What are the greatest promises in the Bible?

The promises that God gave to Abraham and to David were wonderful, and the saints of God down the ages looked for their fulfilment in Messiah. Many of these promises were fulfilled in the coming of the Lord Jesus, and many more will be fulfilled when He returns to set up His kingdom. But those whom God has called by glory and virtue have promises of a much higher order than those that belong to Israel as His earthly people. The heavenly promises that associate the saints with a heavenly Christ are indeed "exceeding great and precious".

It is by these wondrous promises that the saints partake of the divine nature. What God has given to us in Christ and through Christ has brought us where we have part in the love, holiness and righteousness of God. These things are ours as having the nature of God, but they are to be manifested in us practically as being the children of God. All that God has brought us into now, and all that yet awaits us at Christ's coming, is the fruit of the exceeding great and precious promises that God in His sovereign love and choice has given to those He has made His own. The promises of Christianity far exceed the promises made to Israel, and they are precious as founded upon the Living Stone, who is "chosen of God, and precious" (1 Peter 2:4).

Verse 4. "Exceeding great and precious promises." What are these promises? Certainly not those God had made to the fathers. They were great indeed; but the promises here spoken of are "exceeding great and precious." We must go back into eternity to find out what they are, and they come to us that we might be partakers of the divine nature. Doubtless they include all that God purposed in His own mind to bring us into, all He has promised us in Christ Jesus. (Eph. 3:6; 2 Tim. 1:1.) As you understand these things you are formed by them; it must of necessity be so. To illustrate what I mean. Suppose I take a child who has been born in the slums of a great city, and has never seen the country, with its green fields, flowers, and trees. I tell him about them; he is charmed, but can form no idea as to what they are really like. Now suppose, further, that I wish to wake up a desire in that child's mind to know something of the beautiful things I have told him about as belonging to another sphere, where all is so different from that by which he is surrounded. I could show him a picture of the country and the objects in it; and in like manner the Old Testament saints had the word of promise - the patterns of heavenly things and pictures in the types. And suppose I say to that child, "I will come in a few days and take you there, to dwell in that very place I have been telling you of." The sense of such a promise would make him long to escape from the surrounding corruption, and he would be formed by his knowledge of the place to which he was going. These exceeding great and precious promises are given to us in connection with One who is already entered into glory. Hence He said to His disciples, "Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know"; and He prepared the place for them by entering there. Thus we become partakers of the divine nature. We are formed according to the mind of God expressed in the promises, and escape the corruption that is in the world through lust.

The Apostle Peter, in his second Epistle, tells us that God has given to us “all things that pertain to life and godliness…whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises” (2 Peter 1:3-4). God’s promises are indeed great and precious, promises that have brought to us the knowledge of salvation, both present and that which is to come, and that holds out the hope of an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for us” (1 Peter 1:4-9).

In connection with this call to glory, God has given to us “exceeding great and precious promises”. Calling and promise are ever found together. If God calls it is in view of some purposed blessing. Later in the Epistle the Apostle refers to these promises, the promise of the Lord's coming, and the exceeding great promise of the “new heavens and a new earth” (2 Peter 3:4, 13). With these great and precious promises in view we have before us what God has before Him, and, in this way, partake of the divine nature. We look on to a scene where love and holiness will be in display in contrast to the lust and lawlessness of this scene. We partake of the divine nature in hating the evil of this scene and in delighting in the coming scene of holiness, love and joy. Thus we escape the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Thirdly, to encourage us to live the life of godliness, we are told that connected with it are "exceeding great and precious promises." In the course of the epistle we learn that these promises connect us with the "everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" and the "new heavens and a new earth."

In connection with the goal and the pathway, exceeding great and precious promises are given to us, that by these we might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Now every thing partakes of the nature of that of which it is born, and therefore we are accustomed to speak of those born again as partaking of the divine nature, and I do not question the rightness of thus speaking. But in this case it is those who have already been born again who are said to become partakers of the divine nature by those promises, and this is the only place where we have the expression. In John 3 the Lord tells Nicodemus that that which is born of the Spirit is spirit, but that this new spirit nature is divine I do not think will be questioned by any one taught of God. Still I think it must be admitted that 2 Peter 1:4 goes beyond mere new birth. Certainly the Spirit of God puts the former considerably in advance of the latter in the epistles of Peter. I do not doubt that the divine nature, as it is spoken of here, refers not only to the initial work in the soul but to the qualities which are produced by embracing those exceeding great and precious promises, and which adorn the lives of the children of God, and bring them into manifestation in this world, as pointed out by John in his first epistle. It takes in, not only the principle of the new being, but also the divine characteristics which enable them to shine as luminaries in the midst of the surrounding darkness of this world.

In this same life and godliness given us by the knowledge of God are involved exceeding great and precious promises, V.3 has told us that all this is by His Divine power, which can make these things of vital value to the soul. As promises, these must be laid hold of to be enjoyed now, for they are not merely promises as to the future, but the Word given us now, by which we become in practical reality "partakers of the divine nature." This is in precious contrast to the corruption that is in the world through lust, which by His grace we have escaped.

Ver. 4. We are sometimes apt to forget these "exceeding great and precious promises." What are they? if you have £5,000, you don't want to know if it is all in separate pounds or bank notes. "All the promises of God in Him are yea and in Him amen," and Christ is ours.

Having such things as these, how they should deepen our desires and increase our faith! The faith of the Thessalonians grew exceedingly. We should judge every unbelieving thought. We should seek to have faith like Abraham; or, rather, our faith should be greater than Abraham's. Have we not greater promises than he? These exceeding great and precious promises! "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not, with him, also freely give its all things?" He is waiting — seeking an opportunity to enrich us more and more, to strengthen us. We should have larger thoughts and expectations concerning it. Regarding the gospel — I know there is much infidelity about, but it was the same in those days. Yet the power of God rested on them. Eloquence is no good without that. "All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me." Wonderful indeed His working! He works in strange ways sometimes. We should have that confidence in Him that although we do not know in what way, we yet expect Him to do something.

The third great truth of the mystery as brought before us in this passage is connected with the promises of God. These promises, as the Apostle Peter reminds us, are "exceeding great and precious" for by them we are called to glory and partake of the divine nature. Further, "we according to His promise look for new heavens and a new earth (2 Peter 1:3-4; 2 Peter 3:13). The Apostle Paul tells us that in the mystery we learn that believers from Jews and Gentiles are joint partakers of these promises in Christ. It will be thus seen that God's "promise in Christ" far transcends the promises of God to Abraham, to whom God said. "I will make of thee a great nation … and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 12:2-3). Thus the promise to Abraham is national and earthly and views the Gentiles as entirely distinct from Israel.