Living By Faith Blog

God’s Promises

Last night I was thumbing through John Piper’s Future Grace: The Purifying Power of the Promises of God when I stumbled upon a quote from J. C. Ryle about God’s promises.

Who was J. C. Ryle?  He was an influential pastor in England in the 1800s.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones described him as a “famous, outstanding, and beloved … champion and exponent of the evangelical and reformed faith” (from the Forward to J. C. Ryle, Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots, South Carolina: The Attic Press, 1977, orig. 1883).

What J. C. Ryle says about God’s promises encouraged me so much that I wanted to share it with you. Here it is –

A Perfect Wealth of Promises

“Promises … are one grand means by which God is pleased to approach the soul of man… He who has mercifully caused all Holy Scripture be written for our learning has shown His perfect knowledge of human nature, by spreading over the Book a perfect wealth of promises, suitable to every kind of experience and every condition of life…

“There is hardly a step in the man’s life, from childhood to old age, hardly any position in which man can be placed, for which the Bible has not held out encouragement to everyone who desires to do right in the sight of God.

“There are “shalls” and “wills” in God’s treasury for every condition.

• About God’s infinite mercy and compassion –
• about His readiness to forgive all who repent and believe —
• about His willingness to forgive, pardon, and absolve the chief of sinners –
• about His power to change hearts and alter our corrupt nature –
• about the encouragements to pray, and hear the gospel, and draw near to the throne of grace –
• about strength for duty, comfort in trouble, guidance in perplexity, help in sickness, consolation in death, support under bereavement, happiness beyond the grave, reward in glory –

— about all these things there is an abundant supply of promises in the Word.

“No one can form an idea of its abundance unless he carefully searches the Scriptures, keeping the subject steadily in view. If anyone doubts it, I can only say, “Come, and see.””

(J. C. Ryle, Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots (South Carolina: The Attic Press, 1977, orig. 1883), 271f, quoted in Piper’s Future Grace (Colorado: Multnomah Books, 2012, p.9. The formatting is mine.)

Points to Ponder

God has given us promises of what he will do for us in every situation we will ever face.

So no matter what problem or difficulty we encounter, God has given us promises in his word of what he will do for us if we turn to him and trust him.

But we can only do this if we know the promises God has given us in his word.

And the only way we can know these promises is by discovering them in his word.

So —

• study God’s Word to learn his promises,
• work on memorizing his promises so they will always be available to you,
• in every situation, fight the fight of faith to trust his promises.

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And here are some related posts you might find helpful –

• What Are the Promises of God?
• How to Fight the Fight of Faith?
• Spurgeon on Why and How to Use God’s Promises
• Don’t Neglect God’s Promises

(Picture is from Wikipedia and is in the public domain.)