Biblical Worldview: Restoration

1
Biblical Worldview Restoration

• Living at the Crossroads
• Chapter 4

2
Gods Response to Sin

• While justly angry, God did not turn away from a
  world bent on destruction but turned to face it
  in love. With patience and tender care the Lord
  set out on the long road of redemption to reclaim
  the lost as his people and the world as his
  kingdom (Our World Belongs to God, 18).

3
Salvation is . . .

• Progressive
• Restorative
• Comprehensive

4
Redemption is progressive

• Gradual unfolding of salvation
• Gods mission
• Through Israel, Jesus, church
• Consummation of history
• The Bible renders to us the story of Gods
  mission through Gods people in their engagement
  with Gods world for the sake of the whole of
  Gods creation. (C. Wright)

5
Salvation is Restorative Contrasting Plato with
the Bible

• Platos view of salvation
• vertical (our destiny is upward in heaven)
• otherworldly (our souls are saved into another
  spiritual world)
• an escape (we are saved not as part of this world
  but rather from this world)

6
Salvation is Restorative Contrasting Plato with
the Bible

• Biblical view of salvation
• horizontal (we look forward in history to the
  renewal of creation)
• of this world (the creation is to be renewed)
• integral to Gods ultimate plan for this world
  (no escape necessary)

7
Salvation is Restorative

• The creation is very good, the way God intended
  it.
• Human beings are created to live in the context
  of the creation.
• The materiality of creation is not what is wrong
  with it the problem
• is sin.
• In the Old Testament the future kingdom is
  described as restored life within a new creation
• Jesus proclaims the gospel of the kingdom.

8
Salvation is Restorative (contd)

• The creation is very good, the way God intended
  it.
• Human beings are created to live in the context
  of the creation.
• The materiality of creation is not what is wrong
  with it the problem is sin.
• In the Old Testament the future kingdom is
  described as restored life within a new creation.
• Jesus proclaims the gospel of the kingdom.

9
Two Caveats

• Restoration does not mean a return to Eden
• Restoration does not mean there is no
  discontinuity

10
Redemption is Comprehensive

• Heaven must receive Jesus until the time comes
  for God to restore everything, as he promised
  long ago through his holy prophets. (Acts 321)
• And he made known to us the mystery of his will
  . . . to bring all things in heaven and on earth
  together under one head, even Christ. (Eph.
  1910)
• For God was pleased to have all his fullness
  dwell in Christ, and through him to reconcile
  to himself all things, whether things on earth or
  things in heaven, by making peace through his
  blood, shed on the cross. (Col. 11920)

11
Progressive Unfolding of Gods Comprehensive
Restoration

• Israel called to embody comprehensive restoration
• Comprehensive restoration inaugurated in Jesus
• Comprehensive restoration accomplished in death
  and resurrection of Jesus
• Comprehensive restoration given by exalted Christ
  through the Spirit
• Mission of church is to make known comprehensive
  restoration
• Comprehensive restoration completed at Jesus
  return

12
Israel called to embody comprehensive restoration

• Israel called to be picture of shalom God intends
  for all
• Whole life shaped by
• Torah
• Wisdom literature
• Prophets

13
Kingdom of God as Comprehensive Restoration

• Jesus announces kingdom of God
• Power of God to defeat all opposition to shalom

14
The kingdom of God is . . .

• . . . the dynamic reassertion of Gods rightful
  kingly rule over the whole of his
  creation (J. Chaplin).

15
Comprehensive scope of kingdom

• Jesus kingdom ministry launches an all-out
  attack on evil in all its manifestations. Gods
  reign arrives wherever Jesus overcomes the power
  of evil. Then, as it does now, evil took many
  forms pain, sickness, death, demon-possession,
  personal sin and immorality, the loveless
  self-righteousness of those who claim to know
  God, the maintaining of special class privileges,
  the brokenness of human relationships. Jesus is,
  however, saying If human distress takes many
  forms, the power of God does likewise (David
  Bosch).

16
Jesus and the kingdom of God

• Everything he said and did was directly related
  to the coming of the kingdom. He reversed all the
  consequences of evil in the world disease,
  possession by inhuman spirits, guilt, ritualistic
  and empty religion, a caste system of purity and
  impurity, scarcity of food, a hostile nature,
  commercial exploitation and death (Andrew Kirk).

17
Kingdom of God as Comprehensive Restoration

• Jesus announces kingdom of God
• Power of God to defeat all opposition to shalom
• Salvation of kingdom in Luke Includes physical,
  spiritual, political, economic, and social

18
Comprehensive restoration accomplished in Jesus
death

• Cross is victory over sin and evil
• John 123133 Col. 215 Rev. 7712
• Defeats evil powers that enslave social and
  cultural life as well as individual

19
Comprehensive restoration inaugurated in Jesus
resurrection

• Resurrection in first century Restoration of
  creation
• Jesus is firstfruits and firstborn of this cosmic
  renewal

20
Comprehensive restoration given by exalted Christ
through the Spirit

• Christ at right hand of God All authority over
  all creation
• Spirit gift of end-time cosmic salvation
• Deposit
• Firstfruits

21
Mission of church To make known cosmic
restoration

• Commissioned by Jesus (John 2021 Matt.
  2818-20)
• Take up Israels call to make known all-embracing
  salvation (Ex. 193-6 1 Pet. 25-9)

22
Comprehensive Scope of Churchs Mission

• The Spirit thrusts Gods people into worldwide
  mission. He impels young and old, men and women,
  to go next door and far away into science and
  art, media and marketplace with the good news of
  Gods grace. . . .
• The rule of Jesus Christ covers the whole world.
  To follow this Lord is to serve him everywhere,
  without fitting in, as light in the darkness, as
  salt in a spoiling world (Our World Belongs to
  God).

