Back to the Beginning
When we started this lesson, our focus was on God's desire to enter into an everlasting relationship with His human creation. He wants to share His divine nature with His children. Over the centuries God has invited individuals—as well as a nation—into special covenant relationships with Him. The resulting divine agreements included many promises God has fulfilled and will fulfill for His people.
Beginning almost 2,000 years ago, God invited a spiritual nation, those called into His Church (Galatians 6:16), into a relationship with Him. He established a process for that to happen. The Bible calls it conversion (Acts 3:19; Acts 15:3).
God calls us into a personal relationship with Him. Notice it is God's "good pleasure" to impart to us His promises and gifts: "Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him . . ." (2 Thessalonians 1:11-12).
In the beginning God gave man a crucial choice symbolized by two trees in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1-24). God again offers His people the opportunity to partake of the tree of life and enter into an everlasting relationship with Him. This is the spiritual fulfillment of God's original intention to Adam and Eve. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ makes it all possible.
Jesus tells us: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city" (Revelation 22:13-14).
Remember the sure fulfillment of the inspiring promise of the New Covenant relationship we have with God. He will bring His promises to pass! He summarizes for us the relationship He wants with all of us: "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Then He who sat on the throne said, 'Behold, I make all things new.' And He said to me, 'Write, for these words are true and faithful'" (Revelation 21:3-5).
God calls—invites—us into this eternal relationship with Him as members of His family. In the next lesson we will explore how God wants us to respond to His calling and develop our relationship with Him.
This lesson has briefly covered many important aspects of God's plan and purpose for humanity and His dealings and relationships with us. To better understand the vital points covered in this lesson, be sure to read the following free booklets:
