WHO GOD IS: Promise Maker & Promise Keeper

“For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise” Galatians 3:18

God is both a Promise-Maker and a Promise-Keeper, which assures us that he is totally trustworthy.

One of God’s most incredible promises was the one he made to Abraham: “In you shall all the nations be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). Paul calls this promise “the gospel beforehand” (Galatians 3:8).

How so, you may ask?

In its earliest usage, “gospel” referred to the reward given to a messenger of good news and eventually simply to the “good news” itself. By the first century AD, it became connected to the emperor cult, whose birthday, accession to power, or upcoming visit were all hailed as “good news.” For Paul, however, the meaning of “gospel” was firmly rooted in the Old Testament, where the “good news” of salvation included God’s universal reign and the blessings which would come from it (Isaiah 52:7).

This is why he calls God’s promise to Abraham “the gospel preached before it’s time.” Because the promise was the good news that God was King over every nation and he had a plan to bring them all back into his blessing.

God kept this promise when he sent Jesus: “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman…so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5). This is the gospel: in Jesus, the blessing of Abraham made available to all nations through faith in his work on the cross (Galatians 3:13-14).

God promised to bless the world through his kingship. Two thousand years after Abraham, he proved trustworthy by keeping that promise in Jesus. He can still be trusted to keep every promise he has ever made…even the ones we are still waiting to see fulfilled.