On Redemption, Restoration and Transformation

Creation

The Fall
Redemption

New Jerusalem

There are basically three ways of looking at life:

1. The biblical worldview follows three overarching themes: Creation, the Fall and Redemption. This is the meta-narrative that a transcendent God created everything good in the beginning (Genesis 1:1, 31), but that freewill is a part of the image of God in humans that allowed our first parents to succumb to the temptation to live independently of their Creator (Genesis 3:1-8). This is what the biblical story calls the Fall. While it is apparent that much of the Creation still reflects the glory of the Creator, it is also evident that something has gone awry in the world of Nature, and that Nature itself is in need of healing and redemption.

2. The atheistic worldview not only believes that redemption is unnecessary, but that a creation event never took place to start with, so there is nothing to be redeemed or restored. In this view, mind has evolved mindlessly from matter, life evolved from inanimate material and non-life, and intelligence has evolved non-intelligently by mechanistic forces of nature which had no foresight, no plan, and no intelligent purpose in mind. Those are the implications of true atheistic belief.

3. The pantheistic worldview believes in a non-transcendent deity that is reduced to Nature itself. Reducing God to Nature gives one no basis to make a moral distinction within a capricious Nature, which can be kind and life-sustaining, or it can be malicious and destructive. Nature is God, and God is Nature, and Nature is all that there is, whether it manifests as good or evil, life or death, blessing or cursing. In this view, while there is a belief in the divine, yet without the Fall, there is really no need for Redemption, which makes this view little different from atheism, as purpose is confined to the endless, eternally recurring cycles of nature.

I believe that it was G. K. Chesterton who once said that “the Fall of man is the most self-evident and observable fact of the universe.” With the Fall, there is a recognition that not everything in Nature currently reflects the divine, if the divine is loving and benevolent, but that there is in fact a war between good and evil, and between blessing and cursing, between truth and lies, between light and darkness. Not all beliefs are morally equivalent.

Yet, the Bible offers a message of redemption, of transformation, and of restoration to God’s original intent and plan in the creation. History has a meaning, a purpose, a plan. It is His Story, His meta-narrative, or the epic plan of Redemption where the human race will ultimately come into and experience a higher good than if there was no evil to overcome in the first place.

The drama of that story unfolds throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and culminates in Revelation with these words:

“Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created" (Revelation 4:11, NASV).

“And they sang a new song, saying: ‘You…have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation (ethnos)’” (Revelation 5:9).

The creation mandate was to “fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28) with His presence, and that mandate has not changed. What did John see in the last chapters of the Bible in our redeemed state? He saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down from heaven on to the earth, and he saw the nations of the earth bring their glory and their honor into it.

“Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God…And the nations (ethnos) of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it…And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations (ethnos) into it” (Revelation 21:2, 3, 24, 26).

John saw God’s Throne in heaven become a Footstool for His feet on the earth, and when He saw the redeemed of every tribe and nation and language and ethnicity gathered around the Throne, and singing a new song, He saw them as a multitude of overcomers who were reigning upon the earth (Revelation 5:9, 10).

Spiritual authority does not mean that the redeemed will dominate other human beings, or be able to force or to legislate anybody to do anything against their will. They will be in relationship to others humans who are fully submitted to God. Together, they will rule over the work of God’s hands, and they will use their authority to keep the spiritual powers of darkness out of every sphere of the creation, so that there will be no more darkness, and no more curse.

Therefore, the biblical worldview is not one in which God ultimately pulverizes the earth in the same way that He destroys sin. The new creation does require a death to selfishness and to sin and to whatever defiles, but it does not mean a death to the work of God’s hands. Our redemption ultimately includes our bodies, our land, our cultures, our languages and our identities.

The new covenant finds its fulfillment in the new creation which finds its fulfillment in the new heaven and the new earth. This new creation is not the obliteration, the annihilation, the destruction or the pulverization of the original creation and a starting again from scratch, but it is the original creation in a transformed, restored and redeemed state. Here are a few definitions to help us understand this better.

Transformation: The Greek word here is metamorphoo, or metamorphosis. In metamorphosis, God does not destroy a caterpillar and then create a butterfly. No, He takes the original substance of the caterpillar, and alters and changes it from the inside out through a process of metamorphosis it becomes something more glorious than it once was. This word is also translated “changed” or “transfigured” in the New Testament. Matthew 17:2; Romans 12:2; II Corinthians 3:18.

Restoration: This is a return of something to a former, original or unimpaired condition. It is a restitution or a return of something that was taken away or lost. It is a bringing back to a former position or condition of wholeness, health, soundness or dignity. Notice that it is the former or original object or relationship that one once had that became lost that is returned and restored.

Redemption: This refers to the purchase price to buy back that which was lost or stolen. It is a legal term. Again, it is the original possession, the original creation that is purchased back through redemption so that it can once again fulfill the will of its original Creator and Owner.