23
Kingdom and Church

• Church is firstfruits of the kingdom
• Church is instrument of the kingdom
• Church is sign of the kingdom

24
Mission and Already-Not Yet

• Mission of church is make known all-encompassing
  salvation of kingdom
• Meaning of already-not yet era of kingdom

25
Mission as meaning of this era

• The meaning of this overlap of the ages in
  which we live, the time between the coming of
  Christ and his coming again, is that it is the
  time given for the witness of the apostolic
  Church to the ends of the earth. The end of all
  things, which has been revealed in Christ, isso
  to sayheld back until the witness has been borne
  to the whole world concerning the judgment and
  salvation revealed in Christ. The implication of
  a true eschatological perspective will be
  missionary obedience, and the eschatology which
  does not issue in such obedience is a false
  eschatology (Lesslie Newbigin).

26
Meaning of mission

• More than evangelism
• Embodying salvation as wide as creation
• Encounter with evil powers
• Witness to kingdom

27
Every square inch, every thumb-width

• There is no neutral ground in the universe
  every square inch, every split second, is claimed
  by God and counterclaimed by Satan (C.S. Lewis).
  
• There is no thumb-width of the entire domain of
  our human life of which the Christ, the Sovereign
  over everything, does not proclaim It is Mine!
  (Abraham Kuyper).

28
Witness to the Kingdom

• We know that our mission will not usher in Gods
  reign. Neither did Jesus mission. He inaugurated
  it but did not bring it to its consummation. Like
  him, we are called to erect signs of Gods
  ultimate reignnot more, but certainly not less
  either. . . . As we pray your kingdom come! we
  also commit ourselves to initiate, here and now,
  approximations and anticipations of Gods reign
  (David Bosch).

29
Faithful mission needs . . .

• Healthy community
• Vibrant spirituality
• Acts 242 Life of kingdom flows to his people in
  community through prayer, word, fellowship,
  Lords Supper

30
Spring of new life

• If there is a committed people as the sign and
  agent and foretaste of what God intends, it can
  only be insofar as their life is continually
  renewed through contact with God himself. All
  true vitality in the work of missions depends in
  the last analysis upon the secret springs of
  supernatural life which they know who give time
  to communion with God. All true witness . . . has
  its source in a life of adoration and
  intercession . . . (Newbigin).

31
Abiding in the Vine John 15

• Like branches of the vine, we receive the
  life-giving sap of Christs life through a
  million tiny channels hidden behind the hard bark
  of the trunk and branches (Newbigin).

32
Differing understandings of nature and grace

• Nature creation messed up by sin
• Grace Gods redemptive work
• Grace against nature
• Grace above nature
• Grace alongside of nature
• Grace infuses and restores nature

33
Grace against natureproblems

• Diminishes goodness of all of creation
• Does not see salvation as comprehensive
  restoration

34
Grace above nature and grace alongside of
natureproblems

• Do not sufficiently recognize the comprehensive
  and twisting power of sin on all creation
• Do not see cultural mission of church as
  life-and-death antithetical battle

35
Grace infuses and restores nature

• Most in line with gospel
• Three illustrations
• Battle of kingdoms

36
Clash of Kingdoms
Antithesis
37
Grace infuses and restores nature

• Most in line with gospel
• Three illustrations
• Battle of kingdoms
• Child Healthy, sick, cured

38
Illustration of child

• Healthy child
• Deformed by disease
• Process of healing
• Struggle between disease and healing power

• Good creation
• Deformed by human sin
• Restoration
• Struggle between evil and Gods healing power

39
Grace infuses and restores nature

• Most in line with gospel
• Three illustrations
• Battle of kingdoms
• Child Healthy, sick, cured
• Structure/direction (Wolters)

40
Structure/direction
41
Sacred-Secular Dualism
42
Problems with dualism

• Activities in secular realm belong to God by
  virtue of creation and redemption
• Activities in sacred realm are just as twisted
  by sin
• Turn your eyes upon Jesus
• Look full in his wonderful face
• And the things of earth
• take their rightful place
• in the light of his glory and grace

43
Right relationship Creation, fall, restoration

• Every part of creation is part of very good of
  creation
• Every part of creation has been soiled by sin
• Every part of creation is being restored

44
Final Consummation Comprehensive Restoration
Complete

• The whole Bible leads us to expect a glorious
  renewal of life on earth, so that the age to come
  will be an endlessly thrilling adventure of
  living with God on the new earth. With his
  presence pervading every act, we shall be more
  fully human than we have ever been, liberated
  from sin, death, and all that hurts or harms
  (David Lawrence).

45
Consummation and mission

• Kingdom Restoration of whole creation
• . . . it is precisely ordinary earthly existence
  that is redeemed (G.C. Berkouwer).

46
Mistaken Notion

• Annihilistic Earth will be destroyed
• Future Kingdom comes in future
• Individualistic Salvation is flight of
  individual person to God
• Spiritualistic Kingdom is ethereal, spiritual
  heaven
• Vertical Kingdom is up there

47
Biblical Counterpoint

• Restoration not annihilation
• Present and future not simply future
• Cosmic not individualistic
• Creational not spiritual
• Historical not vertical

48
Consummation and mission

• Kingdom Restoration of whole creation
• Significance for mission
• If kingdom is otherworldly, then mission is
  evangelism
• If kingdom is restoration of this world, then
  mission is embodying salvation as wide as creation