God’s Redemption and Restoration: Perspectives Series Part 5
Series: Perspectives in Theology, Part 5
Authors: Dr. John M. Frame and Dr. Steven L. Childers
Title: God’s Redemption and Restoration
The gospel is the good news that God’s kingdom has entered the world through the person and work of Jesus Christ, by his Spirit, to redeem and restore humanity’s broken relationships with God, others, themselves, and all of creation because of sin.
The Son’s Redemption (Redemption Accomplished): The Kingdom has Come
The good news is that through his birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension, God has given Jesus authority as Lord to give all who believe in him not only a new record before God but also a new heart and a new world when Jesus returns.
This is the good news of not only our forgiveness because Jesus took the curse for all our sins on himself on the cross, but also that God considers Jesus’ perfect record of obedience to be ours. God now accepts and loves all who believe in Christ just as he accepts and loves his one and only Son.
God also promises to deliver all who believe in Christ from sin’s domineering power, by freely giving them a new heart and a new Spirit to empower them to love God and others.
God also promises that one day Jesus will return and bring the fullness of God’s kingdom on earth by restoring all things that were lost because of sin. On that day we will be made new in soul and body and delivered not only from sin’s penalty and power, but also its influence and presence. Then Jesus will bring an end to all suffering and restore all things to God’s original design.
In the gospel we see the nature and work of the Triune God reestablishing his kingdom on the earth after the Fall. Earlier we saw how God inaugurated his original mission for humanity and the world at creation – which is the way God’s kingdom is supposed to be. Then we examined how God’s kingdom was overthrown by Satan and sin at the Fall – which is not the way God’s kingdom is supposed to be.
Now we’ll examine the good news that God’s kingdom entered the world through the person and work of Jesus Christ to inaugurate God’s kingdom on the earth and begin restoring fallen humanity and creation by his Spirit – which is the way God’s kingdom is already on the earth.
Finally, we’ll learn that when Jesus returns, God’s kingdom will come to the earth in all its fullness as his Spirit restores all things lost in humanity and creation to God’s original design – which is the way God’s kingdom is not yet (but will be).
The Way God’s Kingdom is Already
Jesus stands at the center of the biblical story, proclaiming good news that through him God is restoring his rule as King over all of fallen human life and creation. Jesus taught that God’s kingdom is already in our midst (Luke 17:20-21), displayed by his signs and wonders, and that God’s kingdom is also coming, so we should pray for it to come. (Matt 6:9)
This means we’re living in a very unique period of history—between the already of God’s kingdom coming to earth in the first coming of Christ, and the not yet of God’s kingdom coming to earth when Jesus returns to make all things new. The bible refers to this period in history as the last days.
The good news of Jesus’ resurrection is not only about the Father’s affirmation of Jesus’ victory over death for us, but also the inauguration of God’s kingdom coming on earth in a new way.
The outpouring of God’s Spirit is both for our personal salvation and for the empowerment of his Church to fulfill his mission to make his invisible kingdom visible over all things. The good news is that God has given Jesus authority, through his Spirit, to form a new corporate humanity, the Church, to embody and bear witness to God’s kingdom on earth in word and deed.
This new community of God’s people is meant to be marked by deep relationships of unity and love that serve as a foretaste and instrument of the kingdom of God still to come, when Jesus returns to make all things new.
The Spirit’s Restoration (Redemption Applied): The Kingdom is Coming
God’s original mission for humanity and the world, inaugurated by the Father at creation, was temporarily thwarted by Satan and humanity’s sin at the Fall. But God graciously sent his Son to accomplish the redemption of fallen humanity and creation.
God also graciously sent his Spirit to apply the riches of Christ’s redemptive work to all things lost in the Fall in order to restore them to God’s original design. The good news is that the Holy Spirit’s transforming presence will one day fully restore fallen humanity and creation, freeing them from all the affects of sin at the coming of the new heaven and new earth.
The Way God’s Kingdom is Not Yet
When Jesus returns he will make all things new by the power of his Spirit, completely restoring all things that were lost because of sin. Not only will the natural world and the physical and biological world be made new but so will all aspects of God’s creative order that were broken by the Fall.
God’s ultimate purpose for the world is not merely the rebirth of human souls but the rebirth of all fallen creation. As is stated in the hymn Joy to the World, the fullness of God’s redemptive blessings in Christ will flow “as far as the curse is found.” This will include the full restoration of our relationship with God and the restoration of our relationships with ourselves and others as we carry out God’s purposes for the world he re-creates.
The Christian hope is not just that one day, when we die, we will go up to heaven and worship God forever. Our ultimate hope is in another day, when Jesus returns and brings heaven back down to earth.
Our hope is not merely life after death in heaven worshipping God for eternity as a disembodied soul, but life after heaven in a new heavens and a new earth where all our relationships will finally be made whole.
Therefore, our hope is not going back to a garden in Eden or up to heaven where our soul has no body. Instead, it is in going forward to the new earth that God promises will one day come down from heaven to earth as our final home.
God is at work leading his new community and creation to its final destiny of a new heavens and a new earth. Only then will God’s kingdom finally come in all its fullness and glory. Only then will the whole of human life and creation be fully redeemed and restored from sin and all its consequences.
In the meantime, as the new community, the Church, we press on against the powerful forces of evil that oppose God’s cosmic restoration project. And by participating in his redemptive mission we embrace the suffering that Jesus promised would be the experience of all who follow him in advancing God’s kingdom on earth.