Biblical Worldview:
Restoration
Living at the Crossroads
Chapter 4
God’s 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).
Salvation is . . .



Progressive
Restorative
Comprehensive
Redemption is progressive
Gradual unfolding of salvation
 God’s mission
 Through Israel, Jesus, church
 Consummation of history
“The Bible renders to us the story
of God’s mission through God’s
people in their engagement with
God’s world for the sake of the
whole of God’s creation.” (C.
Wright)

Salvation is Restorative:
Contrasting Plato with the Bible
 Plato’s
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)
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 God’s ultimate plan
for this world (no escape
necessary)
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.

Salvation is Restorative (cont’d)
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.

Two Caveats
 Restoration
does not mean
a return to Eden
 Restoration does not mean
there is no discontinuity
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 3:21)
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. 1:9–10)
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. 1:19–20)
Progressive Unfolding of God’s
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
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
Kingdom of God as
Comprehensive Restoration
 Jesus
announces kingdom
of God
 Power of God to defeat all
opposition to shalom
The kingdom of God is . . .
. . . the dynamic reassertion of
God’s rightful kingly rule
over the whole of his
creation (J. Chaplin).
Comprehensive scope of kingdom
Jesus’ kingdom ministry launches an
all-out attack on evil in all its
manifestations. God’s 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 selfrighteousness 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).
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).
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
Comprehensive restoration
accomplished in Jesus’ death
 Cross
is victory over sin and
evil
 John 12:31–33; Col. 2:15;
Rev. 7:7–12
 Defeats evil powers that
enslave social and cultural
life as well as individual
Comprehensive restoration
inaugurated in Jesus’ resurrection
 Resurrection
in first century:
Restoration of creation
 Jesus is firstfruits and
firstborn of this cosmic
renewal
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
Mission of church: To make
known cosmic restoration
 Commissioned
by Jesus
(John 20:21; Matt. 28:18-20)
 Take up Israel’s call to make
known all-embracing
salvation (Ex. 19:3-6; 1 Pet.
2:5-9)
Comprehensive Scope of
Church’s Mission
The Spirit thrusts God’s 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 God’s 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).
Kingdom and Church
 Church
is firstfruits of the
kingdom
 Church is instrument of the
kingdom
 Church is sign of the
kingdom
Mission and Already-Not Yet
 Mission
of church is make
known all-encompassing
salvation of kingdom
 Meaning of already-not yet
era of kingdom
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, is—so to say—
held 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).
Meaning of mission
 More
than evangelism
 Embodying salvation as
wide as creation
 Encounter with evil powers
 Witness to kingdom
‘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).
Witness to the Kingdom
We know that our mission will not
usher in God’s 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 God’s
ultimate reign—not 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 God’s reign
(David Bosch).
Faithful mission needs . . .
 Healthy
community
 Vibrant spirituality
 Acts 2:42: Life of kingdom
flows to his people in
community through prayer,
word, fellowship, Lord’s
Supper
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).
Abiding in the Vine: John 15
Like branches of the vine,
we receive the life-giving
sap of Christ’s life “through
a million tiny channels
hidden behind the hard bark
of the trunk and branches”
(Newbigin).
Differing understandings of nature
and grace
 Nature:
creation messed up
by sin
 Grace: God’s redemptive
work
 Grace against nature
 Grace above nature
 Grace alongside of nature
 Grace infuses and restores
nature
Grace against nature—problems
 Diminishes
goodness of all
of creation
 Does not see salvation as
comprehensive restoration
Grace above nature and grace
alongside of nature—problems
 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
Grace infuses and restores nature
 Most
in line with gospel
 Three illustrations:
 Battle
of kingdoms
Clash of Kingdoms
Antithesis
Kingdom of
darkness
Kingdom
of God
Creation
Grace infuses and restores nature
 Most
in line with gospel
 Three illustrations:
 Battle
of kingdoms
 Child: Healthy, sick, cured
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 God’s
healing power
Grace infuses and restores nature
 Most
in line with gospel
 Three illustrations:
 Battle
of kingdoms
 Child: Healthy, sick, cured
 Structure/direction (Wolters)
Structure/direction
misdirected
by sin
redirected by
redemption
Good creational
structure
Sacred-Secular Dualism
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
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
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).
Consummation and mission
 Kingdom:
Restoration of
whole creation
. . . it is precisely ordinary
earthly existence that is
redeemed (G.C. Berkouwer).
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”

Biblical Counterpoint
 Restoration;
not annihilation
 Present and future; not
simply future
 Cosmic; not individualistic
 Creational; not spiritual
 Historical; not vertical
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