Were the promises God made to Abraham conditional or unconditional? I'm Dr. Fred, and you're listening to Study, Grow, Know. Welcome to Study, Grow, Know, where we discuss theology, prophecy, and current political issues from a conservative biblical perspective. Here's your host, Dr. Fred DeRuvo. Hi, I'm Dr. Fred. Thanks for joining me. We need to spend some time looking at the promises that God made to Abraham. We're also going to determine the nature of those promises. Are they conditional or unconditional? In other words, when God gave those promises to Abraham, was Abraham part of the covenantal agreement in that he was required to do something which would uphold his end of the bargain, thereby making it conditional? If so, then the anti-Zionist viewpoint certainly has merit. If, on the other hand, the promises given to Abraham by God were unconditional, meaning that nothing was required by Abraham in order for the covenant to stand and to be fulfilled, then those who are anti-Zionist have a severe problem. The determination of who is correct, the anti-Zionist or the Christian Zionist, stands or falls on whether or not God's promises were conditional or unconditional. It really is, honestly, that simple. The very first reference to any promise given to Abraham. is found in Genesis chapter 12 verses 1 through 3. This is not only the first instance of the promises, but it is our second introduction to Abraham, and he's called Abram at that point in scriptures. In chapter 11 of Genesis, his name is introduced to us. Well, let's see what the text says, shall we? Here we go, quote, now, the Lord said to Abram, go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father's house to the land which I will show you. And I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great. And so you shall be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you. And the one who curses you, I will curse. And in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed, unquote. Well, here, We see that God comes directly to Abram out of nowhere and tells him a number of things. He says, first, go to the land that God will show Abraham. In other words, go to the place that I'm going to show you. Second, God says that he's going to make of Abram a great nation. Third, God says he's going to bless Abram. Fourth, God will make Abram's name great. Fifth, Abram will be a blessing. Sixth, God will bless those who bless Abram. Seven, God will curse those who curse Abram. And eight, in or through Abram, all the families of the earth will be blessed. Those eight things. Now it seems straightforward. Nothing appears to be hidden. There doesn't seem to be any cryptic message here. We're not talking about the writings of Nostradamus. God's desire is that his word should be plainly understood. and that it should continue to be consistent throughout. There does not seem to be any coded language here. God is making statements of, I will, to Abraham. There appears to be nothing that Abraham needs to do in order for God to keep his bargain with Abraham. Oh, wait a minute. The very first sentence says, go forth from your country. Okay. Well, people argue that this part of the first sentence makes this a conditional covenant. In other words, God said go and as long as Abraham went, things would be fine. If he failed to go, then the agreement was off. Well, even if we agreed, which we do not, that this directive telling Abram to go makes this a conditional covenant, it is clear from the following verses that Abraham did go. The very next verse states, Genesis 12, 4. Okay, done. Abraham went, bargain kept, covenant upheld. Now God is free to fulfill all that he said he would fulfill. Here's some interesting information to consider. Why does the Torah mention all of the great rewards to Abram? Are they listed one by one in order to motivate Abram to respond in a positive way? No, these words do not serve as an enticement so that Abraham will go. Abraham went. because God said, go. And Abraham went, and now God can fulfill all eight items listed that I've mentioned. However, if we look closely at the verbiage here, God is not saying, Abraham, if you go, and if you do this, and then do this, and then do the other thing, and keep my commandments, I will do these eight things in and through you. He says nothing of the kind. God is simply commanding Abraham, go. Much like a parent would say, son, mow the lawn today. Please do not try to tell me that the parent is entering into a conditional covenant with his son. A covenant does not even enter the picture. The parent who clearly has authority over the child is giving a command and that parent expects the child to obey the command. This is what God is doing with Abram. He is telling Abraham what to do. He is not saying if. anywhere in the text, either implicitly or directly. This is not a conditional covenant. It is all on God. It starts with God and it ends with God. Let's say a father says to his son, son, mow the lawn today, later, would you? After you mow the lawn, we'll go to the sports store and get you a new pair of shoes. This should make running track easier for you. Well, okay. Is that a covenant? Notice the verbiage that I just said. The parent is not saying, if you do this, I will do this. The parent is giving a command and when the son follows through on that command, the next thing in line can occur. which in this case is going to the sports store for new running shoes. The parent is merely stating the order of events. It is a foregone conclusion because he knows the son will carry through and mow the lawn. Now in the same way God chose Abram because he already knew that Abraham would comply completely by obeying. Moving a bit further into the chapter, we read these words, quote, The Lord appeared to Abram and said, to your descendants, I will give this land. So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him, unquote. That's Genesis 12, 7. Now we know that Abram obeyed God because the text states that. It tells us that. As he traveled, he eventually came to the area called Shechem. The text also tells us that people called Canaanites already lived in that area. chapter 12 verse 6, it was at this point that God literally appeared to Abram and made this statement to him that I just read to you in verse 7. What was Abram's response? He built an altar to the Lord there. This was done as a form of worship. Notice that Abraham says nothing. He is simply on the receiving end of the Lord's statement. God tells Abraham to go to a land that he will show him. Abraham begins moving and