gracious presence, and divine protection. Others relate to Christ as their surety and Saviour, by whom they are, and shall be justified and pardoned, in whom they are adopted, and by whom they shall be saved with an everlasting salvation: and others relate to the Spirit of God, as a spirit of illumination, faith, comfort, strength, and assistance, and to supplies of grace by him from Christ: and others concern everlasting life and happiness, and are all of them very ancient, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; are exceeding great and precious, suited to the various cases of God’s people; are free and unconditional, immutable and irrevocable, and will all of them have their certain accomplishment. These promises are all “in” Christ; with and in whom could they be but in him, since he only existed when they were made, which was from everlasting? with and in whom should they be of right, but in him with whom the covenant, which contains these promises, were made, and who undertook the accomplishment of them? where could they be safe and secure but in him, in whose hands are the persons, grace, and glory of his people? not in Adam, nor in angels, nor in themselves, only in him. Moreover, these promises are “in him yea”,
and in him amen; they are like the Gospel which exhibits them, consistent, and all of a piece; like the covenant which contains them, and is ordered in all things, and sure; and like the author of them, whose faithfulness and lovingkindness to his in Christ shall never fail; and like Christ himself, in whom they are, who is “the amen, the true and faithful witness, the same today, yesterday, and for ever”; by whose blood, the covenant, and all the promises of it, are ratified and confirmed, and in whom, who is the truth of them, they are all fulfilled. And these are
unto the glory of God by us; these serve to illustrate and advance the glory of God, when they are preached by us, and held forth by us in the Gospel, just as they are in Christ, free, absolute, and unconditional; and when they are received “by us” as believers in Christ; for the stronger we are in the faith of the promises, the more glory we give to God; faith by laying hold on, and embracing the promises, glorifies the veracity, faithfulness, power, and grace of God. The Syriac version puts the “Amen” into this last clause, and reads it thus, “therefore by him we give Amen to the glory of God”.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
In him is the yea ( ). Supply from the preceding sentence, “In him was the Yea come true.” This applies to all God’s promises.
The Amen ( ). In public worship (1Co 14:16).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
All [] . Wrong. As many as.
Are yea, etc. Making this the predicate of promises, which is wrong. The meaning is that how many soever are God ‘s promises, in Christ is the incarnate answer, “yea!” to the question, “Will they be fulfilled?” Hence Rev., correctly : How many soever be the promises of God, in Him is the yea.
And in Him Amen [ ] . The correct reading is : dio kai dij aujtou to ajmhn Wherefore also through Him is the Amen. In giving this answer in His person and life, Christ puts the emphatic confirmation upon God ‘s promises, even as in the congregation the people say Amen, verily. In Him is in His person : through Him, by His agency. By us [ ] . Through our ministration. Christ, in and through whom are the yea and the amen, is so proclaimed by us as to beget assurance of God ‘s promises, and so to glorify Him.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “For all the promises of God in him are yea, (hosai gar epanggeliai theou, en auto) “For as many promises (as are) of God, in him (is) the yes;” They shall come to pass! “They shall not fail” is the affirmation strongly expressed by Paul. For “He has never broken any promise spoken,” 1Ki 8:56.
2) “And in Him Amen,” (dio kai di’ autou to amen) wherefore also through him the Amen;” Because the character of our Lord is holy, His testimony is holy, free from lies, deceptions, and weakness of even good intentions and promises that men have, make, and break, but not He, Heb 13:5.
3) “Unto the glory of God by us,” (to theo pros doksan di emon) “to the glory of God through us;” It is because of the surety of the fulfillment of every Divine promise of Christ to men that we appropriately sing the doxology of praise and conclude so many hymns of public worship with (Gk. amen), meaning, “yea, it shall be, so may it be, or so shall it be!” (1Co 15:16; Rom 15:8-9).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
20. For all the promises of God — Here again he shows how firm and unvarying the preaching of Christ ought to be, inasmuch as he is the groundwork (289) of all the promises of God. For it were worse than absurd to entertain the idea that he, in whom all the promises of God are established, is like one that wavers. (290) Now though the statement is general, as we shall see ere long, it is, notwithstanding, accommodated to the circumstances of the case in hand, with the view of confirming the certainty of Paul’s doctrine. For it is not simply of the gospel in general that he treats, but he honors more especially his own gospel with this distinction. “If the promises of God are sure and well-founded, my preaching also must of necessity be sure, inasmuch as it contains nothing but Christ, in whom they are all established.” As, however, in these words he means simply that he preached a gospel that was genuine, and not adulterated by any foreign additions, (291) let us keep in view this general doctrine, that all the promises of God rest upon Christ alone as their support — a sentiment that is worthy of being kept in remembrance, and is one of the main articles of our faith. It depends, however, on another principle — that it is only in Christ that God the Father is propitious to us. Now the promises are testimonies of his fatherly kindness towards us. Hence it follows, that it is in him alone that they are fulfilled.
The promises, I say, are testimonies of Divine grace: for although God shows kindness even to the unworthy, (Luk 6:35,) yet when promises are given in addition to his acts of kindness, there is a special reason — that in them he declares himself to be a Father. Secondly, we are not qualified for enjoying the promises of God, unless we have received the remission of our sins, which we obtain through Christ. Thirdly, the promise, by which God adopts us to himself as his sons, holds the first place among them all. Now the cause and root of adoption is Christ; because God is not a Father to any that are not members and brethren of his only-begotten Son. Everything, however, flows out from this source — that, while we are without Christ, we are hated by God rather than favorably regarded, while at the same time God promises us everything that he does promise, because he loves us. Hence it is not to be wondered if Paul here teaches, that all the promises of God are ratified and confirmed in Christ.
It is asked, however, whether they were feeble or powerless, previously to Christ’s advent; for Paul seems to speak here of Christ as manifested in the flesh. (1Ti 3:16.) I answer, that all the promises that were given to believers from the beginning of the world were founded upon Christ. Hence Moses and the Prophets, in every instance in which they treat of reconciliation with God, of the hope of salvation, or of any other favor, make mention of him, and discourse at the same time respecting his coming and his kingdom. I say again, that the promises under the Old Testament were fulfilled to the pious, in so far as was advantageous for their welfare; and yet it is not less true, that they were in a manner suspended until the advent of Christ, through whom they obtained their true accomplishment. And in truth, believers themselves rested upon the promises in such a way, as at the same time to refer the true accomplishment of them to the appearing of the Mediator, and suspended their hope until that time. In fine, if any one considers what is the fruit of Christ’s death and resurrection, he will easily gather from this, in what respect the promises of God have been sealed and ratified in him, which would otherwise have had no sure accomplishment.
Wherefore, also, through him let there be Amen. Here also the Greek manuscripts do not agree, for some of them have it in one continued statement — As many promises of God as there are, are in him Yea, and in him Amen to the glory of God through us. (292) The different reading, however, which I have followed, is easier, and contains a fuller meaning. For as he had said, that, in Christ, God has confirmed the truth of all his promises, so now he teaches us, that it is our duty to acquiesce in this ratification. This we do, when, resting upon Christ by a sure faith, we subscribe and set our seal that God is true, as we read in Joh 3:33, and that with a view to his glory, as this is the end to which everything should be referred. (Eph 1:13, and Rom 3:4.)
The other reading, I confess, is the more common one, but as it is somewhat meagre, I have not hesitated to prefer the one that contains the fuller meaning, and, besides, is much better suited to the context. For Paul reminds the Corinthians of their duty — to utter their Amen in return, after having been instructed in the simple truth of God. If, however, any one is reluctant to depart from the other reading, there must, in any case, be an exhortation deduced from it (293) to a mutual agreement in doctrine and faith.
(289) “ Le fondement et la fermete;” — “The foundation and security.”
(290) “ Que celuy en qui toutes les promesses de Dieu sont establies et ratifices, fust comme vn homme chancelant et inconstant;” — “That he, in whom all the promises of God are established and ratified, should be like a man that is wavering and unsteady.”
(291) “ Il a presché le vray et pur Evangile, et sans y auoir lien adiousté qu’il ait corrompu ou falsifié;” — “He preached the true and pure gospel, and without having added to it anything that had corrupted or adulterated it.”
(292) “The most ancient MSS. and versions read the verse thus: — ὃσαι γὰρ ἐπαγγελίαι Θεοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ τὸ ναὶ διό καὶ δι ᾿ αὐτοῦ τοῦ ᾿Αμὴν, τῷ Θεῷ πρὸς” δοξαν δι ᾿ ἡμῶν;” — “For all the promises of God are in him yea; because they are, through him, who is the Amen, to the glory of God by us.” — Penn
(293) “ Qu’il scache tousiours qu’il en faut tirer vne exhortation;” — “Let him always know this — that we must deduce from it an exhortation.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(20) All the promises of God . . .Literally, as many as are the promises of God. Many of the better MSS. give a different reading: In him is the Yea, wherefore also by him is the Amen to God for glory by our means. The thought in either case is the same. The promises of God have been fulfilled and ratified in Christ. He was, as it were, a living incarnate Amen to those promises. Comp. St. Johns use of the word Amen as a name of Christ, the faithful and true witness (Rev. 3:14). The words by us are determined by the context as referring to the preacher rather than to the hearers of the Word.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
20. St. Paul now tells of what the yea in Christ was an affirmation, namely, the promises of God.
All the promises Literally, How many soever are the promises of God, in him ( Christ) is the yea; all God’s promises find their expression in Christ.
