God calls us “My people,” “My children.” This has great significance. Let’s say that there is a fish that is wise and generous enough to become a good ruler over other fishes in the world of fishes. From our point of view, no matter how talented the fish is and how honored and respected it is for its leadership, it has nothing to do with us. Likewise, when the human world is viewed from God’s world, we will be nothing to the Most High God unless we have a relationship with Him, no matter how generous and talented we are and how much knowledge we have on this earth.

God has taken pity on us, who are like worms, and has made us His people—His children—through the covenant, laws and regulations. As a result, we have received salvation and eternal life. We must maintain a strong relationship with God, so that nothing in this world can cut us off from God (Job 25:4–6; Ro 8:35).

“You have no part with me”

When a war breaks out in a country, people in other countries are not too concerned about how many people are killed in the war, except for those whose family members or acquaintances live in that country. It’s because they think it has nothing to do with them. In the same way, if a man has no relationship with God, he will be nothing to Him, no matter how smart, talented, and powerful he is, and he will fall away from heaven.

That’s why it is necessary for us to have a relationship with God. Jesus has taught us that we can have a relationship with God by keeping God’s laws.

Jn 13:5–10 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!” Jesus answered, “A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean . . .”

On the day of the Passover, when Jesus was about to wash the feet of His disciples, Peter said out of respect for Jesus, “You shall never wash my feet.” He said so because he thought that it was not right for someone in a higher position to wash the feet of those in a lower position and that the disciples should wash Jesus’ feet. However, Jesus flat out said, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

“You have no part with me.” These words are truly fear-provoking. What if Peter had no part with Jesus? No matter how fervently he believed in Jesus and how hard he worked for the gospel, he would have just ended up working for his own satisfaction—not for the sake of God’s kingdom. That’s why Jesus corrected Peter with stern words. No matter how hard a fish works, it has nothing to do with the human world. Likewise, if we have no part with God, the path of faith we’ve walked will be meaning-less and all our efforts will be in vain. Our relationship with God is so important.

The relationship built on the foundation of the covenant

God has connected His world and man’s world, which had no relation to each other, by a solid cord of the covenant—the cord of the old covenant in the Old Testament times and the cord of the new covenant in the New Testament times. This is how God has established a relationship with us. Through the Bible, let’s confirm that the covenant, which God has established, connects us to God.

Ps 50:1–5 The Mighty One, God, the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets. From Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth. Our God comes and will not be silent; a fire devours before him, and around him a tempest rages. He summons the heavens above, and the earth, that he may judge his people: “Gather to me my consecrated ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”

God says that His consecrated ones are those who have made a covenant with Him by sacrifice—worship. We are securely tied to God by His decrees, laws and regulations. So, every covenant God has given us is precious. All of God’s covenants and regulations—the regular daily prayers at specific times, the weekly Sabbath, and the seven annual feasts in three times—are so important.

Eze 20:10–12 “Therefore I led them out of Egypt and brought them into the desert. I gave them my decrees and made known to them my laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. Also I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I the Lord made them holy.”

God said He gave the Sabbath as a sign between Him and His people. This shows that we can have a relationship with God through the Sabbath. The laws and regulations of the new covenant, including the Sabbath and the Passover which we keep today, are the most convincing evidence of our relationship with God. So we must not neglect the words of the covenant God has given us.

God has made us His people through the new covenant

God has said that He will put the law of the new covenant in our minds, and that He will be the God of those who have the new covenant. Let’s examine the providence of God who gives us blessings through the covenant.

Jer 31:31–34 “The time is coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah . . . This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

Before marriage, the husband and the wife are strangers who have no relationship with each other. However, once the husband and wife relationship is formed through marriage, they affect each other’s life with their personality, behavior, and everything else. Likewise, we were once estranged from God because of sin, but we are now connected to God through the truth of the new covenant; He is our Parent and we are His children. Thanks to the covenant, we’ve come to have an inseparable relationship with God. God becomes our Father and our Mother and we become God’s sons and daughters through the truth of the new covenant. So, we are the most blessed people in the world.

Some people think that they have part with God while keeping man-made rules which are not mentioned in the Bible. However, it is no different than confessing that they have no part with God. They do not keep the covenant with God and their teachings are but rules taught by men. So Jesus says to them, “You have no part with me.”

