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Conditional Promises (4)

If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt: then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever. Jeremiah 7:6-7.

We are interested in only one aspect of this passage from Jeremiah: its conditional character. It is to this conditional structure of the verse that a question sent to us refers: "Are the promises of God always conditional? A brother I am in correspondence with recently wrote to me quoting Jer. 7:6-7 as proof that God makes conditional promises.... [This passage] calls to obedience with attached promises of blessing. The question is, are the promised blessings conditional on obedience?"

We have one more article to write on this question. In this article I want to deal with the question of the reason why God makes use of conditional sentences in Scripture. We have, in earlier articles, dealt with this matter, but it is of sufficient importance to discuss it again. We can find several reasons why God uses conditional sentences in Scripture. All of them are important.

The first reason is that conditional sentences make the promises of God to which they are attached particular, i.e., for some people only. The conditional sentence, e.g., in the verse from Deuteronomy quoted above, makes it very clear that the promise of God that He will give the land of Canaan as an everlasting dwelling place is not for all men, not even for all Israel, but only for those who do not oppress the stranger, the orphans, and the widows; who do not shed innocent blood; and who do not serve other gods. It is important to stress this, for many in our day want to make the promise of the gospel general, i.e., to all who hear the gospel.

In the second place, the conditional form of the sentence gives emphasis to the definition of those who do inherit the promise. The form of the statement is almost like a name which God gives to those in whom He delights. They are those who show mercy and compassion and those who serve the Lord their God. They are merciful Jehovah-servers. That is how you may identify them. That is their spiritual name.

In the third place, the conditional form of the sentence explains the way in which these merciful Jehovah-servers inherit the promise. They receive the promise exactly in the way of showing mercy and serving Jehovah with fear. They know the mercy of God to them and show that mercy to others. They have been brought into fellowship with Jehovah their God and serve Him alone with thankful hearts. And in the way of being merciful Jehovah-fearers they receive the promise.

Does this mean that to be merciful and to serve God alone are conditions to the promise? Most emphatically not! These people are merciful because God has shown mercy to them, and they have experienced God's mercy. They worship Jehovah alone because they have been delivered by sovereign grace from the idolatry of the heathen. They are, therefore, the elect of God in whom is worked the true religion -- which James describes as being "to visit the fatherless and the widow in their affliction, and to keep one's self unspotted from the world " (James 1:27).

And, as this word of God comes to them in the preaching, God works in them the consciousness of His work. As He sets forth the inseparable relation between this "true and undefiled religion" and everlasting life in heaven, he shows to His people how He, Jehovah their God, has inseparably joined the two. God works in them this great religion; they experience this work of God as they themselves visit the orphans and widows and walk in the fear of God. And in this way they have the assurance that God is indeed their God and that the promise of an eternal inheritance in the Canaan which is above is theirs.

Thus also they are warned concerning their sin. When they walk in the ways of their sin, they lose the assurance of the hope of the promise and experience only God's wrath. But that very wrath brings them again, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, to repentance and confession of sin.

God deals with us, not so that we are puppets, the strings of which are in His hands, but as those in whom He works His salvation so that it is our conscious blessing, and so that, knowing that blessing, we may give glory to God alone. But it is all of God who works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

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Additional Info

  • Volume: 6
  • Issue: 7
Hanko, Herman

Prof. Herman Hanko (Wife: Wilma)

Ordained: October 1955

Pastorates: Hope, Walker, MI - 1955; Doon, IA - 1963; Professor to the Protestant Reformed Seminary - 1965

Emeritus: 2001

Website: www.sermonaudio.com/search.asp?speakeronly=true&currsection=sermonsspeaker&keyword=Prof._Herman_Hanko

Contact Details

  • Address
    725 Baldwin Dr. B-25
  • City
    Jenison
  • State or Province
    MI
  • Zip Code
    49428
  • Country
    United States
  • Telephone
    616-667-6033

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