For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise. (Gal 3:18 NIV)
What do you think of when you hear the word “promise?” Is it a word you can rely on? One time I was on a committee that was adjudicating a conflict between a pastor and his congregation. He had only been serving the church for a few months. When one of his detractors was asked: “Why can’t you give your minister more time?”, her quick response was, “You know this pastorate has lasted longer than many marriages in California. It’s time for a change!”
I thought to myself, hmmm, the word promise doesn’t have much meaning, at least in California. Perhaps this is true across America. Maybe the broken promises of politicians and the inability to keep relational vows has caused us to think of the word “promise” as one of those weak words. It is a word of pure potential with little, if any, fulfilling power. But Paul declares in Galatians that “promise” is a strong and eternal word because God guarantees its fulfillment! The verse cited at the beginning of this article implies – God keeps his promises, no matter how old they are!
One of the great love stories of Christianity is the relationship between Katharina von Bora and Martin Luther. It was a love story of promises fulfilled. Luther said this about Galatians: “The Epistle to the Galatians is my epistle. To it, I am as it were, in wedlock. It is my Katharina.” Why would he say that? Because he found the promises of God were more solid than anything in life!
Keith Hartsell, of Wheaton, Illinois wrote:
I was with a friend a few years ago in California, and as we were driving around the busy streets of L.A., I noticed that his cell phone was locked with an unusual password—pro nobis. I asked him what pro nobis meant and why he chose that for a password. He told me it was Latin and it meant “For Us” and then he suddenly started choking up. I thought, Why would those two Latin words cause so much emotion?
He composed himself and then explained that after walking through deep personal pain, true healing came when he learned that God is “for us”— or the Latin phrase, pro nobis. My friend said that after his parents’ divorce, a season when he assumed that God didn’t care or that God had given up on him, he finally found hope through those two simple words. When he decided to believe that God was pro nobis, that God had even sent Christ to die for him, he could then decide to lay down his life for others.
The promises of God are more sure than any human pledge. That’s one thing we can learn from Galatians chapter 3 this week.
Your Pastor & Friend, Doug Brandt
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