Those who do not have the new covenant have no part with God, and they are the ones who have not inherited God’s flesh and blood. So, although they pray day and night and attend every worship service, they can never enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus calls them evildoers—those who practice lawlessness, saying, “I never knew you. Away from me” (Mt 7:21–23).

However, those who do not realize this fact look down on us and ridicule our faith although we follow the Bible. It is as if a drunk person walking on the bridge sees the reflection of the moon on the water and thinks he is in a place higher than the moon.

No matter what the people of the world think of us, we are God’s sons and daughters who are connected to God through the covenant, and they are the ones who have no part with God. Whatever they say, we must not waver in our faith. Rather, we have to engrave God’s promise deep in our hearts and preach the truth of the new covenant with boldness.

God’s people keep God’s commandments

Those who keep man-made rules have no promise of salvation, but those who keep God’s decrees, laws and regulations have the promise of the heavenly blessings prepared for them. So the Bible says that those who will be saved are the ones who obey God’s commandments.

Rev 14:1–4, 9–12 Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they kept themselves pure. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among men and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb . . . This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God’s commandments and remain faithful to Jesus.

The Apostle John saw in a vision the scene of the 144,000—the redeemed from the earth—standing on Mount Zion, along with the Lamb, and he recorded it. He described God’s holy people, who would be saved in the age of the Holy Spirit, as “those who follow the Lamb wherever He goes” and “those who obey God’s commandments and remain faithful to Jesus.” They are the ones who regard the invisible cord of the covenant, which God has given them, as more precious than their own life and hold fast to the covenant until the end. The Bible shows that they are able to attain eternal salvation because they keep God’s commandments fully and follow God obediently wherever He goes, with firm faith in Jesus who has come a second time.

Many people in the world think that their life here on earth is everything, and they put their hope in the things of the world. However, we put our hope in the everlasting kingdom of heaven. So, until we enter the kingdom of heaven, we should keep God’s commandments and covenant fully to maintain an inseparable spiritual relationship with God, hating what God hates and loving what God loves and accepting it joyfully in our lives. As prophetic protagonists in the age of the Holy Spirit, let us follow the Lamb wherever He goes until the end.

God disciplines His beloved children and blesses them

We were once estranged from God because of our sins we committed in heaven. To restore the relationship between Him and us—Parent and children, God has established the covenant. Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother are our spiritual Parents, and we are Their children. Since we have such a strong relationship with God, we must not turn away from the words of the Bible.

People don’t really care if a stranger behaves ungraciously or says something bad and they just pass him or her by. However, if their children behave like that, they will try to correct their children’s wrong behavior by disciplining them or even rebuking them. Being destined to die because of our sins, we had no relationship with God before. Now, however, we have part with God through the new covenant. Since we are His children, God disciplines us when we do not follow His words, just as He did to Peter, and He compliments us and gives us great blessings when we follow His words.

If unbelievers in the world do not live according to God’s ways and teachings, God defers punishing them for all their evil acts until the Last Judgment Day. But what if we, God’s children, go astray or are deceived by falsehood after having returned to Zion—the city of truth—with longing for salvation? Then God disciplines us to give us the chance to get back on the right path (Heb 12:5–9). Through these processes, we make changes in our lives; we were bound by the flesh before, but now we long for heaven. But as for those who do not turn back although God gives them so many chances, God does not care about them anymore but just leaves them alone. That is the most dangerous moment for their souls.

When God tells us to obey His laws and commandments, it doesn’t mean that He wants us to just blindly obey them as the rules of discipline. Everything God has established, whether it is a commandment or covenant, contains God’s deep love for us. We should be truly grateful to God for giving us His decrees, laws and regulations and allowing us to live in the covenant, so we can be saved.

We are the only ones who have a relationship with God through the covenant, everywhere around the world—from Samaria to the ends of the earth. There are still many people in the world who have no relationship with God. Let us diligently lead them to the way of salvation, so that they can restore their relationship with their spiritual Parents through Christ’s flesh and blood. By doing so, let us tell Jerusalem Mother the good news that world evangelism has finally been completed, as quickly as possible.