And in him By the best reading, Wherefore also through him is the Amen to God to his glory through us. As the yea of God’s promises is in Christ, so our responsive Amen is through Christ to God’s glory. Christ is thus made, by the apostle, the medium through whom God’s promises become ours, and our praises becomes God’s. By this the Christine party are made to realize that they cannot well represent St. Paul as the depreciator of Christ.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Co 1:20 . A more precise explanation and confirmation of , running on to the end of the verse. Hence is not to be put in a parenthesis, as Griesbach, Scholz, and Ewal.
and cannot be synonymous, as most of the older commentators take them (“repetit, ut ipsa repetitione rem magis confirmet,” Estius), for this is rendered impossible by the correct reading . (see the critical remarks). Rather must the former be the cause ( ) of the latter. And here the expression is without doubt to be explained from the custom in worship, that in public prayer a general Amen was said as certifying the general assurance of faith as to its being heard (see on 1Co 14:16 ). Accordingly and are here to be distinguished in this way; , as in the whole context, denotes the certainty objectively given (comp. on that point, Rom 15:8 ), and , the certainty subjectively existing, the certainty of faith . Consequently: for, as many promises of God as there are (in the O. T.), in Him is the yea (in Christ is given the objective guarantee of their fulfilment); therefore through Him also the Amen takes place , therefore it comes to pass through Christ, that the Amen is said to God’s promises; i.e. therefore also to Christ , to His work and merit, without which we should want this certainty, is due the subjective certainty of the divine promises , the faith in their fulfilment. Billroth, indeed (and in the main, de Wette), thinks the conception to be this: that the preachers of the gospel say the Amen through their preaching, so that refers to the living working of God in Christ, in whom He fulfils His promises, and to the faithful and stedfast preaching of these deeds of God. But the saying of Amen expressed the assurance of faith, and was done by all ; hence would be in the highest degree unsuitable for denoting the praedicatio . Finally, Rckert is quite arbitrary when he says that relates to the fulfilment of the prophecies wrought by the appearing of Christ Himself, and to the erection of the church, which had grown out of that appearing .
The article before and denotes the definite Yea and Amen, which relate to the and belong to them. The article was not used before in 2Co 1:19 , because no definite reference of the yea was yet specifie.
] a teleological definition to with the emphatic prefixing of : to God’s honour through us , i.e. what redounds to the glorifying of God (2Co 8:19 ) through us .
] nostro ministerio (Grotius), in so far, namely, as the ministry of the gospel-preachers brings about the Amen, the assurance of faith in God’s promises, Rom 10:14 .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 2001
THE STABILITY OF THE PROMISES
2Co 1:20. For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.
MANKIND in general discover much versatility in their spirit and conduct. They form purposes and rescind them according as they are influenced by carnal hopes or fears; but the Gospel teaches us to lay our plans with wisdom, and to execute them with firmness. A light, fickle, wavering mind, if not incompatible with, is at least unworthy of, the Christian character. St. Paul has been accused of lightness for not paying his intended visit to Corinth. It is probable too (as appears by his apology) that his enemies had thrown out insinuations against his doctrine also, as though it could not be depended upon. He thought such charges extremely injurious to his person and ministry: he therefore first affirms that his doctrines had been uniform, and next appeals to God, that there had been the same uniformity in his conduct also [Note: ver. 23. He assures them that he had delayed his journey, not from fickleness of mind, but from tenderness to them.]. In speaking of his doctrine he digresses a little from his subject; but, what he says of the promises, is worthy of peculiar attention. It suggests to us the following important observations:
I.
All the promises of God are made to us in Christ Jesus
God has given to us exceeding great and precious promises
[He has engaged to bestow all which can conduce to our temporal welfare: all too, which can promote our spiritual advancement. To this he has added all the glory and felicity of heaven itself. Such are the benefits annexed by God himself to real godliness [Note: 1Ti 4:8.].]
But all these are given to us only in Christ Jesus
[Man, the instant he had sinned, was exposed to the wrath of God; nor could he any longer have a claim on the promises made to him in his state of innocence; but Christ became the head and representative of Gods elect: with him God was pleased to enter into covenant for us [Note: Heb 8:6.], and to give us a promise of eternal life in him [Note: 2Ti 1:1.]. Our original election of God, our adoption into his family, with every blessing consequent upon these, were confirmed to us in him [Note: Eph 1:3 to Eph 5:11.]: hence, in the text, it is twice said, that the promises are in him; and, in another place, that they were made before the existence of any human being [Note: Tit 1:2.]: even when the covenant was apparently made with Abraham, Christ was the true seed in whom alone it was confirmed [Note: Gal 3:16-17.].]
From this circumstance they derive all their stability.
II.
In him they are all firm and immutable
The terms Yea and Amen import steadfastness and immutability. Now the promises cannot fail unless they be either revoked by God, or forfeited by man; but God will not suffer them to fail by either of these means
He himself will not revoke them
[Some of his promises are absolute and others conditional: the conditional are suspended on the performance of something by man: the absolute are made without respect to any thing to he done by us [Note: Such are the declarations respecting the incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, together with the consequent calling of the Gentiles, and the salvation of all that from eternity were given to Christ. Joh 17:6.]. If the former fail, it is not so properly a breach of promise, as an execution of a threatening implied in it [Note: This is the true import of what God says, Num 14:34.]: the latter never have failed in any one instance; nor can one jot or tittle of them ever fail to all eternity. This is declared in various passages of Holy Scripture [Note: 1Sa 12:22. Isa 54:10. Jer 31:35-37; Jer 33:25-26.]. Gods word, like his nature, has no variableness or shadow of turning: he confirmed his promises with an oath, in order that we might he more assured of the immutability of his counsel [Note: Heb 6:17.]: hence it is expressly said, that the promise is sure to all the seed [Note: Rom 4:16.].]
Nor will he suffer his people to forfeit their interest in them
[Doubtless his people, as free agents, are capable of apostatizing from the truth: yea, they are even bent to backslide from him [Note: Hos 11:7.]; and, if left to themselves, they would inevitably fall and perish [Note: Isa 10:4.]: hence they are bidden to take heed lest they come short of the promised blessings [Note: Heb 4:1.]. St. Paul himself felt the need of much labour and self-denial to prevent his becoming a cast-away [Note: 1Co 9:27.]. Nevertheless these truths are not at all inconsistent with the doctrine insisted on: it is by the fear of falling, that God keeps us from falling [Note: Php 2:12-13.]; and he will keep us by his own power unto final salvation [Note: 1Pe 1:5.]. Of this St. Paul was as confident as of any truth whatever [Note: Php 1:6.]; nor is there any other truth more abundantly confirmed in Scripture [Note: Rom 11:29. Joh 10:28-29.]. God will indeed punish his people for their declensions [Note: Psa 89:30-32.]; but, instead of casting them off, he will reclaim them from their errors [Note: Psa 89:33-35.]: if it were not thus, not one only, but all of those, who had been given to Christ, might perish. God however will effectually prevent this [Note: Mat 18:14. Jer 32:38-41.]; and the weakest of his people may join in the Apostles triumph [Note: Rom 8:38-39.].]
This doctrine is far from being a matter of speculation only:
III.
In their accomplishment God is glorified, and the ends of our ministry are answered
The promises, as recorded in the Scriptures, are the foundation of our hopes: but it is by their accomplishment alone that the effects attributed to them are produced. In that,
1.
God is glorified
[Every perfection of the Deity is interested in the accomplishment of his word: the mercy and love of God have given us the promises: his truth and faithfulness are pledged to fulfil them: his almighty power is engaged to execute whatever his goodness has given us reason to expect. Were his promises to fail of accomplishment, these perfections would be all dishonoured; but when they are fulfilled, these perfections are all glorified. Justice itself is made to harmonize with truth and mercy [Note: Psa 85:10.], and matter is furnished for endless praise and adoration.]
2.
The ends of our ministry are answered
[The great ends of our ministry are to convert, edify, and comfort immortal souls. In pursuance of these, we set before men those promises which are most suited to their respective conditions; and assure them that their affiance in those promises shall bring them the blessings they desire. When therefore the contrite are brought to experience rest in Jesus, when the afflicted are comforted, the backsliding reclaimed, or the wavering established, then the great ends of our ministry are so far answered with respect to them. The truth of God in his promises is then made to appear; the benefits contained in them are enjoyed by our fellow-creatures; and our labours receive their richest recompence.]
