God’s Covenant and Jesus Christ

MEMORY SELECTION: “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” —John 13:35

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Luke 4:16-21; Mark 14:22-25

LOVE is that wonderful principle which binds us to our Creator and to each other. God is the most glorious example of its grandeur, and all intelligent beings who desire to draw close to the Heavenly Father will be influenced by his great love, power and grace. Love is the very law of the Creator’s being, and will ultimately be the controlling law of all intelligent life in the universe.

Jesus in the flesh was the perfect example of God’s love. He reflected the Heavenly Father’s character in all that he said and did. The context from which this lesson’s memory selection was chosen indicates how our Lord Jesus was thus glorified by the Father. “Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him. God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you. A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”—John 13:31-35

The same principle of love which emanated from the Father, and through His Son, our Lord Jesus, is thus manifested in the disciples and all others who have sought to walk in the light of truth and righteousness throughout the Gospel Age.

During the long period of man’s experience with sin and death, God’s love has been largely veiled. Evil and unrighteousness have been allowed to prevail under the subtle control of Satan—the god (or ruler) of this world. In reference to the adversary the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian brethren that “the god of this world [Satan] hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God [the true God—the Heavenly Father], should shine unto them.”—II Cor. 4:4

For six thousand years God has permitted the adversary to have “dominion” over the earth, and the affairs of the human family. In due time our Lord Jesus will establish his kingdom of truth and righteousness and “will destroy him that had [hath, ASV (n)] the power [dominion, Rotherham] of death, that is, the devil.”—Heb. 2:14

When that future millennial kingdom is established, God’s love will be made manifest to the children of earth. It will be revealed in their restoration to the perfection and beauty which prevailed in the Garden of Eden. At that time “the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” (Isa. 35:10) Then Satan will be bound and the family of man will learn the ways of the Lord.

During that thousand-year reconstruction period mankind will be dealt with under the terms of the New Covenant. This covenant will have our Lord Jesus as its Mediator. Associated with earth’s new King will be the faithful members of his bride who have sought to follow him in the present age of self-denial.

The apostle draws our attention to the promise given to Abraham so long ago. “And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed which is Christ. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”—Gal. 3:8,16,29

The New Covenant will be established with our Lord Jesus Christ as the Mediator between God and man. All will be given ample time and opportunity to seek the ways of God, and, at that time, love will prevail throughout all the earth even as it now prevails among those who yearn to know and serve him.

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