“I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you . . . Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come.” (Genesis 17:7, 9, NIV).
God comes to Abram again and says, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless.” (Genesis 17:1, NIV). Abram is 99 years old. What appears to be confusing is that, God seems to add a condition: "Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”” (Genesis 17:1–2, NIV). Was the Abrahamic Covenant conditional or unconditional? According to Genesis 15 the Covenant God made with Abram was clearly unconditional. God made promises to Abraham that required nothing of Abraham. But in Chapter 17 there appears something that Abram is to do, namely be obedient in regards to circumcision.
“Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised.” (Genesis 17:9–10, NIV).
Some have sought to answer the conundrum by suggesting that this covenant in Chapter 17 is a different covenant. As noted in the ESV Study Bible: "The manner in which God introduces this covenant distinguishes it from the formally unconditional covenant already made in ch. 15 . . . Here, however, a conditional dimension is explicit, indicating that this covenant will benefit only those who walk before God and are blameless." [1]
It is hard to believe that there are two covenants in view here. So why is there confusion? The mystery lies because of a false assumption among Believers -- that assumption is this: "If a promise has conditions it makes it uncertain." In other words conditions to an unconditional promise render it insecure. John Piper is helpful here when he writes,
"But that is not true. It is a false assumption based squarely on the conviction that man is autonomous and self-determining. But if, as Ezekiel 36:27 says, God puts his Spirit in man and causes him to walk in his statutes (and thus fulfill the conditions of the covenant), then a promise can be both conditional and certain of fulfillment. If God commits himself to work so that Abraham fulfills the conditions of the covenant promises, then there is no inconsistency in saying that the promises are sure, steadfast, irrevocable, and conditional." [2]
This same mystery confuses people in other promises God has made. For example there are ample promises in God's Word that assure the believer of the certainty of their salvation. For example, Paul assures the Colossae believers that Christ will some day present them faultless and then he adds: “if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel . . ..” (Colossians 1:23, NIV). The word "if" seems to make a unconditional promise, "conditional"! St. Augustine understood the conditionality of unconditional promises. He prayed, ""O Lord, command what you will and give what you command." God makes the promise and God alone provides the grace to bring the promise to pass.
Therefore when we pray for enablement that an unconditional promise of God be effected in our lives we are neither questioning God's integrity nor doubting His promise. To pray such reveals a true understanding of how God's works.
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1. Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (79). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
2. http://www.desiringgod.org/sermons/the-covenant-of-abraham
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