Application
[The Scripture speaks of some as heirs of promise, and others as strangers from the covenant of promise. Let us inquire to which of these characters we belong. Have we renounced every other hope, and rested simply on the promises made to us in Christ? And are we living in the earnest expectation of their full accomplishment? Have we so embraced them as to shew that we are seeking another country [Note: Heb 11:13-14.]? Let us not mistake our true and proper character. If we be strangers from the covenant of promise, we are without Christ, and without hope [Note: Eph 2:12.]. The threatenings, and not the promises, belong to us, and they will infallibly be executed upon us in due season. O that we might now flee for refuge to the hope set before us! But if we be heirs of promise, happy are we beyond all expression. Every promise of God, temporal, spiritual, or eternal, is made to us. Let every one then of this description be filled with consolation [Note: Heb 6:18.]: let them also be followers of those, who now inherit the promises [Note: Heb 6:12.]. May it never be said of them, that they glorify God by their faith, but dishonour him by their works! The promises are given, not merely to save, but to sanctify, the soul [Note: 2Pe 1:4.]. Treasure up then, brethren, those inestimable pledges of Gods love, and let them operate according to the direction given you [Note: 2Co 7:1.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
20 For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.
Ver. 20. In him are yea and amen ] That is, truth and assurance. They will eat their way over all Alps of opposition, as one speaketh.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
20. ] is an independent relative clause, as in ref., not the subject answering to as a predicate, as E. V.: For how many soever be the promises of God, in Him is the yea (the affirmation and fulfilment of them all); wherefore also through Him is the Amen, for glory to God by our (the Apostles’) means . This reading, which has the stronger external authority, may have arisen from an idea that the clause had reference to the Amen uttered at the end of prayers . So Theodoret, , from which comment De Wette thinks the reading has sprung. The apparent objection to it is, that then must mean , which without notice it perhaps could hardly do. In the next verse, when such is about to be its meaning, we have first , and then in 2Co 1:22 , in the general sense: but here, without any such preparatory notice, must signify ‘by means of us Apostles ,’ ‘by our work in the Lord.’ Thus will be merely a strengthening of the affirmation and completion of God’s promises.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
2Co 1:20 . . . .: for how many soever be the promises of God, in Him is the Yea . Not only was Christ a (Rom 15:8 ), but He is Himself, in His own Person, the true fulfilment and recapitulation of them all ( cf. Gal 3:8 ). . . .: wherefore also through Him is the “Amen,” to the glory of God, through us . The reading of the received text conceals the force of these words. It is because Christ is the consummation, the “Yea” of the Divine promises, that the “Amen” is specially fitting at the close of doxologies in public worship (1Co 14:16 ). The thought of the fulfilment of God’s promises naturally leads to a doxology (Rom 15:9 ), to which a solemn , the Hebrew form of the Greek , whose significance as applied to Christ has just been expounded, is a fitting climax. in this clause includes, of course, both St. Paul and his correspondents; it refers, indeed, to the general practice of Christians in their public devotions.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
2 Corinthians
GOD’S YEA; MAN’S AMEN
2Co 1:20
This is one of the many passages the force and beauty of which are, for the first time, brought within the reach of an English reader by the alterations in the Revised Version. These are partly dependent upon the reading of the text and partly upon the translation. As the words stand in the Authorised Version, ‘yea’ and ‘amen’ seem to be very nearly synonymous expressions, and to point substantially to the same thing-viz. that Jesus Christ is, as it were, the confirmation and seal of God’s promises. But in the Revised Version the alterations, especially in the pronouns, indicate more distinctly that the Apostle means two different things by the ‘yea’ and the ‘amen’ . The one is God’s voice, the other is man’s. The one has to do with the certainty of the divine revelation, the other has to do with the certitude of our faith in the revelation. When God speaks in Christ, He confirms everything that He has said before, and when we listen to God speaking in Christ, our lips are, through Christ, opened to utter our assenting ‘Amen’ to His great promises. So, then, we have the double form of our Lord’s work, covering the whole ground of His relations to man, set forth in these two clauses, in the one of which God’s confirmation of His past revelations by Jesus Christ is treated of, and in the other of which the full and confident assent which men may give to that revelation is set before us. I deal, then, with these two points-God’s certainties in Christ, and man’s certitudes through Christ.
Now these two things do not always go together. We may be very certain, as far as our persuasion is concerned, of a very doubtful fact, or we may be very doubtful, as far as our persuasion is concerned, of a very certain fact. We speak about truths or facts as being certain, and we ought to mean by that, not how we think about them, but what they are in the evidence on which they rest. A certain truth is a truth which has its evidence irrefragable; and the only fitting attitude for men, in the presence of a certain truth, is to have a certitude of the truth. And these two things are, our Apostle tells us, both given to us in and through Jesus Christ. Let me deal, then, with these two sides.
I. First, God’s certainties in Christ.
And, first of all, there is the certainty about God’s heart. Everywhere else we have only peradventures, hopes, fears, guesses more or less doubtful, and roundabout inferences as to His disposition and attitude towards us. As one of the old divines says somewhere, ‘All other ways of knowing God are like the bended bow, Christ is the straight string.’ The only means by which, indubitably, as a matter of demonstration, men can be sure that God in the heavens has a heart of love towards them is by Jesus Christ. For consider what will make us sure of that. Nothing but facts; words are of little use, arguments are of little use. A revelation, however precious, which simply says to us, ‘God is Love’ is not sufficient for our need. We want to see love in operation if we are to be sure of it, and the only demonstration of the love of God is to witness the love of God in actual working. And you get it-where? On the Cross of Jesus Christ. I do not believe that anything else irrefragably establishes the fact for the yearning hearts of us poor men who want love, and yet cannot grope our way in amidst the mysteries and the clouds in providence and nature, except this-’Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.’
The question may arise in some minds, Is there any need for proving God’s love? The question never arose except within the limits of Christianity. It is only men who have lived all their lives in an atmosphere saturated by Christian sentiment and conviction that ever come to the point of saying, ‘We do not want historical revelation to prove to us the fact of a loving God.’ They would never have fancied that they did not need the revelation unless, unconsciously to themselves, and indirectly, all their thoughts had been coloured and illuminated by the revelation that they profess they reject. God as Love is ‘our dearest faith, our ghastliest doubt,’ and the only way to make absolutely certain of the fact that His heart is full of mercy to us is to look upon Him as He stands revealed to us, not merely in the words of Christ, for, precious as they are, these are the smallest part of His revelation, but in the life and in the death which open for us the heart of God. Remember what He said Himself, not ‘He who hath listened to Me, doth understand the Father,’ but ‘He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.’ ‘In Him is yea,’ and the hopes and shadowy fore-revelations of the loving heart of God are confirmed by the fact of His life and death. God establishes , not ‘commends’ as our translation has it, ‘His love towards us in that whilst we were yet sinners Christ died for us.’
Further, in Him we have the certainty of pardon. Every deep heart-experience amongst men has felt the necessity of having a clear certainty and knowledge about forgiveness. Men do not feel it always. A man can skate over the surface of the great deeps that lie beneath the most frivolous life, and may suppose, in his superficial way of looking at things, that there is no need for any definite teaching about sin and the mode of dealing with it. But once bring that man face to face, in a quiet hour, with the facts of his life and of a divine law, and all that superficial ignoring of evil in himself and of the dread of punishment and consequences, passes away. I am sure of this, that no religion will ever go far and last long and work mightily, and lay a sovereign hand upon human life, which has not a most plain and decisive message to preach in reference to pardon. And I am sure of this, that one reason for the comparative feebleness of much so-called Christian teaching in this generation is just that the deepest needs of a man’s conscience are not met by it. In a religion on which the whole spirit of a man may rest itself, there must be a very plain message about what is to be done with sin. The only message which answers to the needs of an awakened conscience and an alarmed heart is the old-fashioned message that Jesus Christ the Righteous has died for us sinful men. All other religions have felt after a clear doctrine of forgiveness, and all have failed to find it. Here is the divine ‘Yea!’ And on it alone we can suspend the whole weight of our soul’s salvation. The rope that is to haul us out of the horrible pit and the miry clay had much need to be tested before we commit ourselves to it. There are plenty of easygoing superficial theories about forgiveness predominant in the world to-day. Except the one that says, ‘In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sin,’ they are all like the rope let down into the dark mine to lift the captives beneath, half of the strands of which have been cut on the sharp edge above, and when the weight hangs on to it, it will snap. There is nothing on which a man who has once learned the tragical meaning and awful reality and depth of the fact of his transgression can suspend his forgiveness, except this, that ‘Christ has died, the just for the unjust, to bring us unto God.’ ‘In Him the promise is yea.’
And, again, we have in Christ divine certainties in regard to life. We have in Him the absolutely perfect pattern to which we are to conform our whole doings. And so, notwithstanding that there may, and will still be many uncertainties and much perplexity, we have the great broad lines of morals and of duty traced with a firm hand, and all that we need to know of obligation and of perfectness lies in this-Be like Jesus Christ! So the solemn commandments of the ethical side of Divine Revelation, as well as the promises of it, get their ‘yea’ in Jesus Christ, and He stands the Law of our lives.
We have certainties for life, in the matter of protection, guidance, supply of all necessity, and the like, treasured and garnered in Jesus Christ. For He not only confirms, but fulfils, the promises which God has made. If we have that dear Lord for our very own, and He belongs to us as He does belong to them who love Him and trust Him, then in Him we have in actual possession these promises, how many soever they be, which are given by God’s other words.
