God’s Promise Is Secure

When God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you.”
–Hebrews 6:13-14

How do I know that God is going to carry out His agreement to save me? How do I know for sure that when I get to heaven one day, God will not change the terms of the agreement and say, “You know what? Faith was important, but you really needed some more good works”?

Salvation is guaranteed by God, and we see that in God’s dealing with Abraham. Look at Genesis 15:8. Abraham asked, in essence, “God, how do I know You are going to come through on this promise You have made to me?” Verse 9 says, “He said to him, ‘Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.’ Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, and laid each half opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds.”

What in the world was going on here? In the Ancient Near East, whenever two kings made a covenant together, to seal the deal they would cut these animals in two along the backbone and put them in two rows. Then the two kings would walk together, each holding a torch, between the rows of animals. They were saying, “This contract depends upon each of us carrying out our part of the bargain. If either one of us fails to live up to the terms of this agreement, may we become like the dead carcasses of these animals.” That is what was going on here between Abraham and God. They were confirming their agreement.

But then God did something very unusual–He put Abraham to sleep. Then verse 17 says, “It came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces.”

Abraham was over there asleep, and the Spirit of God Himself was walking alone between the animal pieces. What was the symbolism of that? God was saying to Abraham and to every generation since, “This promise does not depend upon you; it depends upon Me.” The promise of salvation does not depend upon man’s faithfulness; it depends upon the faithfulness of God. The writer of Hebrews said it this way in Hebrews 6:13-14: “When God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, ‘I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you.’” It did not matter what Abraham did or did not do from that moment on–God’s promise was secure, because it depended upon the faithfulness of God.

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Today’s devotion is excerpted from “Abraham the Justified” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2009.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org