What does it mean that God's promises are "yes" and "amen" (2 Corinthians 1:20)?

In 2 Cor.1:20 the apostle Paul tells us: "For all the promises of God in him (the Son of God, Jesus Christ) are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us." Jesus Christ is the affirmation and confirmation of the truth of all that God has spoken; He is the fulfilment and the verifier of all the promises of God. Amen is from a Hebrew word that signifies what is fixed, true and unchangeable. Its equivalent in Greek is the translated word "verily," found duplicated so many times in John's Gospel. It implies divine certainty. In Christ we have the guarantee that every promise and every truth of God will be Amened, fully carried out. Christ is God's last word, His Amen.

It will be seen that the question was, whether Paul had lightly changed his purpose. He says that he had not; but he leaves the thought of that which concerned him personally to speak of that which pre-occupied his thoughts — of Christ; and to him, in fact, to live was Christ. But there was a difficulty to solve, when the immutability of God's promises was the question. It is that we are not in a state to profit by that which was immutable on account of our weakness and inconstancy. He solves this difficulty by setting forth the mighty operations of God in grace.

There are two points therefore: — the establishment of all the promises in Christ, and the enjoyment, by us, of the effect of these promises. The thing is, as we have seen, not merely to say, to promise, something; but not to change one's intentions, not to depart from what was said, but to keep one's word. Now there had been promises. God had made promises, whether to Abraham unconditionally, or to Israel at Sinai under the condition of obedience. But in Christ there was, not promises, but the Amen to God's promises, the verity and realisation of them. Whatever promises there had been on God's part, the Yea was in Him, and the Amen in Him. God has established — deposited, so to speak — the fulfilment of all His promises in the Person of Christ. Life, glory, righteousness, pardon, the gift of the Spirit, all is in Him; it is in Him that all is we — Yea and Amen. We cannot have the effect of any promise whatsoever out of Him. But this is not all: we, believers, are the objects of these counsels of God. They are to the glory of God by us.

But, in the first place, the glory of God is that of Him whoever glorifies Himself in His ways of sovereign grace towards us; for it is in these ways that He unfolds and displays what He is. The Yea and Amen therefore of the promises of God, the accomplishment and the realisation of the promises of God, for His glory by us, are in Christ.

There is a very definite contrast between the "yea and nay," of verse 19, and the "yea and … Amen," of the following verse. The former indicates that which is vacillating and contradictory: the latter that which is definitely affirmed, and then unswervingly confirmed in due season.

Man is fickle. With him it is frequently yes on one occasion and no the next. Moreover man is contradictory when it is a question of God and His will. Again and again does he break down, and consequently negative all that God desires for him. His reply to God's will is uniformly "Nay." The opposite of this is found in Christ, for "in Him was, yea." He said "Yes" to every purpose and desire of God.

And not only was the yea found in Him but the Amen also. He not only assents to all the will of God, expressed in His promises, but He proceeds to carry all out, and bring all to full and final completion. In Him the thing is done, and shall be done, until a great Amen can be put to all God's pleasure, so that God is glorified. And further, He obtains a people who become His servants for the carrying out of the Divine will: so that the two words, "by us," can be added at the end of verse 10. What glorious stability and security is here! What confidence, what repose garrisons the heart that rests in Christ!

They knew there was no duplicity in the preaching of Paul, Silas, and Timothy: it was direct and unequivocal: Jesus Christ the Son of God was declared in positive reality, as the One in whom all the promises of God have been fulfilled perfectly. "Yea" would speak of this as affirmed by God as positively true. "Amen" is the proper response of faith in the subject hearer. This was ministered "by us," the servants, but to the glory of God, who had sent them.

