The promises of Jesus: Read the Red.
Pastors and Counselors have advised new believers to “read the red.” This means begin an exploration of the Bible by studying the words of Jesus in the Four Gospels, usually rendered in red print in many Bibles. This is a good place to continue our discovery and appropriation of the promises of God. We have finished a study of the promises of God in the Psalms; there we found 264 promises.
Now we will explore the words of Jesus and discover how many promises Jesus Himself gave us and what kind of promises these are. As throughout Scripture, God’s Promises can be divided into two kinds: conditional and unconditional. Gospel promises have no “ifs;” the Gospel is grace, entirely free, given with no conditions or strings attached. When any restrictions or conditions are placed on the pure Gospel message it is no longer the Gospel.
This unconditional Gospel promise needs some explanation. Jesus says, “He who believes in Him has eternal life.” This sounds like “believe” is the condition: If you believe, then you have eternal life. But “believe” is not a condition; there is no grammatical indication that an “if” condition is involved. The faith does not cause the life; eternal life is not a consequence of believing. The believing is simply the acceptance or receiving of the free and full gift. Faith does not make life happen; it recognizes that it has happened. The “believing in Him” is itself a gift, worked in us by the Holy Spirit through the very hearing of the Gospel Promise. The gift of eternal life is given to all humans for free and forever. Those who believe actually have it.
The word “believe” connected to a promise is not given as a command but as a statement of fact. A conditional promise implying an “if” is usually given as a command, for example, “Ask, and it will be given it you.” God will give if you ask; the giving is a consequence and result of asking. Answers to prayer are conditionally granted to the one who prays. So: “Pray, then…”
All promises in the Word of God are to be believed and applied, like the 264 promises of the Psalms, but there is a feeling that the very words of Jesus (in red) carry more authority, though it really doesn’t. These blogs for the next few months will go through the “red” words of Jesus and lift out the promises of Jesus in His own recorded words. We will not immediately study the promises from other NT writers, like Paul or Luke. So what does Jesus promise? Much, as we will see.