Chapter 122—Everlasting
Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and
I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of
David.
Isaiah 55:3
.
The salvation of the human race has ever been the object of the councils
of heaven. The covenant of mercy was made before the foundation of the
world. It has existed from all eternity, and is called the everlasting covenant.
So surely as there never was a time when God was not, so surely there never
was a moment when it was not the delight of the eternal mind to manifest
His grace to humanity.
From the opening of the great controversy it has been Satan’s purpose
to misrepresent God’s character, and to excite rebellion against His law....
But amid the working of evil, God’s purposes move steadily forward to
their accomplishment; to all created intelligences He is making manifest His
justice and benevolence. Through Satan’s temptations the whole human race
have become transgressors of God’s law, but by the sacrifice of His Son a
way is opened whereby they may return to God. Through the grace of Christ
they may be enabled to render obedience to the Father’s law. Thus in every
age, from the midst of apostasy and rebellion, God gathers out a people that
are true to Him—a people “in whose heart is his law.”
God’s work is the same in all time, although there are different degrees
of development and different manifestations of His power, to meet the wants
of men in the different ages. Beginning with the first gospel promise, and
coming down through the patriarchal and Jewish ages, and even to the present
time, there has been a gradual unfolding of the purposes of God in the plan
of redemption.... He who proclaimed the law from Sinai, and delivered to
Moses the precepts of the ritual law, is the same that spoke the sermon on
the mount.... The Teacher is the same in both dispensations. God’s claims
are the same. The principles of His government are the same.
In the closing work of God in the earth, the standard of His law will be
again exalted.... God will not break His covenant, nor alter the thing that has
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