As to His Position, He ascended on high to the throne of God, by God's right hand exalted, and is there made both Lord and Christ (Acts 2). In Him is the YEA to whatever promises of God there be. The promises of God involved the overthrow of Satan (Gen. 3:14-15), the bringing in of secure blessing for men (Gen. 22:15, 18), the establishment of the purposes of God (1 Chr. 17:11). None other ever stood forward to do all this. All others failed before Satan, failed before men, failed before God. But even in coming into the world, the Lord Jesus had all this before Him, knowing it all beforehand and coming to do it. He shouldered the responsibility of all these promises, said "Yes" to them all, and set Himself to their accomplishment. His death in all its infinite value, eternal efficacy, and far-reaching effects will result in these three things: the complete defeat and confusion of Satan and all who side with him, the securing of infallible and boundless blessing for men, and the accomplishment of the will, the establishment of the kingdom and the glory of God through the whole universe and throughout eternity. No single promise of God will fail of its uttermost fulfilment. Even as Christ has undertaken it and has said, "Yes" to it, so in the end will it be found that all is completed and fulfilled, and He will be able to say "Amen" to it. It is as good as done already, so absolutely certain is it of accomplishment, and so absolutely secure for it is every one who is in Christ.

"God is faithful," is a prominent statement in Ch. 1 of the first epistle. The same statement "God is true" or "faithful" is made at the opening of the above passage in the second epistle. So it was a logical conclusion that the apostle's preaching was not equivocating, not saying "Yes" and "No" in the same breath or saying one thing and meaning another! Then the subject of his preaching, the Son of God, necessarily partook of the same character. The argument was one in ethical congruity, i.e., it was unbelievable that one who had such a subject to preach and who enforced it emphatically would be untruthful or controlled by considerations of expediency! Then he leaves the subject of the character of his preaching, changing the verb tense from the aorist (egeneto, was) [Alternative reading is estin, 3rd pers. sing. pres. indic. of eimi to be, but the change to the perfect represents the action as completed re the present time.] in the first passage to the perfect (gegone) in the second passage, signifying that the substantiation of the truth is in Christ, the Son of God. The alternative and possibly better reading of v. 20 is "in Him is the yea, wherefore also by Him is the Amen to God for glory by our means," i.e., by means of the apostle and his associates. The promises of God have been fulfilled and ratified in Christ. He is the incarnate Amen of these promises. His words were based on immutable certainty. In His life and works the promises of God were fulfilled and justified. Similar scriptural references are "I am the truth," "He that is true," and "the Amen, the faithful and true witness," all putting emphasis on the same fact. To the Greek nai is added the Hebrew Amen to give greater emphasis, as in the Revelation where the most solemn expressions are rendered in both Greek and Hebrew.

Thus he declares most unequivocally that the preaching of him and his companions had none of the vacillation or conflict common to the schools of human opinion, and this because all truth is verified in Christ's person. It is become yea in Him. It abode the same. Perfection is come in Him, and also as available for others. This is far more than the witnesses' agreement with themselves and one another, which is eclipsed by Christ, who is personally the truth, and all is become verified in Him. Nothing more distant from the subdued, hesitating, style of Greek thought and expression, where even what was not doubted they put as opinion. Here all is sure, and unclouded, and peremptory. The gospel, as Paul preached it, admits of no doubtful answer, any more than double dealing; and this, because it is revealed in the Second man, who has set aside the first, with his darkness and doubt, no loss than with his guilt and corruption.

More than this: "For how many soever [are] God's promises, in him is the yea; wherefore also through him [its] the amen to God for glory by us." Hence it is not only that there is the affirmation of all promised of God in Christ, and therefore in the highest way, before the fulfilment in others, as the effect, and the outward display before every eye in the universe, but there is a present application of the surest character, through apostolic ministration, to God's glory. God is glorified in the Son of man, as the Son of man is glorified; but there are results of the deepest sort which God vouchsafes now to faith, in the administration of which (not of the kingdom merely, as Peter) our apostle had the chief place, and the Christian is entitled to reap the blessing, as heartily and in the Holy Spirit assenting to the truth. So Bengel, long ago, said tersely enough, "Nae respectu Dei promittentis, Amen respectu credentium." But to bring the believer into the enjoyment of what God has wrought in Christ more has to be said, and immediately follows. Here it is the firm foundation, not God's promises as of old, still less the law which proved that man could not make them good, yet all accomplished in Christ, but also as surely verified through Him, for glory to God by us.

