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I. THE GENERAL DOCTRINE.

1. God, he tells us, who cannot lie, made a certain promise before the world began. Not, observe, formed a purpose merely. We know well, indeed, from many a scripture, that He formed a purpose. But the apostle says that He did more, — that He made a promise — and to this belongs the special character under which he presents the adorable God here, "God that cannot lie." But to whom was the promise made? It could only be to the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ.

2. It was "eternal life" of which God, before the world began, made promise. The Son of God could not receive such a promise for Himself. He could receive it only as the predestined Mediator — the Head and Surety of a people "given to Him by the Father," to be in time redeemed by Him, and eternally saved.

3. And thus does there arise a third momentous truth, namely, that this promise could be made to Christ only on a certain condition — only on supposition, and in respect of His whole future obedience unto death in behalf of His people.

II. A HOPE unspeakably glorious and stable in its character.

1. Its glory. "Hope of eternal life." I cannot tell what this is. "It doth not yet appear," etc. This, at least, we know, that the "eternal life" shall have in it the expansion to the full of all the faculties and affections of the renewed nature; the perfect harmony of those faculties and affections both among themselves and with the will of the adorable God; the end of the last remnants of sin; all tears forever dried up; body and soul reunited in a holy, deathless companionship, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity!

2. Its immovable stability.

(1) First, the apostle says that it is built on the "promise of God who cannot lie." Ah, if that is not security enough, then farewell, at least, to all possible security in the universe!

(2) Nor is this a promise of God merely — one among many; it is, in a sort, the promise, the promise pre-eminently, of Jehovah, as the words intimate, "eternal life which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began." So we read, "This is the promise that He hath promised us, even eternal life." And again and again we read of "eternal life," as of the grand central blessing — "I give unto My sheep eternal life." "Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him." "Whoso eateth My flesh, etc., hath eternal life."(3) Again, the promise which this hope is built on was made by God "before the world began." See the immovable stability which lies here. For this world is one of ceaseless fluctuations, vicissitudes. Had the promise arisen amidst the changes and emergencies of time, then, one of them having begotten it, another might peradventure have made a final end of it. But it was anterior to them all — made in full foresight of them all — made an eternity before them all. And thus none of them can in any wise affect its stability.

(4) The promise this hope is built on is, as we have seen, the promise of a covenant — a promise made only on express and determinate conditions. And own that these have been to the uttermost fulfilled, it has become matter of justice no less than truth — of rectitude, as well as faithfulness. Concluding inferences: —

1. See the absolute security of the ransomed Church of God, and each living member of it.

2. Remember those words in Romans, "Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed." That is to say, there is an open entrance for all of us, sinners, into the whole inviolable security of this covenant of promise, by faith alone, without the deeds of the law — "it is of faith, that it might be by grace."

3. I end with the "hope" (daughter of the faith) — the undying hope — the "hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began." What a hope this for storms and tempests — "anchor of the soul" indeed, "sure and steadfast"! What a hope for afflictions, to sustain under them; for duties, to carry through them; for death and the grave, to give the victory over them!

(C. J. Brown, D. D.)

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KJV: In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

WEB: in hope of eternal life, which God, who can't lie, promised before time began;