"Whatever promises God has made have been fulfilled in him." Paul thus sums up the relation between the Old and New Testaments.

Moses obeyed God's command and led the Israelites out of Egypt. He made this crowd of runaway slaves into a people. Later David made this people into a nation. All the time, God was making this people into his own and giving himself to them as their God, as he promised in Exodus 6:7; (cf. Leviticus 26:12) and later repeated several times through the prophets Jer 30:22; Ezek 11:20: "You shall be my people and I will be your God." Four great characteristics marked God's relation with Israel: God's choice, the Covenant he made with them, the Law to guide them in living joyfully (Psalm 119) according to that Covenant, and the promises he made, especially the promise of a Messiah. Promise is part of the vocabulary of hope. These four elements, Choice, Covenant, Law, Messianic promise, were God's way of making the Israelites into a people of great hope, so the four are all different expressions of God's great love in Jesus for humanity. Against this background we attain a deeper understanding of Paul's affirmation.