Bonus Content from February 21st, 2021

There was one question that came in after this week’s sermon, and it has to do with the conditional (or unconditional?) nature of God’s relationship with Abraham.

For background: In last week’s scripture text, we saw that Abraham’s Genesis 20 relapse didn’t cause God to reject him as prophet or replace him as mediator of blessings to the nations. But why? I made this case:

God didn’t give him the role in the first place on the basis of his great faith or great deeds. God gave him the role (and the faith and the deeds, for that matter) because that’s what it delighted God to do. Therefore, Abraham’s sinful failure of faith does not result in his rejection.

I further noted the implications of that reality for us:

We the church are often sinful and failing, but still we are called to be intercessors for those who have not yet received Jesus Christ. And our sinful backsliding will not result in our being replaced in that role.

However, all this stress on the unconditional nature of Abraham’s calling (and ours) will come up against challenges in our scripture text this week (Gen. 22)… and as we read the rest of scripture.

For example, this was the insightful question texted in during Sunday’s sermon:

What about Saul? God replaced him as king because of his sin.

The contrast between Abraham’s relationship with God, Saul’s relationship with God, and our relationship with God must be handled with great care.

The first point we might make is that, even though there is a sense in which God replaced Saul as king because of his sin (1 Sam. 15:23), there’s another important sense in which the narrative about Saul’s life actually reinforces the point made this week about Abraham. Remember when David (who has been anointed king) had chances to kill his enemy Saul but did not avail himself of those opportunities? His reasoning: “I will not lay my hand on my lord, because he is the Lord’s anointed” (1 Sam. 24:10, see also 26:11). In other words, even Saul’s blatant rejection of God didn’t change the fact that he was still God’s anointed, and only God should determine when his time as king was finished. Indeed, despite his disobedience, Saul remained king until his death.

Still, his untimely death seems to have been God’s judgment on his disobedience. Samuel says as much (1 Sam. 15:26). Why does Saul get this treatment while Abraham is treated differently?

Abraham’s covenant relationship with God is not identical to Saul’s covenant relationship with God. There are unconditional aspects of God’s promises to Abraham (e.g. Gen. 15). And even in the case of the conditional aspects of God’s promises to Abraham (e.g. Gen. 17), God assures that those conditions will be met. He has unconditionally assured – in Abraham’s case – that He will follow through on what He promised Abraham (Gen. 18:14).

In the case of Saul, it is not precisely the same. God never issues an unconditional promise to Saul that he will reign forever, or that his descendants will reign in perpetuity after him. In fact, God’s rejection of Saul as king is in line with what He promised Saul He would do all along if Saul rejected Him (1 Sam. 12:14-15).

So what does all of that mean for us? Why did I so confidently apply to us the unconditional nature of Abraham’s relationship with God, instead of the very conditional nature of Saul’s relationship with God?

Let’s summarize what we’ve seen:

We can trust that whatever God has unconditionally promised to us will be ours no matter how blatantly or frequently we sin.

We can also trust that whatever God has conditionally promised to us will only be ours if the conditions are met.

So the question is: as ministers of the new covenant (2 Cor. 3:6) and children of Abraham by faith (Gal. 3:7), what unconditional promises has God made to us, and what conditional promises has He made to us?

God’s conditional promises toward members of the new covenant include:

John 15:10 – we will remain in Christ’s love if we keep his commands

Romans 10:9 – will be saved if we confess and believe

Revelation 3:20 – we will have communion with Christ if we open the door when he knocks

1 John 1:9 – we will be forgiven if we confess our sins

Matthew 6:14-15 – we will be forgiven if we forgive others

John 3:16 – we will have eternal life if we believe

However, God also makes us some unconditional promises. For example:

Jeremiah 31:31-34 – God will remember our sins no more

Jeremiah 32:38-40 – God will preserve the eternal covenant by causing us not to fall away from him

Philippians 1:6 – God will bring the good work He began in us to completion

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 – God Himself will keep us blameless

Romans 8:29-30 – Those God calls, He will also justify and glorify

John 10:26-30 – None of Christ’s sheep will be snatched from His hand

So which is it? Do we remain in God’s (conditional) love only as long as we obey? Or do we remain in God’s (unconditional) love even if we disobey?

We might summarize like this: If we truly belong to Christ, then we will remain in God’s saving love even if we disobey, though disobedience may cause us temporarily to miss out on the fullest enjoyment of his blessings.

In other words, if we belong to Christ and are members of the new covenant family attached to Him, God will sovereignly ensure (as He did with Abraham) that we freely meet the conditions of his conditional promises. And when we blow it, either (a) He will draw us back to himself in repentance, once again meeting those conditions and allowing us to experience the full range of his conditional and unconditional covenant blessings, or (b) we will not repent, remaining in our sin and violating the conditional promises, which will show that we were never actually part of the new covenant community for whom the unconditional promises were given in the first place.