Covenants: Conditional & Unconditional

[foundinHim]

(Rom.11:25-29)
For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this *mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, “There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:”
“For this is My covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.”
As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes.
For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
*“mystery”=length of time that Israel will be blind/hardened “until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. NOT the mystery/body of Christ/”the church of God”

All God’s dealings with Israel, past, present, and future, comes from this covenant. All are based upon it. Israel is “beloved for the fathers’ sakes”, for what God has given, He does not take back, “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” A preordained plan lies at the foundation of the history of Israel.

Before Abram received these gifts and calling of God in Gen.11, God had divided the nations and had given them their inheritance on the earth, with special reference to Israel.
(Deut.32:8-9)
When the MOST HIGH divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the People according to the number of the children of Israel.
For the LORD’S portion is His People; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance.

The judgment of the “flood” was not paid close attention to by the nations, and the people gave themselves over to idolatry. Abram’s family was no exception. Let us refer to Joshua 24:2, And Joshua said unto all the People, “Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, ‘Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods.

The sevenfold promise in Gen.12:2-3 tells us that when Abram was called, it was not only from idolatry, but to blessing.
1. “I will make of thee a great nation”
2. “I will bless thee”
3. I will “make thy name great”
4. “thou shalt be a blessing”
5. “I will bless them that bless thee”
6. I will “curse them that curseth thee”
7. “in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed”

Same form of sevenfold or perfect blessing when God established His covenant in Exo.6:6-8
1. “I will bring you out”
2. “I will rid you out of their bondage”
3. “I will redeem you”
4. “I will take you to Me for a People”
5. “I will be to you a God”
6. “I will bring you in unto the land”
7. “I will give it [the land] you for an heritage”
Then, it is signed, “I am the LORD.”

We all know that a covenant is usually made between 2 parties, with certain conditions, to be observed on each side. When both parties are human, these conditions may or may not be kept, and when they are broken, by either side, the covenant is null and void. All conditonal covenants which man has ever made with God, have been dishonorably broken. When man/he who is conceived in sin and shapen in iniquity, has entered into covenant with God, he has “turned aside”, and the covenant has failed. But there is such a thing as an unconditional covenant, formally made by one contracting party. And when this ONE is GOD Himself, then it cannot fail, and it must stand forever---”ordered in all things and sure.”

Let us look and see unconditional covenants in Scripture:
With Noah concerning the earth, Gen.8:22-9:17, ...”While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and night and day shall not cease...and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh”...
With Abram concerning the land, Gen.15:18...”the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “Unto thy seed have I given this land”...
With David concerning the throne, [refer to 2Sam.7:24-29];
2Sam.23:5,...”Yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure:”
READ Psa.89:1-52

The covenant that was made with Israel at Sinai was a conditional covenant. God covenanted to give them life, blessing, peace, and prosperity in the land, and Israel covenanted to obey “the law.”
(Exo.24:3, 7-8) And Moses came and told the People all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments: and all the People answered with one voice, and said, “All the words which the LORD hath said will we do.”
And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the People: and they said, “All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient.”
And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the People, and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.” (compare to Heb.9:18-20)

 

[foundinHim]

In contrast with all this, it is plainly recorded that when God reinstates Israel in the blessing, it will be on the ground of “grace” and not of “law”...on the ground of a “new” and unconditional covenant and not on the conditional covenant of Sinai.
(Jer.31:31-32)
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt: which My covenant they brake”...

Let us turn to Gen.15 and see how this original, unconditional covenant was made by GOD with Abram. Abram was fully instructed on how he was to proceed, and what preparations he was to make. (Gen.15:9-10) And He said unto him, “Take Me an heifer...”goat”, “a ram”...”divided them”...”and laid each piece one against another”... that when the time came, he might pass between the pieces. For this was/became the manner of making a covenant...let us refer to Jer.34:18-19, And I will give the men that have transgressed My covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before Me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof.
The princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the People of the land, which passed between the parts of the calf;

At the critical moment, when Abram was ready to pass between the parts of the “heifer”, “goat, “ram” and “birds”, and be a party to the covenant, God put him to sleep...when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him” (Gen.15:12) and he saw “a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river Euphrates:” (vv.17-18)
Here, we have the great unconditional covenant, made by only one contracting party---the LORD GOD HIMSELF.

We all know that Abraham never possessed the land. Then this covenant was sanctioned in Isaac, “unto thee, and unto thy seed”, but he didn’t possess it...”Isaac gave up the ghost and died...and Jacob buried him.” And then it was sanctioned in Jacob, “to thee will I give it, and thy seed”, but he didn’t possess it, for “Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger”, he died in Egypt, and all that he possessed was a place to be buried.
Nevertheless, the covenant is sure! All blessing is based upon it, and referred to it! GOD declares, “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of My lips.” (Psa.89:34) There was the unconditional covenant with Abram to give him the land, and that other unconditional covenant that was made with David concerning the throne (2Sam.7), which is to be confirmed and fulfilled, only in David’s seed.
We are all aware of the present, scattered condition of the nation Israel. All their sufferings---without a country---without a king---without the knowledge of the saving truth---all because of their own conditional covenant at Sinai. God gave them a “law”, holy, just, and good. God gave them “the law” to prove to them of their own impotence, and to lead them to the omnipotence of the Saviour He had provided!

All this was foreshown in Psa.89:30-37
If his children forsake My law, and walk not in My judgments;
If they break My statutes, and keep not My commandments;
Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.
Nevertheless My lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer My faithfulness to fail.
My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of My lips.
Once I have sworn by My holiness
That I will not lie unto David.
His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before Me.
It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven.
Selah.

GOD will not break His covenant, even though Israel broke His statutes.
(Hos.3:4-5) For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim:
Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and His goodness in the latter days.