# “The promise of promises” by Thomas Goodwin

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2024/07/18/the-promise-of-promises-by-thomas-goodwin/
- Published: 2024-07-18T13:11:18-05:00
- Author: tollelege

“The coming of the Spirit I may farther call the great promise of the New Testament.
For as Christ’s coming was the great promise of the Old Testament, so the sending
of the Spirit is entitled the ‘_promise of the Father_’ in the New: ‘_And behold
I send the promise of my Father upon you_.’ (**Luke 24:49**)

And he is so styled, not only in that he had been promised in the Old Testament 
by the prophets (as in that of **Joel 2:28-29**), and in multitude of other prophecies
of old; but because that Christ himself did now _de novo_ (as it were) promulge 
it as His promise, and the Father’s; and that upon this authority, that this Spirit
proceeded from Him, as well as from the Father, and that He was first to receive
Him for us, and then shed Him forth on us, (**Acts 2:33**), that so it might be 
made good, that ‘_all the promises are yea and amen in Him_;’ seeing this promise
of the Spirit is given upon Christ’s account, as He is the Son (according to that,‘
_God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts_,’ (**Gal. 3:13-14**),
and also because now under the New Testament this promise was to be fulfilled in
such a manner and measure as was never under the Old; and so it becomes a promise
proper to the New, that next great promise, which was to succeed that of Christ 
Himself, the promise of promises; the sole great promise now left to be given.

God the Father had but two grand gifts to bestow; and when once they should be given
out of Him, He had left them nothing that was great (comparatively) to give, for
they contained all good in them; and these two gifts were His Son, who was His promise
in the Old Testament, and His Spirit, the promise of the New.

And the Father doth honour Himself to us by this title, that He is the promiser 
and giver of the Spirit; and Christ himself, now when He is come, takes the honour
too of that, to make the sending of the Spirit His promise also, in saying, ‘_Behold
I send Him_:’ (**Luke 24:49**), and in **John 14:26**, ‘Whom my Father will send
in my name.’

And it is evident that our Saviour, in calling Him ‘_the promise of the Father_,’
which was spoken by Him after His resurrection, **Luke 24:49**, doth refer to His
own words and sermons uttered afore His resurrection, in 14th, 15th, and 16th chapters
of John, rather than to the prophets primarily in his intention.

**Acts 1:4** says: ‘_Wait for the promise of the Father, which ye have heard of 
me_.’

Again, Christ had John the Baptist, who ‘_began the gospel_,’ to foretell His manifestation
in the flesh, and to prepare the way for this Lord. And besides him, His angels 
did it.

But the Holy Ghost hath Christ Himself to foretell His coming upon flesh: and that
to prepare the hearts of men for Him whenever He should come.

And, lastly, on purpose to honour His visible coming, He had answerably an extraordinary
work left to Him, upon that His visible coming: the conversion of the whole Gentile
world; and the raising and building of the churches of the New Testament was reserved
of His glory.

To believe in the Holy Ghost, and the holy catholic church, you know how near they
stand together in the Creed.

His visible coming at Pentecost was the visible consecration and dedication of that
great temple, the mystical body of Christ, to be reared under the gospel (the several
members of which body are called ‘_temples of the Holy Ghost_,’ **1 Cor. 3:16**),
as that appearance at Christ’s baptism was the consecration of the head.

Of this work of the Spirit, that of the psalmist, though spoken literally of the
first creation, may yet be used in allusion, and is mystically applied by some of
the fathers thereunto: ‘_Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created; thou renewest
the face of the earth_.’ (**Ps. 104:30**)

The whole earth was decked and adorned with a new array, when the Spirit of God 
moved upon that chaos; and the whole face of the world was in that age of the gospel’s
promulgation no other than a chaos, void, and without all form; ‘_all nations had
walked in their own ways.’_

But the Spirit was sent forth, and lo this barren wilderness became a fruitful field
all the world over.”

–Thomas Goodwin, _[The Work of the Holy Ghost in Our Salvation](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1601788487?tag=toletaupanre-20),_
[_The Works of Thomas Goodwin, Volume 6_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1601788487?tag=toletaupanre-20)(
Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage, 1861/2006), 6: 8-9.

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