The Gospel of The Restoration of All Things. Tim Hodge

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      As we saw at the beginning of the book, this Gospel was preached by the apostle Peter in the book of Acts Ch 3 v 19-21.

       ‘Repent therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus Christ who was preached to you before whom heaven must receive and retain until the time comes of the restoration of all things which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.’

      (Acts 3 v 19-21)

      It is important to realise that the word ‘restoration’ has the prefix ‘re’ at the beginning, meaning a ‘restoring back’ to an original condition that we had before we were separated from God, before we were lost and needed saving. But it is the last section of this passage I want to concentrate on in this chapter, that this Gospel of the restoration of all things was spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. I will be doing an overview, going right back to the book of Genesis, through the old testament, through the new testament, and showing that this Gospel has always been taught and believed despite the Jews and the Church trying to shut it down.

      It is important to begin with, for us to understand the little word ‘things’ as it is used in scripture, Peter talks about the restoration of all ‘things’.

      The word ‘things’ in scripture means ‘beings’, human and angelic. We in modern English tend to use the word ‘things’ to mean inanimate objects such as rocks and trees, and feel it’s somehow insulting to call people ‘things’, but that is what the Bible does. For example, Jesus is called a ‘thing’ in Luke 1 v 35 when the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and tells her of her impending pregnancy by the Holy Spirit:

       ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the highest will overshadow you, therefore that ‘holy thing’ who is to be born will be called the son of God.’

      (Luke 1 v 35 KJV)

      The Apostles are called ‘things’ in 1 Cor 3 v 21-22

       ‘For all things are yours whether Paul, Apollos or Cephas’

      (1 Cor 3 v 21-22)

      All human beings are called ‘things’ in Philippians chapter 2:

       ‘At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, of things on earth and things under the earth and that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.’

      (Phil 2 v 10-11 KJV)

      Can we see that ‘things’ in this passage have knees and tongues and a will to confess Jesus is Lord, so are clearly ‘beings’.

      Angels are called ‘things’ in Colossians chapter 1:

       ‘For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers’.

      The phrase ‘principalities and powers’ is also used in Ephesians 6 when speaking of evil angels.

      So the word ‘things’ clearly means ‘beings’, human and angelic, and Peter says that there will come a time when ‘all things’ will be restored to God.

      All humans and all angels will be restored to their original place in God because of the work of Jesus Christ, the saviour of the world.

      Jesus said:

       ‘All things have been delivered to me by the Father.’

      (Math 11 v 27)

      And ‘the Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hands.’

      (John 3 v 35)

      All humans and all angels have been given to Jesus Christ by God the Father. Jesus promises that:

       ‘All that the Father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out, for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of the Father who sent me that all he has given me I should lose nothing no-thing) but raise it up at the last day.’

      (John 6 v 37-39)

      Jesus says ‘all have been given, all will come to him, none will be cast out and all will be raised up on the last day.’ His job is not to lose any that the Father has given him.

      St Paul tells us that

       ‘All things will be reconciled to God.’

      (Col 1 v 20 )

       ‘All things will be gathered into Christ.’

      (Eph 1 v 10)

       ‘All things will consummate in God and end in him.’

      (Rom 11 v 36)

      And the apostle John tells us that:

       ‘All things will be made new.’

      (Rev 21 v 5)

      Now we have an understanding of the word ‘things’ and what Peter meant by ‘the restoration of all things’, let us see how God has spoken this Gospel through all his holy prophets since the world began.

      In the early chapters of Genesis, we have the creation of man and woman, their fall through the eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and their hiding from God among the trees of the garden of Eden, and the Lord God comes to them in the cool of the day. This is the pre-incarnate Jesus appearing to Adam and Eve and he speaks with them, after pronouncing curses (firstly on the serpent, then on the woman, then on the man) he does an amazing thing - it says he made coats of skin and clothed them! We know that there was no death on earth until Adam and Eve sinned, so it could be that the Lord took an innocent animal and killed it, pre-figuring his own death four thousand years later on the cross, but what we do know is that the Lord took these coats of skin and put them on Adam and Eve, representing the robes of righteousness or garments of salvation. Adam is described in scripture as the representative head of all of fallen humanity; in other words, all of us in our fallen state are described as being ‘in Adam’. Eve, here, is called the mother of all the living, so Adam and Eve represent the whole of the human race which come from them, and Jesus clothing them is picturing the salvation of the whole human race and his death that will atone for all. But it is in Genesis chapter 12 that we get a fuller description of the Gospel of the restoration of all things when the Lord appears to Abraham and says to him:

       ‘In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’

      (Gen 12 v 3)

      In other words, Abraham, one coming from you will be the source of all blessing for every family on earth and we know that the one coming from Abraham was Jesus Christ, the messiah who would bless all mankind.

      But this promise is expanded and repeated throughout the book of Genesis:

      ‘And СКАЧАТЬ