He goes on now to speak of what might seem to have been a failure upon his part. He had been minded to come to them before this, to pass by them into Macedonia, and again to come from Macedonia to them, that they might set him afterward on his way to Judea; but in fact he had not done this. Had that been mere fickleness on his part, so that what he purposed today he would set aside to morrow? Was there, in this way, a kind of yea and nay with him, as earnest a nay as the yea before might seem to be earnest? He desires to rid them of any thought of this kind; and it is beautiful to see how he insists that his life took character from his preaching, even in such details as he is speaking of. The Son of God who had been preached among them by himself and Silas and Timotheus was He preached as One in whom there was yea and nay, the author of a mere conditional and uncertain blessing? Assuredly not. All in Him was certainty; all the promises of God were in Him yea, in affirmation; and in Him too amen, in the answer of faith and experience to His assurance; that God might have His due glory as alone He could in this way. As to the position of the Christian, God had established them all together in Christ, with whom there could be no failure. Salvation was in His hands and in no other. He had complete control of all circumstances, and grace to meet all possible necessities. Then, too, the power answering to this, the power of the Spirit, had been manifest. They were anointed thus and sealed. The power communicated had marked them out in the fullest way as those who belonged to God, and thus secured His coming in on behalf of those who were His representatives upon the earth. The Spirit Himself was thus the pledge and earnest of the future in their hearts. Here all was certainty. Nothing was merely contingent. Nothing depended upon man, whatever shape God's grace might have to take in view of human frailty and uncertainty.

Verse 20. "For all the promises of God in Him are 'yea,' and by Him therefore are 'Amen,' to the glory of God by us." Himself the end and chief object of all promise, He is become in His mediatorial glory both the channel of supply to all who receive the grace of God in truth, and the medium of their responsive praise (John 1:16; Heb. 13:15). To the certified promises thus declared to the faith of God's elect in the Person of the Son, the church now sets the seal of her Amen (1 John 3:33), affirming thus adoringly, to the glory of God the Father, what the lips of Jesus have first spoken to her heart. All lesser words and tokens of God's kindness are comprehended in His chiefest gift; for in Christ is life, and with life what comforts also and adorns it. And this which was the fathers' distant hope is now, by the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh, assured yet more abundantly to us (John 10:10). Glory, and honour, and immortality belong to Him, and in Him are bestowed in promise on His saints. In Him who is eternally "the Word of God" we hold, if believers, by an everlasting covenant of righteousness whatever good thing God has spoken aforetime. Nor let us forget, while meditating on these things, that judgment as well as mercy is included in the Father's provision for His own. The promises of God are of two kinds; the first absolute, the second conditional in their effect. By the former the salvation of God's children is secured, according to the appointment of Him who has prepared for glory the foreknown vessels of His mercy. The latter are administered in faithfulness by Him who judges His own house, and who declares His intention of correcting His erring children not less explicitly than He has pledged Himself, in Christ, to their salvation. Good and evil happen to us according to the existing tenor of our way. If we please God, we are kept securely in His peace; if otherwise, affliction comes to warn us from the way of danger, and restores us to Himself. The rod is no less a promise than the crown, and both are equally the portion of all whom God receives (Ps. 89:32-33; Heb. 12:6). God's promises are but a measured exposition of His thoughts, and His thoughts have reference both to our natural condition and the resources of His grace. Now in Christ God's very fulness dwells, and that in the likeness which He took for our sakes (Col. 2:9-10); and this concentrating of God's mercies, in the living and effective Verification of His promises, is declared to be "to the glory of God by us."

But, on the other hand, when we look at the last Adam and His doings, wherever and however viewed, the entire category must be gloriously reversed; the "not" must be for ever taken from the sentence, for in Christ Jesus "all the promises of God are yea and Amen, to the glory of God by us." There is no "nay" in the matter when Christ is concerned. all is "yea" — all is divinely settled and established; and because it is so, God has set His seal to it, even the seal of His Spirit, which all believers now possess. "For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea. For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, to the glory of God by us. Now He which stablishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, is God; who has also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." 2 Cor. 1:19-22.