If / Then scriptures; some reminders

Any computer programmers out there?

You understand what “If / Then” statements are, I’m sure. Did you know God uses those too?

“God is sovereign. He has a plan!” I heard someone say recently.  “Don’t worry about politics, government, culture, society, weather, persecution, or the end times, it will all out work out in the end!”

True? Or not true? If it’s completely true, why bother to pray? But that is not what the scriptures teach. While God’s love is unconditional, many of his promises are conditional. Salvation certainly is.

Consider the hundreds — nearly 1,600 — of the “If / Then” statements in the Bible. Listed below are really just a few. Most of these are from the Old Testament but we’ll start with those in the New Testament.

(Reminder: Paul wrote to Timothy, “And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Tim 3:15-17)

New Testament:

• Mark 9:23  Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. (KJV)
• John 8:31-32  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and (then) ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
• John 10:9  I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
• John 15:7  If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, (then) ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
• John 15:10  If ye keep my commandments, (then) ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.
• John 15:14  Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
• Romans 8:13  For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, (then) ye shall live.
• Romans 10:9  If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, (then) thou shalt be saved.
• 1 Corinthians 3:16-17  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
• Hebrews 10:38  Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
• Revelation 14:9-10  And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, (then) the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.

Old Testament:

• Exodus 15:26  If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, (then) I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.
• Exodus 19:5  Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine.
• Exodus 23:20-22  Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place, which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him. But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.
• Deuteronomy 4:29-31  But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice; (For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.
• Deuteronomy 7:12-13  Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the LORD thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers: And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee.
• Deuteronomy 8:19-20  And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish. As the nations which the LORD destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the LORD your God.
• Deuteronomy 19:9  If thou shalt keep all these commandments to do them, which I command thee this day, to love the LORD thy God, and to walk ever in his ways; then shalt thou add three cities more for thee, beside these three.
• Deuteronomy 28:1-68  The whole chapter… lists of blessings and curses.
• Deuteronomy 30:17-20  But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
• Joshua 24:20  If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good.
• 1 Samuel 7:3  And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the LORD, and serve him only and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.
• 1 Samuel 12:14-15  If ye will fear the LORD, and serve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then shall both ye and also the king that reigneth over you continue following the LORD your God: But if ye will not obey the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then shall the hand of the LORD be against you, as it was against your fathers.
• 1 Samuel 28:7-9  Moreover I will establish his kingdom forever, if he be constant to do my commandments and my judgments, as at this day. Now therefore in the sight of all Israel the congregation of the LORD, and in the audience of our God, keep and seek for all the commandments of the LORD your God: that ye may possess this good land, and leave it for an inheritance for your children after you for ever. And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.
• 2 Chronicles 7:14  If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
• 2 Chronicles 15:2  And he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The LORD is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you.
• Job 36:11-12  If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures. But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword, and they shall die without knowledge.
• Psalms 89:30-32  If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.
• Isaiah 1:19-20  If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
• Jeremiah 7:5-7  For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor; 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 12:16-17  And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name,The LORD liveth; as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built in the midst of my people. But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, saith the LORD.
• Jeremiah 18:8-10  If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.
• Zechariah 3:7  Thus saith the LORD of hosts; If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by.
• Malachi 2:2  If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.

Note (1):  There are Covenants that God makes that have nothing to do with our responses, such as the rainbow in the sky and God’s promise to never again destroy the entire earth with water. That is an unconditional Covenant, and what we do or don’t do will not change what God does about that promise.

However, “If / Then” statements appear in Scripture almost 1,600 times between the opening of the Old Testament Book of Genesis to the last New Testament Book of Revelation. Repeatedly we find these conditional “If and Then” scenarios that lead to optional outcomes; the outcome is our decision.

Note (2):  Only with the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit can a believer in Jesus actually fulfill the “If” requirements of these scriptures, whether in the Old Testament or the New Testament.