From Conditional to Unconditional Promises

Journal Entry for May 20, 2010 using the S.O.A.P method. Today's readings included: 1 Kings 6, 2 Chronicals 3, Psalm 97, and Romans 1

Scripture—1 Kings 6:12 “Concerning this house that you are building, if you will walk in my statutes, obey my ordinances, and keep all my commandments by walking in them, then I will establish my promise with you, which I made to your father David.

Observation—In the Old Testament we find a lot of statements from God like the one above. Quite often God is quoted making a sentence with a big IF. It's a conditional promise. And people in Old Testament times seemed to understand God as a conditional God; the punisher of wrong and rewarder of right. If they lost a battle, it was assumed to be because they had done something wrong. If they won, it was because they were doing good and the Lord was rewarding them. In the New Testament, of course, there is a dramatic shift. There Jesus ushers in a whole new understanding. "Neither this man nor his parents sinned" said Jesus, "he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him." (John 9:3) In the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul knew full well the OT understanding that many people were still living under. and he knew how to use it to his advantage to make a dramatic point. Today's reading from Romans 1, as I learned from one of my seminary professors, is a HUGE set-up. Paul’s going to get everybody all incensed about the ‘sinners’ in the world, and then he’s going to turn their pointing fingers right around upon themselves in the chapters to come. He’ll make the case that "since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24 they are now justified by his grace as a gift,“ (Romans 3:23-24a). God’s conditional promises have fallen by the wayside but the unconditional promise forever stands.

Application—In spite of the pains, literally, that God has taken through Christ to claim us as God’s very own, we still like conditional unconditional promises. In other words, we tend to only accept the unconditional concept up to a point. And yet that caveat completely robs the unconditional promise of its freedom! The whole point of no conditions is no ‘conditions,’ period. Perhaps we’re afraid that we might use that freedom for self-indulgence. True enough. But wouldn’t we find within that self-indulgence a void that would call us back to the freedom of sharing once again?

Case in point: once I had day off. I’d been looking forward to that day off for a while because there was just a ton of stuff to do outside around home and I was eager to get to it since it was such a beautiful day. But in the middle of the night I remembered that the funeral for a relative of one of our church members was that day at another church. That member had come to me earlier in the week and honored me with honest sharing of how much this particular family member meant to him. Now, I was in no way obligated to attend this funeral. It wasn't at the church I served and it would be difficult for me to make it to the funerals of all of our members’ relatives. Plus the funeral was in the middle of the day and so it would really limit how much I could get done around home. But the thing is, I WANTED to go! And so I did go, at least to the calling hours before the funeral. The unconditional nature of the situation freed me from self-endulgence to at least one expression of genuine care.

Prayer—Lord, thanks for your unconditional promise. Help me to live in light of its radical nature. In Jesus’ name. Amen.