Christ is Protean, and becomes everything to each man that each man requires. He is, as it were, ‘a box where sweets compacted lie.’ ‘In Him are hid all the treasures,’ not only of wisdom and knowledge, but of divine gifts, and we have but to go to Him in order to have that which at each moment as it emerges, we most require. As in some of those sunny islands of the Southern Pacific, one tree supplies the people with all that they need for their simple wants, fruit for their food, leaves for their houses, staves, thread, needles, clothing, drink, everything-so Jesus Christ, this Tree of Life, is Himself the sum of all the promises, and, having Him, we have everything that we need.
And, lastly, in Christ we have the divine certainties as to the Future over which, apart from Him, lie cloud and darkness. As I said about the revelation of the heart of God, so I say about the revelation of a future life-a verbal revelation is not enough. We have enough of arguments; what we want is facts. We have enough of man’s peradventures about a future life, enough of evidence more or less valid to show that it is ‘probable,’ or ‘not inconceivable,’ or ‘more likely than not,’ and so on and so on. What we want is that somebody shall cross the gulf and come back again, and so we get in the Resurrection of Christ the one fact on which men may safely rest their convictions of immortality, and I do not think that there is a second anywhere. On it alone, as I believe, hinges the whole answer to the question-’If a man die, shall he live again?’ This generation is brought, in my reading of it, right up to this alternative-Christ’s Resurrection,-or we die like the brutes that perish. ‘All the promises of God in Him are yea.’
II. And now a word as to the second portion of my text-viz. man’s certitudes, which answer to God’s certainties.
There should be some kind of correspondence between the firmness with which we grasp, the tenacity with which we hold, the assurance with which we believe, these great truths, and the rock-like firmness and immovableness of the evidence upon which they rest. It is a poor compliment to God to come to His most veracious affirmations, sealed with the broad seal of His Son’s life and death, and to answer with a hesitating ‘Amen,’ that falters and almost sticks in our throat. Build rock upon rock. Be sure of the certain things. Grasp with a firm hand the firm stay. Immovably cling to the immovable foundation; and though you be but like the limpet on the rock hold fast by the Rock, as the limpet does; for it is an insult to the certainty of the revelation, when there is hesitation in the believer.
I need not dwell for more than a moment upon the lamentable contrast which is presented between this certitude, which is our only fitting attitude, and the hesitating assent and half belief in which so many professing Christians pass their lives. The reasons for that are partly moral, partly intellectual. This is not a day which is favourable to the unhesitating avowal of convictions in reference to an unseen world, and many of us are afraid of being called narrow, or dogmatisers, and think it looks like breadth, and liberality, and culture, and I know not what, to say ‘Well! perhaps it is, but I am not quite sure; I think it is, but I will not commit myself.’ All the promises of God, which in Him are yea, ought through Him to get from us an ‘Amen.’
There is a great deal that will always be uncertain. The firmer our convictions, the fewer will be the things that they grasp; but, if they be few, they will be large, and enough for us. These truths certified in Christ concerning the heart of God, the message of pardon, the law for life, the gifts of guidance, defence, and sanctifying, the sure and certain hope of immortality-these things we ought to be sure about, whatever borderland of uncertainty may lie beyond them. The Christian verb is ‘we know ,’ not ‘we hope, we calculate, we infer, we think,’ but ‘we know .’ And it becomes us to apprehend for ourselves the full blessedness and power of the certitude which Christ has given to us by the certainties which he has brought us.
I need not speak about the blessedness of such a calm assurance, about the need of it for power, for peace, for effort, for fixedness in the midst of a world and age of change. But I must, before I close, point you to the only path by which that certitude is attainable. ‘ Through Him is the amen.’ He is the Door. The truths which He confirms are so inextricably intertwined with Himself that you cannot get them and put away Him. Christ’s relation to Christ’s Gospel is not the relation of other teachers to their words. You may accept the words of a Plato, whatever you think of the Plato who spoke the words. But you cannot separate Christ and His teaching in that fashion, and you must have Him if you are to get it . So, faith in Him, the intellectual acceptance of Him, as the authoritative and infallible Revealer, the bowing down of heart and will to Him as our Commander and our Lord, the absolute trust in Him as the foundation of all our hope and the source of all our blessedness-that is the way to certitude, and there is no other road that we can take.
If thus we keep near Him, our faith will bring us the present experience and fulfilment of the promises, and we shall be sure of them, because we have them already. And whilst men are asking, ‘Do we know anything about God? Is there a God at all? Is there such a thing as forgiveness? Can anybody find anywhere absolute rules for his life? Is there anything beyond the grave but mist and darkness?’ we can say, ‘One thing I know, Jesus Christ is my Saviour, and in Him I know God, and pardon, and duty, and sanctifying, and safety, and immortality; and whatever is dark, this, at least, is sun-clear.’ Get high enough up and you will be above the fog; and while the men down in it are squabbling as to whether there is anything outside the mist, you, from your sunny station, will see the far-off coasts, and haply catch some whiff of perfume from their shore, and see some glinting of a glory upon the shining turrets of ‘the city that hath foundations.’ We have a present possession of all the promises of God; and whoever doubts their certitude, the man who knows himself a son of God by faith, and has experience of forgiveness and guidance and answered prayer and hopes whose ‘sweetness yieldeth proof that they were born for immortality,’ knows the things which others question and doubt.
So live near Jesus Christ, and, holding fast by His hand, you may lift up your joyful ‘Amen’ to every one of God’s ‘Yeas.’ For in Him we know the Father, in Him we know that we have the forgiveness of sins, in Him we know that God is near to bless and succour and guide, and in Him ‘we know that, though our earthly house were dissolved, we have a building of God.’ Wherefore we are always confident; and when the Voice from Heaven says ‘Yea!’ our choral shout may go up ‘Amen! Thou art the faithful and true witness.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
all, &c. = as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are. and in Him. The texts read” Wherefore also through (App-104, 2Co 1:1) Him they are. “Amen, This Hebrew word is translated “verily” in the Gospels, except in Mat 6:13 at the end of the Lord’s Prayer, and at the close of each Gospel, It does not nec. in the Acts. In the Epistles it comes at the close of benedictions and doxologies. In the Revelation occasionally at the beginning. There are three exceptions, here, 1Co 14:16, and Rev 3:14. In the last passage it is a title of the Lord. It means “truth”, and He is the Truth (Joh 14:6). Compare Isa 65:16, where “the God of truth” is “the God of Amen”,
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
20.] is an independent relative clause, as in ref.,-not the subject answering to as a predicate, as E. V.:-For how many soever be the promises of God, in Him is the yea (the affirmation and fulfilment of them all); wherefore also through Him is the Amen, for glory to God by our (the Apostles) means. This reading, which has the stronger external authority, may have arisen from an idea that the clause had reference to the Amen uttered at the end of prayers. So Theodoret, , from which comment De Wette thinks the reading has sprung. The apparent objection to it is, that then must mean , which without notice it perhaps could hardly do. In the next verse, when such is about to be its meaning, we have first , and then in 2Co 1:22, in the general sense: but here, without any such preparatory notice, must signify by means of us Apostles, by our work in the Lord. Thus will be merely a strengthening of -the affirmation and completion of Gods promises.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
2Co 1:20. ) promises, declarations.- – , yea-amen) The words yea and amen agreeing together, stand in pleasant antithesis to the words yea and nay, 2Co 1:19, which are at variance with each other: yea by affirmation; amen, by an oath; or yea in respect of the Greeks; amen in respect of the Jews; comp. Gal 4:6 note; for yea is Greek, amen is Hebrew; or yea, in respect of God who promises, amen in respect of believers; comp. 1Jn 2:8; yea in respect of the apostles, amen in respect of their hearers.- [to the glory of God] to God for His glory) For the truth of God is glorified in all His promises, which are verified in Christ.- , to the glory) 2Co 4:15.- , by us) construed with there is, again to be understood. For whatever may be the number of [as many soever as are] the promises of God, there is in Him the Yea, and in Him the Amen [every promise has its yea and amen, i.e. its fulfilment in Him]. To the glory of God (is that Yea and Amen) by us. The yea is re-echoed by us.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
2Co 1:20
2Co 1:20
For how many soever be the promises of God, in him is the yea:-For all the promises of God are yea, are certain, and will be sure unto the end. [The Judaizers, against whom Pauls reasoning in this epistle is chiefly directed, might see the yea yea of the fulfilment of all the promises as nay for all the uncircumcised. With Paul the promises of God were all yea where Gentiles as well as Jews were embraced. In Christ is full salvation for all who accept him.]
wherefore also through him is the Amen,-Amen here means all the promises which are made to men through Jesus Christ the Redeemer shall be certainly fulfilled. They are promises which are confirmed and established, and which by no means fail; but the blessings are assured only to those who give them the amen of a practical acknowledgement.
unto the glory of God through us.-[Paul rejoiced that his ministry and that of his fellow laborers contributed to the glory of God, which is identified with the recognition and appropriation by men of his goodness and faithfulness in Jesus Christ.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
The Yea and the Amen
For how many soever be the promises of God, in him is the yea: wherefore also through him is the Amen, unto the glory of God through us.2Co 1:20.
