I. Covenants of Promise
II. The definition of a covenant. A covenant may be defined as follows: A divine covenant is:
A. A sovereign disposition of God, whereby he establishes an “unconditional or declarative” compact with man, obligating himself, in grace, by the unimpeded formula, “I WILL,” to bring to pass of himself definite blessings for the covenanted ones, or
B. A proposal of God, wherein he promises, in a conditional, or mutual compact with man, by the contingent formula “IF YOU WILL,” to grant special blessings to man, provided that he fulfills perfectly certain conditions, and to execute definite punishment in case of his failure. It is to be observed that this definition does not depart from the customary definition and usage of the word as a legal contract, into which one enters, and by which his course of action is bound
III, The kinds of covenants. There are two kinds of covenants into which God entered with Israel: conditional and unconditional.
A. A conditional covenant depends for its fulfillment upon the recipient of the covenant, not upon the one making the covenant. Certain obligations or conditions must be fulfilled by the receiver of the covenant before the giver of the covenant is obligated to fulfill that which was promised; this is a covenant with an “if” attached to it. The Mosaic covenant that God made by God with Israel is such a covenant.
B. An unconditional covenant depends upon the one making the covenant, alone, for its fulfillment. That which was promised is sovereignly given to the recipient of the covenant on the authority and integrity of the one making the covenant, apart from the merit or response of the receiver; this is a covenant with no “if” attached to it whatsoever. To safeguard thinking on this point, it should be observed that an unconditional covenant, which binds the one making the covenant to a certain course of action, may have blessings attached to that covenant that are conditioned upon the response of the recipient of the covenant; such blessings grow out of the original covenant, but these conditioned blessings do not change the unconditional character of that covenant. The failure to observe that an unconditional covenant may have certain conditioned blessings attached to it had led many to the position that conditioned blessings necessitate a conditional covenant, thus perverting the essential nature of Israel’s determinative covenants.
Cross Commission Ministries 