when he gets to that land area, God appears and said, this is the land I was talking about. This is the land that I will give to your descendants. So far, Abraham has done nothing to earn anything. He has done nothing that would indicate that he was required to do anything to uphold his end of the bargain. As stated, if we argue that Abraham was required to go, then it is obvious he did go. If that was the requirement, then he fulfilled it. There was absolutely nothing else he was required to do, nothing. By all counts, this was an unconditional covenant in which God was the only party with any requirements at all, placed on himself. Notice also that God placed those requirements there. He didn't enter into any kind of conditional covenant with anybody. He just said, Abram, go, here's what I'm gonna do. The next event, In the continuing saga of Abram's dealings with God is found in chapter 15 of Genesis. Now here God again confirms his covenant with Abram. As we read through chapter 15, we see nothing that even remotely appears to be a conditional covenant. Chapter 15 of Genesis is an extremely interesting chapter. The reader and the listener, if you're going to read my book, and again, I mentioned yesterday that this book is available as a free download, Raised for His Glory on my website, www. Now if you want to download the book free that's up to you and you're welcome to do that. I would encourage you to take the time though right now maybe to read through chapter 15 of Genesis before we continue moving on. You can pause this and you can come back to it, but it's important that you understand what's going on in chapter 15. Here, God comes to Abram again, pointing out aspects of the covenant that he is making with Abram. Now in the previous chapter, 14, Abraham has just returned from vicariously, excuse me, victoriously rescuing his nephew Lot. As he was returning, Abraham met the king of Salem, whose name was Melchizedek, of whom the text states that he was a priest of God Most High. That's Genesis 14, verse 18. This was an extremely unusual office for a king. As a rule, a person was either a king or a priest, but not both. Interestingly enough, God had not even instituted the priestly line yet for Israel. King Melchizedek blessed Abram, and then Abram did something equally unusual by giving Melchizedek a tithe, and that's in chapter 14 verse 20. Now many commentators believe that Melchizedek is a type of Christ. There are good many reasons to accept this rationale. Certainly it is understood that Melchizedek as priest presents bread and wine which reminds us of the last supper of Christ with his apostles as he instituted this sacrament just prior to his crucifixion on the night he was betrayed. The writer of Hebrews also refers to the Order of Melchizedek as being royal and unending in Hebrews 6.20. This of course compares with Christ's unending high priesthood on behalf of all believers. Later in chapter 15, after God himself has promised Abram an heir, He takes Abram outside and shows him the heavens. God says this to him, quote, now look toward the heavens, count the stars if you're able to count them. And he said to them, so shall your descendants be, unquote. That's Genesis 15, five. God is making a promise to Abram that his descendants will be so vast they will not be able to be numbered. Considering the fact that Abram was at this point without an heir, this is certainly saying a great deal. A few verses later, God recounts to Abram, what he has already done with and for him when he says this, quote, I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess it, unquote. That's Genesis 15 verse seven. Please do not miss what God is saying. He is crediting himself with taking Abram out of Ur. He gives no credit to Abram at all. So much for a conditional covenant. God is fully in command here leaving nothing to chance. God took Abram out of Ur and he will get him to the land that his descendants will possess. It is all in God's hands. No responsibility for any of it rests with Abram at all. Now the next verse is extremely important, and it makes a very solid point which should not be missed or glossed over. It says, quote, then he believed the Lord, and he reckoned it to him as righteousness. The second he there, and he reckoned it, is referencing God, and that's Genesis 15, six. Abram believed the Lord and at that moment God reckoned or applied to Abram's account godly righteousness. It was at that moment that Abram received salvation. It is the exact same salvation that I received and you received if you're a Christian and every other Christian receives. It is the salvation that is based on faith and when that faith is evidenced God then imputes to us Christ's righteousness removing our unrighteousness forever. Alan P. Ross comments when he says, "...central to the entire chapter is the report of Abram's belief in the Lord and the Lord's crediting him with righteousness." This statement is the chapter's explanation of Abram's obedience and the solution for Abram's tensions. Abram received the specific word from God as well as the solemn guarantee that his seed would inherit the land, but the fulfillment of those promises seemed to lag far behind. He had no son, and then he learned that there would be a longer delay when his descendants would be oppressed for 400 years in a foreign land. It would take faith to wait for the promises, but faith was what God was looking for, and faith made Abraham acceptable to God." And that is from his book, Creation and Blessing, published by Grand Rapids Baker Academic in 1998. Now, it is patently clear then that it was Abram's faith which allowed God to grant him salvation. It was nothing that Abram did to secure it on his own. It was faith alone. And from that point onward, God sees Christ's righteousness when he looks at Abraham or at us. He no longer sees our unrighteousness. One might ask how God can do this since Christ did not yet die on Calvary's cross. Very simply, God merely looked forward, from man's perspective, to that point when Christ will die and borrows, if you will, or credits Christ's righteousness to the Christian's account. We've got to understand that God lives in the eternal present. The past, the present, and the future are all the same for God. Well, that is our show for today. We're going to continue talking about this next time. And until we meet again, I pray that God will open your eyes to show you how blessed you are. You've been listening to Study, Grow, Know with Dr. Fred DeRubo. 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