1. These words occur in a homely and curious connexion. St. Paul had not kept his appointment with the Corinthian Church, and he fears that the influence of a hostile party may cause his failure to be misunderstood. Did he use lightness? Was his pledge Yea, Yea, and Nay, Nay; Yes to-day, and No to-morrow? Now, what would seem most natural for us to say, if exposed to such a charge? Perhaps we should exclaim, I am not such a man; or, They have mistaken the person they have to deal with; or again, I can afford to despise the insinuation. But St. Paul did not think first about himself. He had passed out of the sphere where any subject, even the slightest, appealed first and most naturally to his personal instincts and his self-respect. When he is reproached with changing lightly the plan of a tour (which plan he had actually changed), his thoughts revert to Christ and His Gospel, which such conduct would dishonour. What notion of the Master have these people, who charge him, the herald, with such unworthy levity? There was not Yea and Nay with Paul, because in Christ was one steadfast Yea.
Now, this argument is illogical unless we supply a suppressed premiss which St. Paul did not pause to state, since he had much to say in few words. For just as Gods fidelity is no guarantee of Pauls veracity, unless Paul was a partaker of the Divine nature, so the steadfast sincerity of Christ is no guarantee of his sincerity, unless he and Christ are oneone in being, one in thought, will, aim. But this oneness with Christ was a fundamental conception of the Christian life with St. Paul. It lay at the basis of his theology. He could neither preach a sermon nor write a letter without affirming or assuming it. So completely was he one with Christ that he affirms that he was crucified with Christ; that he died when Christ died, and rose again from the dead. All he did he did by Christ, as well as for Him. All he suffered was but a filling up of the remnant of Christs affliction. His motto, his characteristic word, might well be: Henceforth I live: yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. That being so, it was natural that he should assume this doctrine of the indwelling Christ here; and assume also that his readers would supply this premiss of his argument, which he did not think it necessary, or which it did not occur to him, to state. And, of course, the moment it was assumed, the Apostles argument became sound, and even irresistible. For then it ran: The Son of God, Jesus Christ, is true; Christ is in me; the spring of all virtue, as well as the hope of glory: and therefore I am, I must be, true. As He, was not Yea and Nay, my word to you is not, and cannot be, Yea and Nay.
2. Now look at the text. This is one of the many passages the force and beauty of which are, for the first time, brought within the reach of an English reader by the alterations in the Revised Version. These are dependent partly upon the reading of the Greek and partly upon the translation. As the words stand in the Authorized Version, yea and amen seem to be very nearly synonymous expressions, and to point substantially to the same thing, namely, that Jesus Christ is as it were the confirmation and seal of Gods promises. But in the Revised Version the alterations, especially in the pronouns, indicate more distinctly that the Apostle means two different things by the yea and the amen. The one is Gods voice, the other is mans. The one has to do with the certainty of the Divine revelation, the other has to do with the certitude of our faith in the revelation. When God speaks in Christ, He confirms everything that He has said before, and when we listen to God speaking in Christ, our lips are, through Christ, opened to shout our assenting Amen to His great promises.
This is a truth so far-reaching that all the promises of God have the seal of their stability in Christ. As often as any pledge is realized (and that is whenever one is trusted), the conscience of the Church confesses that her enjoyment of it has been attained in Him. Through Him, therefore, she returns her glad attestation. How many soever are the promises of God, in Him is the Yea of Divine fulfilment; wherefore through Him is also the Amen of human acknowledgment and praise, to the glory of God through us.
3. Taken thus, the text not only gives us a new conception of the mission of Christ, it gives us also a new conception of the vocation of the Church, of our vocation as Christian men. Christ is the Yea of God: we, through the power of the indwelling Christ, are the Amen. It is His mission to translate all the thoughts of God into actual and vital forms; it is our vocation, as we study that translation, as we see those thoughts taking shape, as they become visible and recognizable to us, to add our Amen to them, i.e. to accept, welcome, and conform to them. The power to add this Amen, to consent to and obey the will of God, we derive from Christ, who lives, and dwells in us. And this power is given to us with a view to the glory of God through us. In fine, the vision which lies behind St. Pauls words, and which he labours to express, seems to be nothing less than this: He conceives of the infinite God as dwelling in the inaccessible light, and thinking out the thoughts of His eternal righteousness and love; He conceives of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as translating these thoughts into creative, providential, and redeeming acts; and he conceives of the vast congregation of those who love God and believe on His Son as standing round and contemplating the Divine thoughts which take visible form at the behest of the Son, and chanting their loud Amen to all that He does, to all that He reveals of the Fathers will.
I
Christs Yea
In him is the yea.
There are two ways in which we may think of Christ as Yea. First He is Himself certain, and next the promises are certain in Him.
1. Christ Himself is certain.Nothing is more noteworthy, when our attention is drawn to it, than the confidence of the assertions of Christ, so vast and far-reaching in their scope, so unqualified by any perhaps, by any hint of uncertainty or conjecture.
(1) This is so with regard to His own earthly life. Strange indeed is the contrast between the words of His Apostle, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there, and the explicit and detailed warnings given by Jesus of the manner, the circumstances, and the date of His death. Not on the feast-day, said the priests; but the knowledge of their Victim outran their most subtle calculations. After two days the passover cometh, and the Son of man is delivered up to be crucified.
(2) Again, we all feel the pressure and solemnity of the problems of human existence. Revelation is perfect as a practical guide, but a solver of theoretical problems it is not. What am I? Whither am I going? He may be a good Christian, but assuredly he is a dull thinker, who supposes that every cloud is lifted by religion from the twin problems of our origin and our destiny. Dimly these questions loom up, like gigantic mountain slopes visible through rolling vapours, before us and behind. Through changing mists we see them, half illumined in the radiance of our Christian trust, but their head and their base alike are swathed in impenetrable mystery.
In this baffled peering wonder Jesus had no share. He alone of human beings could say, without reserve, I know whence I come, and whither I go. And yet the mystery of His being was the most profound of all.
(3) The same tone of unwavering certitude is audible in His teaching about duty and God. Others have taught with a wonderful confidence, but it has always been avowedly a derived and imparted message. Gabriel spoke to Muhammad. The spot is shown where Gautama, after agonies of search, became Buddha, which means, the enlightened one. Even the prophets of the true faith were men to whom the word of the Lord came, a position which Christ contrasted with His own. But if men had known Him they should have known the Father. The Father sheweth him all things that himself doeth. No man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
(4) In quite the same confident tones Jesus spoke of the life to come; In my Fathers house are many mansions; I go to prepare a place for you; Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.
Review the whole circle of spiritual truth, and see whether there is any part of it where Jesus trod with hesitating step. Find one conjecture, one mere inference, one example of truth arrived at otherwise than as a fact within His own consciousness. He used Scripture to repel Satan, to refute gainsayers, to convince the hesitating; and, as in His last words upon the cross, to express the deepest emotions of His own heart. But His natural and characteristic method, with all teachable souls, is as He expressed it to Nicodemus: We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen.
This certainty of Christs is part of the completeness of His character and life. And hence it becomes part of that assurance we have when we put our trust in Him.
The character and doctrine of Jesus are the sun that holds all the minor orbs of revelation to their places, and pours a sovereign self-evidencing light into all religious knowledge. It is no ingenious fetches of argument that we want; no external testimony, gathered here and there from the records of past ages, suffices to end our doubts; but it is the new sense opened in us by Jesus Himselfa sense deeper than words and more immediate than inferenceof the miraculous grandeur of His life; a glorious agreement felt between His works and His person, such that His miracles themselves are proved to us in our feeling, believed in by that inward testimony. On this inward testimony we are willing to stake everything, even the life that now is, and that which is to come. If the miracles, if revelation itself, cannot stand upon the superhuman character of Jesus, then let it fall. If that character does not contain all truth and centralize all truth in itself, then let there be no truth.1 [Note: Horace Bushnell, Nature and the Supernatural.]
Let me forget all else that I have known
All else that I have heard;
Let me remember Thee, and Thee alone,
O Jesusliving Word!
It is enough to know that I am Thine
That Thou dost undertake
To hold and keep this helpless life of mine
Accepted for Thy sake.
O, Thou alone canst hope or help afford;
There is no way beside.
I look to Thee, my glorious risen Lord,
And I am satisfied.1 [Note: Edith H. Divall, A Believers Rest, 30.]
2. The promises of God are certain in Christ.This is the special assertion of St. Paul in the text. And these promises, we may say at once, have their certainty of fulfilment in Christ because He has fulfilled the conditions on which they are suspended. The wages of sin is death. Without shedding of blood is no remission. So say the Scriptures; so says the conscience of man in a hundred lands. The promises of pardon for sin are many and rich; but they are all based on the fact that Christ voluntarily took our place under the Law and paid the penalty our disobedience incurred. Behind the promises are the cross and the real sacrifice it bore. That that sacrifice of Himself was accepted of God in our behalf is put beyond denial by His resurrection from the dead. Anyone can write a promise of pardon; many wise men have taught moral truth; and some good men have died in pity and in love for their fellow-men. There were three crosses on Calvary that day. Why do we lean with all religious hope on the central cross? Because Christ in His teaching, in His works of mercy, in giving Himself to die for us, based the acceptance by God of what He did in our behalf on His resurrection on the third day. Other men were wise; loved their fellow-men with a passion of love and died for them; but of such only Christ was raised from the dead at the time foretold. The opening of the grave and the raising of the dead is the sole prerogative of God. That resurrection is Gods endorsement and acceptance of Christs sacrifice as atonement for mans sin. The promises of the needed grace for the passing day are based on the fact that after His resurrection Christ ascended into heaven and is there making continual intercession for us. These promises put us in touch with a living Saviour. The promises of future glory on which we depend are based on the fact that Christ has entered into that glory and is there now preparing a place for us, to return again to take us to Himself, that where He is we may be also. There, then, is the security behind these promisesthe person and the work of Christ, His life, His death, His resurrection, and His ascension, by virtue of which the promises are Yea.
