2 Corinthians 1:19–20

2 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 1

Paul’s Vindication of His Conduct and Life. 2 Cor. 1, 12–24.

No fickleness can be charged to the apostle: V.19. But the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in Him was yea. V.20. For all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.

The danger being that the Corinthians might be influenced to believe him unreliable in his promises and then extend this supposition to his doctrine, causes Paul to emphasize the truth and the reliability of the Gospel-doctrine as taught by him: For God’s Son, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you through us, through me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yes and no, but yes is in Him.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the content of all apostolic and evangelical preaching, is not an uncertain foundation, an unreliable base. Right and wrong, truth and falsehood, certainty and unreliability, are not found in Him at the same time; He is not a reed shaken by the wind, but a rock that remains unmoved, though assailed by the fiercest attacks of the portals of hell.

This Gospel-message had been brought to the Corinthians by Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to mention only three of their teachers, and they all, in spite of the difference in talents, had preached the same Jesus, in the same way, without contradiction.

In Him we have the positive benefits of divine wisdom, of righteousness, of sanctification, of salvation and glorification. In Jesus the divine and eternal yes has come into being as a true human being; Christianity is the only positive, certain religion.

For, as Paul continues his comforting assurance: However numerous may be the promises of God, in Him is the yes, wherefore also through Him the Amen to God for glory through us. Jesus Christ in His own person is the embodiment and fulfillment of all the promises of God to mankind; He either fulfilled them personally or secured their fulfillment through His servants.

And because Christ is thus the consummation of all the divine promises, therefore He is also the Amen, therefore all our prayers in His name are fitly closed with this confession of our trust in the willingness of God to give us all the spiritual blessings which we need throughout our lives. To the positive fulfillment of all the promises of God for the redemption of fallen mankind the believers give their joyful assent by their confession at the end of all creeds and prayers.

And thus the Gospel-promises redound to the glory and praise of God out of the mouth of the believers, until the whole world rings with hymns in His honor.