Chapter 14

‘I Make a Covenant With You for a Kingdom’

1. On the night before Jesus’ death what prospect did he set before his apostles?

IT WAS on the night before Jesus was put to death that he told his faithful apostles: ‘In the house of my Father there are many abodes. I am going my way to prepare a place for you, that where I am you also may be.’ He further said to them: “I make a covenant with you, just as my Father has made a covenant with me, for a kingdom.” (John 14:2, 3; Luke 22:29) What a marvelous prospect he set before them!

2. How many will share with Christ in his heavenly Kingdom?

² However, Jesus did not mean that only those apostles would rule with him in his heavenly Kingdom. Later it was made known that 144,000 redeemed from the earth would have that grand privilege. (Rev. 5:9, 10; 14:1, 4) Are some today reaching out to lay hold of it?

Gathering the Kingdom Heirs

3. In his public ministry, to what opportunity did Jesus draw attention?

³ After John the Baptizer was imprisoned by Herod Antipas, Jesus undertook an intense campaign of public preaching in which he focused attention on “the kingdom of the heavens.” (Matt. 4:12, 17) He made people aware that there would be opportunity for them to enter that Kingdom, and his disciples earnestly reached out for that prize.​—Matt. 5:3, 10, 20; 7:21; 11:12.

4. (a) When were the first of Jesus’ disciples anointed with holy spirit? (b) What shows that attention was being directed from then on to the gathering of the Kingdom heirs?

⁴ At Pentecost of 33 C.E. the first of them were anointed with holy spirit. (Acts 2:1-4; 2 Cor. 1:21, 22) God’s provision for salvation leading to immortal heavenly life was made known. Peter used “the keys of the kingdom of the heavens” to open up this knowledge​—first to the Jews, next to the Samaritans, and then to people of the Gentile nations. (Matt. 16:19) Special attention was being given to making up the government that would rule mankind for 1,000 years, and nearly all the inspired letters in the Christian Greek Scriptures are primarily directed to this group of Kingdom heirs​—“the holy ones,” “partakers of the heavenly calling.”a

5. Was their being called to heavenly life because they were better servants of God than those who had lived before?

⁵ Their being called to heavenly life was not because they were somehow better than all the servants of God who had died before Pentecost of 33 C.E. (Matt. 11:11) Rather, Jehovah now had begun to select those who would be associate rulers with Jesus Christ. For some 19 centuries after this there was only one calling, the heavenly one. It was an undeserved kindness that God bestowed on a limited number in furtherance of his own wise and loving purposes.​—Eph. 2:8-10.

Spiritual Sons​—How Do They Know?

8. What explanation does Paul give showing how those begotten by holy spirit are aware of that fact?

⁸ God’s spirit gives positive assurance of adoption as spiritual sons to baptized Christians who have received the heavenly calling. The apostle Paul showed this when he wrote to the “holy ones” in Rome, describing what was at that time the situation of all true Christians. He said: “All who are led by God’s spirit, these are God’s sons. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery causing fear again, but you received a spirit of adoption as sons, by which spirit we cry out: ‘Abba, Father!’ The spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are God’s children. If, then, we are children, we are also heirs: heirs indeed of God, but joint heirs with Christ, provided we suffer together that we may also be glorified together.”​—Rom. 1:7; 8:14-17.

9. How does ‘the spirit itself bear witness’ with the spirit of those who truly are sons of God?

⁹ Two uses of the word “spirit” are here brought to our attention: “the spirit itself” and “our spirit.” The first is God’s invisible active force. It inspires in his spiritual children a conviction of having been adopted as God’s free children. That spirit also bears witness through God’s inspired Word, the Bible, which is like a personal letter to his spiritual children. (1 Pet. 1:10-12) When those who have been begotten by holy spirit read what the Scriptures say to those who are spiritual sons of God, they properly respond: ‘That applies to me.’ Thus God’s own active force in various ways bears witness with their spirit, the motivating force of their own mind and heart, that they are God’s children. In accord with what God’s spirit thus indicates, their minds and hearts become set on the prospect of being joint heirs with Christ, and they accept the responsibilities of God’s spiritual children.​—Phil. 3:13, 14.