(1) The promise of the love of God is secured in Christ. All too often we forget the riches of this truth; we lose sight of the Fathers love. Perhaps in sincere anxiety not to forget that Christ is God, we think it a dim and distant truth when we hear that the Father Almighty loved, and loves, His Son and the sinner and the world. But here again the Bible tells a different story. It shows us the love of God the Father as the very source of our salvation in Christ Jesus. This is my beloved Son; hear ye him; He spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all; the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me; through him we have access unto the Father; the Father, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope. To know the Fatherthrough our Lord Jesus Christ, never apart from Him, but through and in Him,is the glorious privilege of those who have life through grace. This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
The question may arise in some minds, Is there any need for proving Gods love? The question never arose except within the limits of Christianity. It is only men who have lived all their lives in an atmosphere saturated by Christian sentiment and conviction that ever come to the point of saying, We do not want historical revelation to prove to us the fact of a loving God. They would never have fancied that they did not need the revelation unless, unconsciously to themselves, and indirectly, all their thoughts had been coloured and illuminated by the revelation that they professed to reject. God as Love is our dearest faith, our ghastliest doubt, and the only way to make absolutely certain of the fact that His heart is full of mercy to us is to look upon Him as He stands revealed to us, not merely in the words of Christfor, precious as they are, these are the smallest part of His revelationbut in the life and in the death, which open for us the heart of God. Remember what He said Himselfnot He that hath listened to me doth understand the Father, but He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. In him is the yea. And the hopes and shadowy fore-revelations of the loving heart of God are confirmed by the fact of His life and death. God establisheth (not commendeth, as our translation has it,) his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
At Derby Haven in the sweet Manx land
A little girl had written on the sand
This legendGod is love. But, when I said
What means this writing? thus she answered
Its father thats at say,
And I come here to pray,
And God is love. My eyes grew dim
Blest child! in Heaven above
Your angel sees the face of Him
Whose name is love.1 [Note: T. E. Brown, Old John and Other Poems, 190.]
(2) The providence of God becomes a fact in Christ. We find within us an instinct which impels us to cry for some heavenly help or guidance or support in times of crisis and distress. Even the most sceptical will often give a practical denial to their doubts by the word of prayer which is wrung from their hearts under stress of some calamity, or under the shadow of an impending danger. In our heart of hearts, that is to say, we feel that God personally cares and provides for this world which He has made; deep down in our being we believe that to pray is to touch the heart of the Eternal; and in moments of anguish or of supreme joy we confide in an unseen Providence as we would in our closest friend. And then comes the cold analysis of reason, and
Doubts will rise if God hath kept
His promises to men.
What does it all amount to? we say. Instinct?a delusion. Providence?a fiction of the imagination. Think of it. What do I, as an individual, count for in a world so vast, itself but a speck in an illimitable universe? How should Godif there be a Godhave any personal care for me? It is the old question of the Psalmist: What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the Son of man, that thou visitest him?
The most casual glance at the life and character of Jesus will give us the answer. He saw the providence of God in the wayside flower, in the feeding of the birds, in the fall of a sparrow; the very hairs of your head are all numbered; He who clothes the grass of the field will much more provide for the needs of the children of men. Because He was thus conscious of God in the things about Him, Jesus was calm and free from care in the midst of an angry and a striving world. In the march of events and the sure progress of the ages, He recognized the all-controlling will of God, and so He lived and died that the Fathers will might be accomplished. And then at the end, with a joy which all the cruelties of men could not suppress, He yielded Himself to the loving Providence which sent Him forth. Father, He said, into thy hands I commend my spirit.
I cannot see, I cannot speak, I cannot hear, God bless you, was Newmans message to his old friend Mr. Gladstone in November, 1888. Newmans delight in men, in books, and in affairs had all his life been intense, and he had a strong desire that his life might be prolonged to its utmost possible span, if it was the will of God. For myself, now, at the end of a long life, he wrote, I say from a full heart that God has never failed me, has never disappointed me, has ever turned evil into good for me. When I was young I used to say (and I trust it was not presumptuous to say it) that our Lord ever answered my prayers.1 [Note: Alexander Whyte, Newman: An Appreciation, 61.]
(3) Pardon is made sure in Christ. Every man of deep heart-experience has felt the necessity of having a clear certainty and knowledge about forgiveness. Men do not feel it always. A man can skate over the surface of the great deeps that lie beneath the most frivolous life, and may suppose, in his superficial way of looking at things, that there is no need for any definite teaching about sin, and the mode of dealing with it. But once bring that man face to face, in a quiet hour, with the facts of his life and of a Divine law, and all that superficial ignoring of evil in Himself, and of the dread of punishment and consequences, passes away. Then the only message that answers to the needs of an awakened conscience and an alarmed heart is the old-fashioned message that Jesus Christ the Righteous has died for us sinful men. All other religions have felt after a clear doctrine of forgiveness, and all have failed to find it. Here is the Divine Yea! And on it alone we can suspend the whole weight of our souls salvation. The rope that is to haul us out of the horrible pit and the miry clay had much need to be tested before we commit ourselves to it. There are many easy-going superficial theories about forgiveness predominant in the world to-day. Except the one that says, In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sin, they are all like the rope let down into the dark mine to lift the captives beneath, half of the strands of which have been cut on the sharp edge above, and when the weight hangs to it, it will snap. There is nothing on which a man who has once learned the tragic meaning and awful reality and depth of the fact of transgression can suspend his forgiveness, except this, that Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. In Him the promise is Yea.
All human religions are founded on the principle that man must do something, or feel something, or believe something, in order to make God love him and forgive him; whereas Gods religion just contains a declaration that nothing of the kind is necessary on our part in order to make God forgive us, for that He hath dj, already, loved us and forgiven us, and given us His Son, and in Him all things. He hath declared this to the whole race without any exception, as a truth to each individual; so that the difference between the most miserable hater of God and the happiest child of God does not consist in this, that God loves the one and does not love the other; but in this, that the one knows Gods love to himself and the other does not. It is the same difference as there is between two men standing with their faces to the sun, the one with his eyes shut and the other with his eyes open.1 [Note: Letters of Thomas Erskine of Linlathen, i. 161.]
(4) The promise of holiness is ours in Christ. Here the promise, in many a varying form, is magnificently full. These things write I unto you that ye sin not; Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not; Let not sin reign in your mortal body; As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. How can all this possibly be? It is impossible except in Him. The secret is not it, but He. Christ is made unto us sanctification; Ye are filled full in him; that Christ may dwell in your hearts, by faith; that ye may know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.
It is a magnificent truth that having come to Christ you are not merely near Him, but in Him; and in Him you have at once nothing short of Christ and all His treasures. But do not make a false use of the glorious fact. Remember that you may have and not have. You may receive a property and not enjoy it. You may inherit wealth and not use it. To grasp the great promises of what God can do for you, as well as the mighty encouragement of what He has done for you, is the way to possess the possessions and to realize the wealth. You have long rested, my friend in Christ, on the facts, the certainties, of His finished work. But have you made use enough of His never finished working? Our Christ is eternally fixed and unchanging, in His atoning merit. But He, the same Christ, is prepared immortally to grow in us, in His blessed indwelling by the Holy Spirit. Yes, the exceeding precious promises point us to Christ dwelling in the heart by faith, to Christ our very life, to Christ in whom we are already enriched in everything. Go on and use your riches, full of hope. For while your discouragements are all behind you, the great and precious promises are all in front. Forget the things that are behind, and step forth forward upon the things that are before; not upon your resolves, experiences, achievements, but on the Lord in His precious promises. Relying upon His promises you enter into the liberty that belongs to the children of God.1 [Note: H. C. G. Moule, All in Christ, 40.]
A morning-glory bud, entangled fast
Amid the meshes of its winding stem,
Strove vainly with the coils about it cast,
Until the gardener came and loosened them.
A suffering human life entangled lay
Among the tightening coils of its own past;
The Gardener came, the fetters fell away,
The life unfolded to the sun at last.2 [Note: Willis Boyd Allen.]
(5) And the promise of the future is made sure in Him. Apart from Him the future is cloud and darkness, for a verbal revelation is not enough. We have enough of arguments; what we want is facts. We have enough of mans peradventures about a future life, enough of evidence more or less valid to show that it is probable, or not inconceivable, or more likely than not, and so on and so on. What we want is that somebody shall cross the gulf and come back again. And so we get in the Resurrection of Christ the one fact on which men may safely rest their convictions of immortality.
