A New Beginning

KEY VERSE: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” —II Corinthians 5:17

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Luke 3:15-22; 7:19-23

JOHN the Baptist was the last of the prophets under the Law. Jesus said of him, “Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” (Matt. 11:11) John said of himself: “A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven. … He that bath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.”—John 3:27-30

The advent of Jesus marked the close of the Jewish Age and the beginning of the Gospel Age. During the Jewish Age the Lord dealt exclusively with the Israelites as a nation. He gave them the Law Covenant which called for strict obedience to its laws and precepts, and it held forth as a reward to any who were able to obey perfectly the reward of life. Moses speaking for the Lord said: “Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the Lord your God. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments, which if a man do, he shall live in them; I am the Lord.” (Lev. 18:4,5) But we know from the record that the Israelites were not able to keep them because they were the children of fallen Adam as are the rest of the human race. The Apostle James says, “For whosoever shall keep the whole Law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”—Jas. 2:10

The work of the Jewish Age being completed, the Lord’s time clock in the development of his divine plan of the ages indicated the time had come for the beginning of the Gospel Age. The Apostle Paul states, “But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the Law, to redeem them that were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption of sons [sonship, Diaglott].” (Gal. 4:4,5) The Apostle Paul explains that the Law was given to make sin manifest and to show man’s inability to keep God’s perfect law and to fill up the time until the promised seed should come.—Gal. 3:19

It was the advent of this promised seed that marked the change in dispensations. The apostle states, “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.” (Gal. 3:16) We recognize that the reference is to God’s promise to Abraham recorded in Genesis 22:17,18. “In blessing I will bless thee … and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” The promise of two dispensations is contained in this covenant. First, there is to be the work of producing the seed that will eventually eradicate sin. This is the work of the Gospel Age, when Christ and his footstep followers will be sacrificed as the offering for sin. The word Christ as used in Galatians 3:16 means ‘anointed,’ and the apostle indicates in verses 28 and 29 that the footstep followers of Jesus are a part of the anointed and are part of Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise. These will be used by the Lord in the second dispensation which will bring about the blessing of all the families of the earth under the operation of the New Covenant.—Heb. 8:6-13

The activation of the Abrahamic Covenant after some 1800 years of dormancy, by the advent of Jesus, opened up a new and living way for the footstep followers of Jesus. The apostle states the matter as follows: “He hath chosen us in him … that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, … in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; … having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself: that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: in whom also we have obtained an inheritance.—Eph. 1:4-11

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