Unconditional
For those who love the doctrine of the sovereignty of God in salvation (Ps 115:3; Jon 2:9), there is an appreciation for the theological term, “unconditional.” It is commonly employed to describe the covenant of grace. An unconditional covenant simply means that God will do what He says He will do, placing no conditions on man to do anything.
When we use the word, “unconditional,” as an adjective, it helps us to see what the Bible teaches about God’s sovereign will and working in all things. We speak of unconditional election; and this means that by His free will (Jn 1:13; Rom 9:16) and choice (Rom 9:11; 11:5; 1 Thess 1:4), God has chosen a specific group of people to be His own possession (1 Pet 2:9). He chose them to be in Christ, from the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4), so that in the end, He may present them holy and blameless before Him (Eph 1:4; 5:27; Col 1:22).
The doctrine of election is the fountain from which all other doctrines are accurately understood. If you get election wrong, then everything else will have the taint of error. For instance, some make God subject to sinful man, in their theological systems. They turn the sovereign God, with His unconditional covenant, into a non-sovereign god, who puts conditions on most doctrinal elements.
In a conditional election, God is forced to look down the tunnel of time and see who chooses or rejects His Son, Jesus Christ. Then, He must come back to the beginning of time and write the names of the wise decision makers in the Lamb’s Book of Life (Rev 13:8).
In time, the Holy Spirit must wait for the wise decision makers, to use their free will, to make the choice to let Jesus save them. Man becomes sovereign in salvation, while God is relegated to waiting on man before He can do anything. This would be a laughable position to hold, if it were not the dominant one in most churches. Sadly, the perversity of conditional covenant people has left them with the wrong god.
The God of the Bible has not only decreed this unconditional covenant of grace, but He is the One who executes it at every point. By His sovereign will and choice, the Spirit baptizes God’s elect at the time, and under the circumstances, ordained by God. Regeneration is an unconditional work of the Holy Spirit, in those predestined to adoption, before Creation. Like Saul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9), God chooses the time and place to reveal Himself to the elect, redeemed, yet still unregenerate.
Those who erroneously force the hand of God, into putting a condition on God’s salvation, will take self-generated faith and repentance, and they make these a condition of man, before the Holy Spirit can do anything about regeneration. Man must muster a saving faith in Jesus, using his wisdom and logic. He must create a love for Jesus in his heart, so that his confession of Jesus is not an empty one. We ask, “Do spiritually dead men make good spiritual decisions?
In the Gospel of grace, it is God who makes decisions, and who does what is required. The Bible teaches us that faith is a gift of God (Eph 2:8–9), granted by God (Phil 1:29), to those He has caused to be born again (1 Pet 1:3). It is the Holy Spirit who makes the Christian, and who makes him faithful (Gal 5:22).
The other dimension of unconditional conversion is the grace of repentance (Mt 3:11), produced by God (2 Cor 7:10), and granted to all the elect, to come to repentance (2 Pet 3:9) and the knowledge of the truth (2 Tim 2:25), which includes both Jews and Gentiles (Acts 5:31; 11:18). Thus, repentance and faith, for the forgiveness of sins, is proclaimed in His name to all the nations (Lk 24:47). God does it, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, we proclaim it as grace (the work of God) and Gospel (good news).
Justification is also unconditional. Man can do nothing to work for it, and man can do nothing to forfeit it. Justification is the “not guilty” declaration and permanent status of the Christian. We are justified before God, holding permanent right standing, by the blood of Christ.
In an unconditional act of God, He sprinkled us with the blood of the Lamb that cleanses us from sin and guilt. The Bible teaches us that we are justified by grace (work of God for the benefit of His people), as evidenced by the faith, gifted and granted to us. This allows us to understand Paul’s explication in Romans 4, which declares that God’s people are justified by faith (Rom 4:5).
God positions us “in Christ (Col 1:13),” and He imputes Christ’s righteousness to our accounts. Thus, we see there is no condition on justification, either. Man contributes nothing, nor can he mess it up, once he receives this permanent legal declaration and standing. When God sends the Spirit of adoption to those He makes alive in the Spirit, there are no conditions (Rom 8:15, 23). Adopted children, as we know from this world, are objects of mercy. Gracious parents take a child that is not theirs biologically, and they parent that child to maturity.
The elect, redeemed, regenerated people are made to be children of God. John asks, “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us that we would be called, ‘children of God (1 Jn 3:1)?’” Adopted children are not required to be anything but themselves. It is God who will transform His adopted children into conformity to the image of Christ, who is the icon of God (Rom 8:29; Col 1:15).
Even the process of conformity is unconditional. God does the work of sanctifying His saints, as His Spirit employs the Word of God, to guide His children into all truth (Jn 16:13; 17:17). This is the will of the Father (1 Thess 4:3), and it is the Spirit, who is willing and working holiness into the saints (Phil 2:13).
This process ends without condition in glory. He who began this good work in us will bring it to perfection (Phil 1:6). Being objects of mercy, prepared by God for glory (Rom 9:23), we have no confidence in the flesh. Rather, our hope is in God, the Creator of heaven and earth, who sustains all things by the Word of His power (Heb 1:2–3).
It is God’s Word of promise, in the unconditional covenant of grace that we trust. God is faithful and true (Rev 19:11). He is good, and so is His Word. He has promised; He will do it (Ps 37:5). He has placed no conditions on man, so that He receives 100% of the glory, for doing 100% of the work, which was 100% His idea from eternity. Therefore, let us give thanks for this crucial theological term, “unconditional.” Without it we would be stealing glory from God and making Him our servant. Instead, we praise Him for all that “unconditional” encompasses…which is everything (Rom 11:36).
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
September 28, 2022
