329. He is to us a God
Hebrews 8:10b …and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.
God promises to be a God to us when He makes a new covenant with the people. He also promises that the people will be a people to God. Interesting: God is already God; He doesn’t have to promise that. But He will be a God to us. He is already that to us as well; He doesn’t have to promise that. The promise is that He will be recognized, acknowledged and worshiped as our God. We shall have no other gods before Him alone; we shall fear, love and trust in God above all things. This doesn’t actually happen: all men break the First Commandment all the time. We are always fearing, loving and trusting in other things in practical living. We are not by any means always a people to Him. We cannot act like His people, who trust in Him alone. We cannot love God by loving others unconditionally. Frankly, God is not our God and we are not His people. We want to be our own gods and our own people. How can God make this promise? But He does: He will be faithful to the promise: He will do the work of making a people who will have Him alone as their God. He did so by sending His Son. Amazing!
Luther defines “God:” a god is whatever we look to for our highest good. This is God’s promise: He is, and He will always be, a God to us. He will be our highest good, always, no matter what. Everything else is either evil or just OK, but nothing else is our highest good. He promises to think like a God, act like a God, and be a God to us in every way that we imagine a God to be. As God, He will take care of us, provide for us, protect us, love us unconditionally, forgive all sins, give live eternally, save us from all enemies, give comfort, answer prayers, and He will always and ever be good and do good to us. That’s the promise: God will act like the God we want Him to be and expect Him to be.
We need that promise, because we often think God is not doing right by us; we don’t like everything He does; we disagree with His actions or inactions (“He could heal me, but He doesn’t”); we have different ideas about what is good for me. The hardest lesson for humans to learn is that they are not God, they don’t always get what they want, and they have to submit to God’s good and gracious will and trust Him for everything. That’s hard, even impossible. So I need the promise: God will be to me a God. And because He is, we will be a people to Him. The Gospel promise does the impossible. Jesus brings us to God; now God is mine, and I am His.