Death was above all to such as St. Paul a meeting with Jesus Christ, who was the object of his ceaseless faith, the hope of his longing heart. This man did not speculate about heavenwhere it was, what it was. Nor did he imagine its glory as became a mystic like St. John. For him heaven was another name for Christ, the sum of all goodness, the revelation of all perfection. Between him and Christ there had been a long friendship, with many love-passages, which had grown more intimate every year, but had never been completed. St. Paul had heard Christs voice on the road to Damascus; he had seen Him in visions; for brief moments he had visited the third heavens; but face to face this great Christian may not have seen his Master as had St. Peter and St. John. For an unseen Lord he lived, laboured, suffered as none else has ever done. What wonder that St. Paul hungered and thirsted for the day when that dark servitor death would usher him into the unveiled Presence.
That one Face, far from vanish, rather grows,
Or decomposes but to recompose,
Becomes my universe that feels and knows.1 [Note: J. Watson, The Potters Wheel, 161.]
3. All the promises of God, says the Apostle. He thinks of the sum-total of human blessedness, all the promises of God. Man has forfeited them; the conditions have not been kept; and yet the gift has been bestowed. Not even our unworthiness, so often proved, has frustrated the steadfast purpose of the grace of God. This also, this greatest example in the universe of an unshaken purpose, has come to us through Christ. He is, for humanity, the embodiment of the faithfulness of God. And in Him they are all certified, for He who delivered Him up, how shall He not freely give us all things? In Him is the Yea.
I remember an aged minister used to say, that the most learned and knowing Christians, when they come to die, have only the same plain promises for their support as the common and unlearned; and so I find it in my old age. It is the plain promises of the gospel that are my support; and I bless God they are plain promises, which do not require much labour and pains to understand them; for I can do nothing now but look into my Bible for some promise to support me, and live upon that.1 [Note: J. Watts.]
As I was coming to you to-day, my path led me by a tasteful enclosure, into which I was bold enough to enter. It was a vinery, not like those of the open field, so common in Palestine, France and Germany, but a spacious and elegant conservatory. A succession of thriving stems, twisted in form, but vigorously climbing the glass wall of the structure, at once met my eye. The long arms of the plants, with their delicate tendrils, were carefully trained along the under side of the crystal roof. The branches were covered with fresh green leaves, through whose fine tissues the sunlight agreeably passed. But what delighted me most was the rare assortment of green and purple clusters that hung above me, like inverted cones or pyramids, from amid the foliage. Their luscious beauty quite arrested me. As I stood admiring, the proprietor of the conservatory, with whom I had the happiness of being a little acquainted, came in. Observing my looks he kindly asked me if I would have a cluster, and at once he proceeded to cut down a bunch for me. The grapes were very sweet. Then, noticing that I still continued my gaze, he said, Perhaps you would wish to take a few clusters home with you? To this I replied, that I was at the time on my way to a company of friends, whose lips were no doubt as parched as my own had been, and that I was sure there were some among them who would be as much delighted with a cluster as myself. On which he stepped aside, and, having brought out a commodious and suitable basket, he inlaid it with vine leaves. He then cut down some of the finer clusters, and, placing these carefully on the leaves, he took the basket aside, and while his back was towards me, shut down the cover, so as to secure the delicious but fragile contents from injury. Coming forward with a pleasant smile, he handed me the basket saying, Take this; it contains a few bunches. Share them among your friends, and give a cluster to any one whom you find prepared to receive it. And here I am, with the basket in my hand! Let me set it down and raise the cover, so neatly fastened, and, before proceeding further, hand some of the clusters to you on this thirsty afternoon. Be assured, it will afford me as much pleasure to distribute them as it will give you to receive them. Such is my parable, for parable it isperhaps to the disappointment of some of the younger of my auditory. The beautiful clusters I have spoken of represent the Promises of God, those exceeding great and precious promises, in which the blessings of the everlasting covenant are stored up, and by which we are said to become partakers of the divine nature. Now let me open the basket, and take out one of its delicate specimens. Ah, here is a beauty! We must handle it softly. See how symmetrical in shape, how perfect in form, is each grape! The fruit seems as if it would melt on the lips. What are the terms of this promise? Listen!
Fear thou not; for I am with thee:
Be not dismayed; for I am thy God:
I will strengthen thee;
Yea, I will help thee;
Yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.1 [Note: A. N. Somerville, Precious Seed, 233.]
(1) No doubt, when the Apostle, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, spoke of the promises of God, the first thought that would arise in his mind would be the promises to the people of Israel: the promises of dominion and supremacy; the brilliant pictures of the Prophets; the glories foreshadowed in the lives of David and Solomon; the majesty and excellence implied in the very fact that they were the people of Gods choice. And if this thought passed, as of course it must have passed, beyond the limits of Israel after the flesh, still the promises would be the same, only in a spiritual form: the glory of the new Israel, the new Jerusalem, the new Law, the new Covenant; promises made under a figure but holding good in their essence even when the figure exists no longer.
(2) Such, perhaps, would hardly be the first thought suggested to one of us by the promises of God; and, indeed, would not be the last or the crowning thought in the mind of the Apostle of the Gentiles. Far deeper and older than these are the promises which God has written with His own finger, not on tables of stone, but on the fleshy tables of the heart of man. These promises, the earliest of all Gods revelations, made to mankind before even the oldest book in the Bible was written; these promises which the loving heart finds repeated in every page of the Bible; these promises which the Bible often reveals to us in so strange a way, making us quite unable to tell whether the word within or the word without, whether the yearnings of conscience or the oracles of the Scripture, first pronounced them in our spiritual ears; these are above all the promises which Christ came to ratify and fulfil. Deep down in the heart of man there speaks a voice which calls us to God, and promises to take us to Him. And in former days, no doubt, when it spoke to those who had no revelation to interpret or confirm its sayings, what it said must have been often strange, inarticulate, even unintelligible. In dumb instincts rather than in plain commands, in voiceless longings, in yearnings for something unearthly, in strange doubts and questions did it often speak to men who had no other teaching. And even now, to those who have the Bible in their hands, but are still unawakened, or only half awakened, the voices that call from the deep abysses of the soul are faint and strange, and hard to understand, and often seem hopelessly impossible to obey. The Bible is, as it were, the grammar and the dictionary of this spiritual language, and teaches us to interpret its accents into duties and prayers and hopes and battle and assurance of victory. But even when we have the Bible, how much study we need before we can fathom the depths of spiritual meaning contained in the everlasting promises which Gods finger has written on the soul of man. Men still unawakened, or only half awakened, could not, even with the Bible in their hands, always translate the language of the spirit that speaks within them. But even the awakened, in our human sense of the word awakened, what can they do but see in a glass darkly the dim reflection of the truth of God? Yet what they see is the never-dying truth, and that truth received its final seal in the life of Christ.
This, Edwin Markham, the spiritually-minded, has put for us in his rhapsody on The Desire of All Nations, where he sees that in Christ is the one positive figure that fulfils the highest prophecies and sublimest promises that were cherished in the hearts of the worlds great nations from the most ancient days; for in Him God had answered Yea to all the desires of the people of the whole world.
And when He comes into the world gone wrong,
He will rebuild her beauty with a song.
To every heart He will its own dream be:
One moon has many phantoms in the sea.
Out of the North the horns will cry to men:
Balder the Beautiful has come again!
The flutes of Greece will whisper from the dead:
Apollo has unveiled his sunbright head!
The stones of Thebes and Memphis will find voice:
Osiris comes; O tribes of Time rejoice!
And social architects who build the State,
Serving the dream at citadel and gate,
Will hail Him coming through the labour hum.
And glad quick cries will go from man to man:
Lo, He has come, our Christ the Artisan
The King who loved the lilies, He has come!
Lord, the Apostle dissuadeth the Hebrews from covetousness, with this argument, because God said, I will not leave thee nor forsake thee. Yet I find not that God ever gave this promise to all the Jews, but he spake it only to Joshua when first made commander against the Canaanites; which, without violence to the analogy of faith, the Apostle applied to all good men in general. Is it so that we are heirs apparent to all promises made to thy servants in Scripture? Are the charters of grace granted to them good to me? Then will I say with Jacob, I have enough. But because I cannot entitle myself to thy promises to them, except I imitate their piety to thee; grant I may take as much care in following the one, as comfort in the other.1 [Note: Thomas Fuller, Good Thoughts in Bad Times.]
II
Our Amen
Through him is the Amen.
Therefore, through Him is the great Amen of the Universal Church, attesting and acclaiming His fidelity by psalms and anthems, by every act of living faith, by the labours of time, by the triumphs of countless death-beds, where death has been without a sting, and by the songs of those within the veil.
1. Now there should be some kind of correspondence between the firmness with which we grasp, the tenacity with which we hold, the assurance with which we believe, these great truths, and the rocklike firmness and immovableness of the evidence upon which they rest. It is a poor compliment to God to come to His most veracious affirmations, sealed with the broad seal of His Sons life and death, and to answer with a hesitating Amen, that falters and almost sticks in our throat. Build rock upon rock. Be certain of the certain things. Grasp with a firm hand the firm stay. Immovably cling to the immovable foundation; and though you be but like the limpet on the rock hold fast by the Rock, as the limpet does; for it is an insult to the certainty of the revelation, where there is hesitation in the believer.
