god's promises are trustworthy

in discussing luther's doctrine of god, we focused a lot on bondage of the will, one of luther's writings that the professor actually doesn't like.  in it, luther backs himself into a bit of a corner as he seeks to support the claim that "god's promises are trustworthy."  in order to prove this, luther argues that god foresees everything by god's will, that is, god is noncontingent. 

according to luther, in order for god's promises to be trustworthy, god must foreknow everything and if god foreknows everything, then (here luther falls into the double predestinarian trap, assuming that he knows god's hiddenness) god damns certain people and has mercy on others.  for luther to state this makes luther a theologian of glory as he purports to reveal god's hiddenness.

the problem is that luther is pressing for certainty with respect to god.  luther thinks that in order for god's promises to be trustworthy, god must be in total and complete control and therefore must be damning some and showing mercy to others.  actually, god's promises can be trustworthy and we can trust in them and in god (luther's definition of faith) without certainty about god's foreknowledge and actions.  as paul tillich would assert, doubt is a necessary part of faith.  to state faith claims with certainty is to no longer have faith because faith is belief without certainty.

so, in luther's doctrine of god, the key part is that god's promises are trustworthy.  the rest of it comes to be contradicted sooner or later (which is actually for the better for some of it).  the best way for me to believe that god's promises are trustworthy is to go back to the bible.  one of my favorite stories is the story of the israelites' exodus from egypt to the land of canaan.  god hears god's people and rescues them. 

as the israelites wander in the desert, god gives the ten commandments.  in jewish numbering, the first commandment is god's fulfillment of god's promise.  god promised land to abraham and to be god for his descendants and the first commandment is "i am the lord your god who brought you out of the land of egypt, out of the house of slavery." (i know, i've mentioned this before, but i really do love this!)  god's first commandment is god fulfilling god's promise!! 

this is only one of many times throughout the bible where god fulfills god's promise.  this then informs my life as i work to trust in god's promises.  since god is both hidden and revealed (revealed in christ, yet still hidden), the most i can ever do is trust. 

i (and you, for that matter) don't need to work and reason my way to anything, i just need to trust that, as is written in john 3:17, "god did not send the son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."  god came to save.  god came in human form to return us to right relationship with god's self.  this frees me to live and to love in response to god's promises for me and my life, trusting that god is just, yet merciful.