The Lord Jesus also said of the Father, “for I know that His commandment is life everlasting” (John xii. 50).
Having in the former pages noticed the manner in which the institutions of previous revelation have pointed to and been completed by the Gospel of Christ, let us now set forth some of the leading characteristics of that religion which Jesus, so long foretold and typified, came to introduce amongst men.
We must bear in mind that it was a _New Covenant_ with men, which He came to establish. The former Covenant had grown old, and was about to decay; and it had been declared in prophecy, “This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know Me from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jer. xxxi. 33 and 34).
He who came to establish this new Covenant, and teach it to men, was none other than the Word who was in the beginning with God and was God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made (John i. 1–3); who was the brightness of the Father’s glory, and “the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power” (Heb. i. 3).
It is no marvel therefore that the New Testament should teach us that the first and cardinal point of this new faith was that we should believe on the “Messenger of the Covenant”—the Lord Jesus Christ bearing glad tidings of salvation to all men.
This is done in the clearest and most precise manner.
“God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that _whosoever believeth_ in Him should not perish, but _have everlasting life_.”
“For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world _through Him might be saved_” (John iii. 16, 17).
“This is the work of God, that _ye believe on Him_ whom He hath sent” (John vi. 29).
“This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and _Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent_” (John xvii. 3).