The sensitive paper, which records the hours of sunshine in a day, has great gaps upon its line of light answering to the times when clouds have obscured the sun; and the communication of blessings from God is intermittent, if there be intermittency of faith.1 [Note: A. Maclaren, The Wearied Christ.]
In happy ease I cried: O sweetest Dusk
That ever pressed a kiss on weary eyes!
Bless now mine ears with murmur of thy name
And noble origin. Then answered he:
My fathers name was Night; from the embrace
Of Life and Death he sprang, and wed with Rest;
I am their offspring Promise, and wheneer
I meet with Faith, then is Fulfilment born.2 [Note: A. Bunston, The Porch of Paradise, 12.]
2. Our Amen is through Him. He is the Door. The truths which He confirms are so inextricably intertwined with Himself that we cannot get them and put away Him. Christs relation to Christs gospel is not the relation of other teachers to their words. We may accept the words of a Plato, whatever we think of the Plato who spoke the words. But we cannot separate Christ and His teaching in that fashion, and we must have Him if you are to get it. So faith in Him, the intellectual acceptance of Him, as the authoritative and infallible Revealer, the bowing down of heart and will to Him as our Commander and our Lord, the absolute trust in Him as the foundation of all our hope and the source of all our blessednessthat is the way to certitude. And there is no other road that we can take.
Not long ago, in Further India, an aged Christian convert, a man of eighty years, a surviving disciple of Adoniram Judson, was found dying, by a missionary visitor. His once strong mind was shaken by age and weakness; his thoughts failed and wandered; but when they were pointed to Christ, they settled and were clear again. When asked about his own faith in his Redeemer, his answer was strong in its simplicity: I have hold of Him with both my hands.1 [Note: H. C. G. Moule, Christ is All, 106.]
3. If we thus keep near Him our faith will bring us the present experience and fulfilment of the promises, and we shall be sure of them, because we have them already. And whilst men are asking, Do we know anything about God? Is there a God at all? Is there such a thing as forgiveness? Can anybody find anywhere absolute rules for his life? Is there anything beyond the grave but mist and darkness? we can say, One thing I know, Jesus Christ is my Saviour, and in Him I know God, and pardon and duty and sanctifying and safety and immortality; and whatever is dark, this, at least, is sun-clear. Get high enough up and you will be above the fog; and while the men down in it are squabbling as to whether there is anything outside the mist, you, from your sunny station, will see the far-off coasts, and haply catch some whiff of perfume from their shore, and see some glinting of a glory upon the shining turrets of the city that hath foundations.
Bunyans stepping-stones are Scripture promises. There are other stepping-stones. Tennyson speaks of making stepping-stones of our dead selves to higher things, and many a man, learning self-respect through failure, has blessed God for these. Again, there are yet other stepping-stones. There is a certain valley in the North where a rude path, hardly distinguishable at the best of times, leads through dangerous moss-hags, right across the centre of a morass. In rainy weather the track would be wholly obliterated but for the little foot-prints of a band of children who go to school that way. Many a traveller has found his path safely through the Slough of Despond by following in the childrens footsteps. But after all there are no such stepping-stones as Gods promises. A white boulder is a poor enough object until you see it shining in a morass; then it means life and safety. So the promises of God, that have often seemed but wayside facts of no particular interest, shine suddenly with the very light of salvation when we see them in the Slough of Despond.2 [Note: John Kelman, The Road, i. 21.]
The Yea and the Amen
Literature
Chadwick (G. A.), Pilates Gift, 84.
Cox (S.), Expositions, iii. 97.
Mackenzie (R.), The Loom of Providence, 227.
Maclaren (A.), The Unchanging Christ, 82.
Maclaren (A.), Expositions: 1 and 2 Corinthians, 268.
Moule (H. C. G.), Christ is All, 97.
Somerville (A. N.), Precious Seed, 233.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xlvi. (1900), No. 2657.
Stewart (J.), Outlines of Discourses, 317.
Temple (F.), Rugby Sermons, i. 235.
Christian World Pulpit, lxxviii. 236 (L. Richard).
Clergymans Magazine, 3rd. Ser., i. 283 (G. A. Chadwick).
Clerical Library: Outlines of Sermons for Special Occasions, 218 (J. Culross).
Treasury (New York), xx. 655 (O. Huckel).
Twentieth Century Pastor, xxx. (1912), 132 (F. B. Meyer).
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
all: Gen 3:15, Gen 22:18, Gen 49:10, Psa 72:17, Isa 7:14, Isa 9:6, Isa 9:7, Luk 1:68-74, Joh 1:17, Joh 14:6, Act 3:25, Act 3:26, Act 13:32-39, Rom 6:23, Rom 15:8, Rom 15:9, Gal 3:16-18, Gal 3:22, Heb 6:12-19, Heb 7:6, Heb 9:10-15, Heb 11:13, Heb 11:39, Heb 11:40, Heb 13:8, 1Jo 2:24, 1Jo 2:25, 1Jo 5:11
Amen: Isa 65:16,*Heb: Joh 3:5,*Gr: Rev 3:14
unto: 2Co 4:6, 2Co 4:15, Psa 102:16, Mat 6:13, Luk 2:14, Rom 11:36, Rom 15:7, Eph 1:6, Eph 1:12-14, Eph 2:7, Eph 3:8-10, Col 1:27, 2Th 1:10, 1Pe 1:12, Rev 7:12
Reciprocal: Exo 3:14 – I AM hath Psa 89:24 – But my Psa 119:38 – Stablish Isa 42:6 – and give Jer 28:6 – Amen Jer 33:14 – General Dan 9:17 – for Joh 3:3 – Verily 2Co 7:1 – therefore Gal 3:17 – the covenant Eph 4:21 – as 2Ti 1:1 – the promise 2Pe 1:4 – are given
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Co 1:20. This verse is virtually a repetition of the preceding one, with the added information that Jesus is to be regarded as reliable, because He is working in harmony with the Father. The promises are amen., which means they are backed up by the authority of Heaven, and are all to the glory of God.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
2Co 1:20. For how many soever be the promises of God, in him is the yea; wherefore also through him is the Amen, unto the glory of God through us. This is but an expansion of the preceding statement; but deeming it too precious to be used only for his own defence, he is here drawn on to a more catholic and richer use of the same truth.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Our apostle had proved in the foregoing verse the constancy of his own doctrine which he preached from the immutabilithy and constancy of Christ, the subject of it. Here he proveth Christ to be unchangeable, in that all the promises which God hath made to us are fulfilled both in him and by him. All the promises of God in him are yea, and amen; that is, verified and fulfilled in him, and confirmed by him to us.
Learn, 1. That God has made promises, many promises to his people.
2. That all the promises which God has made to his people, are made in Christ, and ratified by him. Christ acts the part and office of a surety; he undertakes and engages for God, that all which he hath promised shall be made good to us.
Learn, 3. That the promises made by God, and ratified and confirmed in Christ, do all tend to the glory of God. They show the sovereignty of his grace, in making promises to his creatures of mercy, who deserved nothing but flaming vengeance and implacable fury. They show the amplitude of his grace; for if grace did not flow abundantly from the heart of God towards us, we could never have received so large a stock of promises from him. Let us then glorify God, by setting a just value upon his promises, as the unchangeable assurance of his love and grace.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
For how many soever be the promises of God, in him is the yea: wherefore also through him is the Amen, unto the glory of God through us.
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Verse 20
In him; in Christ.–Are yea, are faithful and true.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
1:20 {12} For all the promises of God in him [are] yea, and in {u} him Amen, unto the glory of God by {x} us.
(12) Last of all he declares the sum of his doctrine, that is, that all the promises of salvation are sure and ratified in Christ.
(u) Christ is set also forth to exhibit and fulfil them most assuredly, and without any doubt.
(x) Through our ministry.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The promises referred to here are evidently the ones that have found their fulfillment in Christ. God was completely trustworthy, not 90 percent or 95 percent reliable in fulfilling these promises. Therefore the promises of God (2Co 1:18) as well as the Son of God (2Co 1:19) demonstrate consistency.
In view of the faithfulness of God, the only proper response is "Amen!" ("Let it be so!"). The early Christians commonly spoke this word in unison in their meetings to affirm the truthfulness of what someone had said (1Co 14:16). They addressed God through (in the name of) Jesus Christ.
"How illogical, then, while by their ’Amen’ attesting the trustworthiness of God, to suspect the trustworthiness of the apostle who taught them to do so! Any charge of inconsistency must be leveled at them, not him." [Note: Ibid., p. 38.]
"In short, Paul has argued in 2Co 1:18-20 that as God is faithful, so, too, is Paul’s ’word.’ His personal ’word’ is subsumed within his kerygmatic ’word.’ God’s faithfulness is to be seen (1) in the Son of God preached in Corinth as God’s unambiguous, unretracted, and now-eternal ’Yes,’ and (2) in the fact of all the promises of God having been kept in the Son of God, as proclaimed by the apostles. Likewise ’faithful’ is the ’word’ of Paul, the minister of the God who speaks unambiguously (cf. 2Co 1:13) and who keeps his promises. Their very existence is predicated on it." [Note: Barnett, p. 110.]