GOD’S COVENANT OF LOVE
Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. John 13:1. The Greek word implies, “He loved them to the uttermost.” How deep is His love for us!
At the last supper with His disciples, Jesus washed their feet and told them that one of them would betray Him. Judas left to make the arrangements for the betrayal. Then Jesus told Peter that the cock would not crow before he had denied Him three times.
Yet the chapter does not begin on a sad note, for it says that He loved His own that were in the world; He loved them to the uttermost. What a deep, deep love the Lord has for us—a love so great that it leads Him to make covenants with us. The promises of the Lord that come to our hearts should not be viewed as cold declarations, “Thus it shall be!” When God gives us a promise or gives us a Word, it is because He loves us, and He bestows a covenant upon us.
Think of how God loved Abraham. He made a covenant with him, and apparently Abraham did not have to do much to keep that covenant.
The eighty-ninth Psalm is one of the finest psalms showing us God’s great love for David and the covenant God made with him (which Isaiah 55:3, KJV, refers to as “the sure mercies of David.”) “I have found David My servant; with My holy oil I have anointed him, with whom My hand will be established; My arm also will strengthen him. The enemy will not deceive him, nor the son of wickedness afflict him. But I shall crush his adversaries before him, and strike those who hate him. And My faithfulness and My lovingkindness will be with him, and in My name his horn will be exalted. I shall also set his hand on the sea, and his right hand on the rivers.
“He will cry to Me, ‘Thou art my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.’ I also shall make him My first-born, the highest of the kings of the earth. My lovingkindness I will keep for him forever, and My covenant shall be confirmed to him. So I will establish his descendants forever, and his throne as the days of heaven.
“If his sons forsake My law, and do not walk in My judgments, if they violate My statutes, and do not keep My commandments, then I will visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. But I will not break off My lovingkindness from him, nor deal falsely in My faithfulness. My covenant I will not violate, nor will I alter the utterance of My lips. Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David. His descendants shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before Me. It shall be established forever like the moon, and the witness in the sky is faithful.” Psalm 89:20–37.
God loved David so much that He said, “If his children forsake Me, I will smite them with a rod; but I will not take My lovingkindness away from him, or from his seed after him. I will establish his throne forever.” And thus God made a covenant.
I do not think that any of us really understands God, except in a measure. We know He loves us, but we cannot understand how He loves us so much that He scourges every son whom He receives (Hebrews 12:6).
God’s love for us is unconditional, and so He makes a covenant. God does not have to promise us anything. Why should He? He is God unlimited; yet He commits Himself, saying, “I am going to love you and bless you. I will not forsake you.” It takes someone in a situation like Peter was in, someone who has failed God, to really understand that God loves us when He makes a promise to us.
When God gives a prophetic Word over an individual, we see that the person is not worthy then, nor later when the prophecy is finally fulfilled. Yet God starts blessing that person, working His will in the depth of his heart.
Why did God love Jacob before he ever came forth from the womb? (Romans 9:11–13.) He was a crook until God changed his name to Israel and changed his nature (Genesis 32:24–28). But God loved him and kept right on blessing him.
Many people in the Bible walked with God, and God made a covenant with them out of love, not because of something they did. Abraham did not do anything to deserve the covenant. David failed God many times. He needed the Lord very much. We are impressed how the Psalms convey the cry of David’s heart after God. He did not have a superficial hunger; he really needed God, and he needed to worship Him.
It is good to hear people sing because in their hearts they are compelled to sing, to hear people worship because they need to worship. They want to adore the Lord and cry out to Him. David was like that. David failed God so much that God had no reason to do anything for him; yet God loved David and committed Himself by making a promise to him. Galatians 3:29 tells us, “As many as are in Christ Jesus are the seed of Abraham, and heirs according to the promise.” Think of the covenants that God has made. How He delights to give them to His people!
Why did God choose you? You are not superior to other people. Why does God love you? Why does He bring people into a walk with Him and give them promises? Why is it that He does not leave them alone? They can mess things up with their feelings and emotions, with their ups and downs, and it does not seem to bother God. Does this fill your heart with awe and wonder—“What did God ever see in me?” Before you were born, He knew you and chose you (Jeremiah 1:5). Why? Why has He kept your life and guided it so carefully? Why does He teach you? Why does He make promises and covenants, and keep them? His lovingkindness flows to you, undeserved and unmerited.
Perhaps this is a new and deeper concept of the grace of God. On the basis of what you deserve, He should not have anything to do with you; yet He does. He loves you, and as you walk along with Him, He will make a covenant of love with you.
We learned long ago that we cannot do what God tells us to do unless He helps us. Even the thing He demands of us, He has to work in us. You may say, “We have to believe God; it is our faith that does it.”
But the Scripture says, For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves (the faith is not yours), it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:8–10.
Why were you born in this century when God is doing such great things? He shows His love to you, and you could get the idea that you dreamed up the work and the ministry that God has ordained for you to walk in.
You are His workmanship, created in Him in that capacity. He does not start with much, just a little piece of clay, and He applies a little pressure here and there, shaping you the way He wants you to be.
He reaches down, perhaps taking you out of a family that was not serving God at all, and He starts loving you, working out His will in your life. Even the faith you have was a gift from God. There is nothing about which you can boast, yet through the years you have been drawn, step by step, toward the Lord.
Take another look at the Lord and realize what He is doing. He is not just thundering down conditional promises. Even when you have a promise from the Lord, you cannot meet any conditions without His grace and help.
When you start looking to Him and believing in that love, that is where the initiative comes in. It is beautiful when with initiative, you aggressively put your hand in His and start living a life He predestined for you to live, walking in the good works He has ordained that you should walk in. He has given a promise, “I will never leave you; I will not forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).
Do you realize what a special, chosen person you are? You are His heritage, His treasure. Just think what God is doing to you! He is creating your ears to hear His voice. He is sanctifying your feet to walk with Him. He is anointing your hands to be His channel of ministry and service. He does not have to love you like that. You are not that special.
He looks down and says, “I will link My omnipotence with you. You will do exploits. You will do greater works than the Master did” (John 14:12). This will be a day when they that know their God will be strong and do exploits (Daniel 11:32, KJV). You are like Samson in all his weakness; the Spirit of the Lord comes upon you and you have the strength (Judges 14:6).
Why would He love you so much? He does not have to. Why does He break down the barriers of your limitations and say, “I will link you with My omniscience; I will give you revelation and discernment”?
People who come together for blessing and ministry grow faster than they ever could by themselves. Things are discerned that stand in their way, which they might struggle with for years; but with a little help and ministry, they can discard them overnight. Why is God giving these answers? Why is He giving this wisdom and revelation? In the midst of all the judgments coming upon the earth, the Lord is pouring out mercy and love.
For God to have touched your heart is the greatest treasure in the world. Think of the people out in the world, many of them perhaps more deserving than you; yet He has put His hand upon you to walk with Him in this generation. You are favored to be chosen as part of Joel’s sons and daughters who will prophesy (Joel 2:28). Think how much He loves you! Why should He love you so much?
Do not misunderstand my question. It is not that I am filled with doubt; it is a thing of wonder. I am overwhelmed with the fact that we are God’s people delivered out of Egypt by a mighty hand in the Passover judgment, and we are walking with God. We look up at the cloud that is so faithful and the pillar of fire which is continually there to lead us. Do not murmur against Him. Be thankful to be a pilgrim on the journey.