Sabbath: The New-Covenant Life

Image © Pacific Press

Sabbath Afternoon

Read for This Week’s Study: 1 John 1:4; John 5:24; Romans 3:24-25; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 John 4:16; Revelation 2:11; Revelation 20:6, Revelation 20:14; Revelation 21:8.

Memory Verse: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

This quarter has been a study on the covenant, which (to pare it down to its simplest, purest form) is, basically, God saying, This is how I will save you from sin, period.

Though the outcome, the grand finale of the covenant promise, is, of course, eternal life in a world made new, we do not have to wait for it to enjoy the covenant blessings today. The Lord cares about our lives now; He wants the best for us now. The covenant is not some deal where you do this and this and this and then, a long way off, you will get your reward. The rewards, the gifts — they are blessings that those who by faith enter into the covenant relation can enjoy here and now.

This week’s lesson, the final in our series on the covenant, looks at some of these immediate blessings, some of the promises that come from God’s grace shed into our hearts because, having heard Him knock, we have opened the door. Of course, there are more blessings than what we can touch on this week. But it is just a start, a start of something that will, indeed, never end.

The Week at a Glance: Why should we feel joy? On what basis can we claim that promise? What is it about the covenant that should free us from the burden of guilt? What does it mean to have a new heart?