Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."
With a new look
We Have a Covenant
In college I took business classes; one of those classes, which I paid special attention to and got a B+ in, was Business Law. The major thing that the class taught me was contractual (covenant) law; in a covenant there are clauses, some are ‘I will’ clauses, but most are ‘If-then’ clauses. Our covenant with Almighty God is the same way, filled with both kinds of clauses.
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An ‘I will’ clause simply states what one side will do regardless of what the other side does; a good example of an ‘I will’ clause is love, God said that He loves us regardless. You might be the ugliest, dirtiest, most vile sinner on the face of the Earth, not caring a thing about God, in fact hating even the mention that there could be a God (other than yourself). Or you might know someone who fits that bill. But, God still loves you and them.
“I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you,” (Genesis 17:6 New International Version),
God told Abram that He would do that regardless of what the man did. In the Old Testament we read how many times God’s covenant people did what was wrong, but God still made them fruitful; He is good on His word. And even when we miss it, by accident or on purpose, He still loves us. Now our receiving His forgiveness is an “If-then’ clause; He forgives us right away because He loves us, but we won’t receive it until we repent. He also forgives us to get Himself off the hook so that He can continue, but until we repent we are still on the hook.
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Now, answered prayer is an “If-then’ clause; God gave instructions about how to pray in the New Testament, not just the gospels.
“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him,” (1 John 5:14-15 New International Version).
A great example of an ‘If-then’ clause is John 14:15.
“If you love me, you will obey my commandments,” (John 14:15 GOD’S WORD Translation). Paraphrased: “If you love me then do what I say.”
There are, indeed, more ‘If-then’ clauses in our covenant with God then there are ‘I will’ clauses. Another way of saying that is that we are always growing and learning; if you think that you know everything I’ve got one question for you: Why aren’t you teaching Jesus?
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Then there are the things that Jesus said will depict a true believer, what He said in Mark 16:17-18.
“Those who are honest in their faith in my word will take my name and drive them evil demons out of those who need it. They will also lay their hands on sick folk, it doesn’t matter what the sickness because it’s not from me or my Father; do this and the sick will recover, whether you see it or not. If there is a reason that you must pick up a snake—not just tempting the Lord because that’s sin—and the snake bites you it will not harm you because you belong to me/Us. The same goes for drinking anything deadly, or eating anything deadly, it won’t harm you. But, now this is crucial, you must wait for the baptism and the anointing in the Holy Spirit before you can do any of this; and you will also speak in new, unlearned, tongues. However, you will not be able to do any of these works until you are baptized in the Holy Spirit. Therefore, you must wait in Jerusalem until you are baptized in the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 16:17-18 Steadfast in Honor).
This is an ‘If-then’ because Jesus did these things and then said,
“I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father,” (John 14:12 New Living Translation). If you believe then you will do, (in other words).
In fact, just before He said what He said in Mark 16:17-18, Jesus said,
“Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned,” (Mark 16:16 New International Version),
I hope you realize that water baptism is not the baptism that Jesus is talking about here. Water baptism is an outward sign to others that you are committing your life to doing what Jesus did. It is the Holy Spirit baptism that the true believer will go for. But, if one doesn’t believe then he won’t go for this baptism and will be damned.
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There is much more about our covenant with God, the Bible is a big book of books. Read it and pay close attention to phrases that say ‘If’, ‘Will’, and ‘Then’ and ‘Do’.