We now want to apply this teaching on redemption as to how it would apply to the redemptive purposes and callings of the different nations, ethnicities, cultures and language groups, and as well as the land on planet earth. We will look at how applies to our bodies, our land, our languages, our cultures and our God-given unique identities.

Each tribe and each nation will have its own story as to how their redemptive purpose was fulfilled, and it will make it so much more glorious when the nations gather around the Throne of God to tell their distinct story than if every story and every identity and every language were the same. In fact, it will no doubt take eternity to tell the story of God’s amazing plan of redemption as it is worked out in history, which is His Story. Redemption’s story will be a unique story for every people group and nation, a story of redemption from the lowest depths to the greatest heights!

1. The Redemption of the Physical Body.

The gospel message is the only one which addresses the issue of eternal life, and eternal life is not only something spiritual. It extends itself to the realm of the body, and the culmination of our salvation looks forward to the day when our bodies will be redeemed. This is a state that we eagerly anticipate and await, which can hardly be said for somebody awaiting a state of nirvana or reincarnation.

“For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:22,2 23).

The amazing miracle of the redemption of our bodies is this. It is not a case that that God discards our original bodies that have become defiled by sin, and disposes them, or puts them into the junk heap. No, He takes one and the same body that has become defiled by sin, the same body that has sunk to the depths of depravity, that has abused others, or been abused, the same body that has been shamed and degraded, and He does not reject it or throw it away.

Rather, He takes one and the same body that has been shamed and defiled by sin, and by the power of His blood He cleanses, washes and purifies that body, and then He uses that very same body as His dwelling place, His sanctuary, His temple. Our bodies that have sinned become the very vessel that He fills and uses for His honor and glory!

The same body that was a vessel of dishonor, and of dishonorable acts, becomes a vessel of honor. II Timothy 2:20, 21. The same body that was a vessel of shame becomes a vessel of glory. II Corinthians 4:6, 7; Romans 9:21-12. The same body that was a habitation for unclean and defiling spirits becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit. I Corinthians 6:15-20; II Corinthians 6:16-18.

Through His forgiveness, we can without shame present to Him the same body that has previously done shameful acts, and ask Him to cleanse us, to fill us, and to use us for His glory. We can be restored to a relationship with God as His children, and as His children we have been named in His last will and testament to receive an inheritance as joint-heirs with Christ that includes the nations and the ends of the earth! (Psalm 2:8).

This is the awesome miracle of redemption, and every person in every people group will have their own story to tell of God’s amazing grace in transforming the redeemed of all nations in all ages from the lowest depths to the greatest heights to rule and to reign with Christ for all eternity.

2. The Redemption of the Land.

The land is closely associated with the physical body, because in the creation story, our physical bodies were created from the dust of the ground. The two are directly tied together and connected, and that is why the things that humans have done that have defiled their bodies have also defiled the land as well.

“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7).

“So you shall not pollute the land where you are, for blood defiles the land…Therefore do not defile the land which you inhabit, in the midst of which I dwell; for I the LORD dwell among the children of Israel” (Numbers 35:33, 34).

The creation mandate was to “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28), but by Genesis 11, the human race had still confined their presence to the area around Mesopotamia, and so at the Tower of Babel, “the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth” (Genesis 11:8). It was God who gave each nation their language, and it was He who established the boundaries for each and every nation so that men and women would seek for Him from within those boundaries, and find Him, so that they could fill their part of the earth with His Presence.

“When the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the peoples” (Deuteronomy 32:8).

“And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times, and the boundaries of their habitation, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him, and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us, for in Him we live and move and have our breath” (Acts 17:26-28a).

So God has given to the founding fathers, the original people of every nation, every language, every ethnicity, an inheritance on planet earth, a land with boundaries where they are to seek Him, and to find Him, and to fill that part of the earth with His Presence. We know that regarding the plans and purposes of God for Israel, that “the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). I see no reason to believe that God would revoke His plans and purposes for any nation to whom He had given a land and an inheritance, even though they may have failed in their stewardship in the short-term. God’s giftings and callings are still without repentance.

The principle of the Year of Jubilee was that there was a time when the land and property was to be restored to the original families, the original clans, the original people to whom God had given it in the beginning. They were to grant redemption of the land, so that the original stewards could use their authority to cleanse the land of idolatry, and to fill it with His Presence.

“And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family…The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me. And in all the land of your possession, you shall grant redemption of the land” (Leviticus 25:10, 23, 24).

The principle of the Year of Jubilee was that the price for redemption of the land was to be paid so that the spiritual authority and stewardship of the land could be restored to the original people to whom God had assigned it in the first place. Only then will the real authority be unleashed to cleanse the earth, and to fill it with God’s Presence so that He can heal our land. The landmarks of the boundaries set by the ancient fathers are not to be moved (Proverbs 22:28; 23:10, 11), and now that the price for the redemption of the land has been paid, Jesus has come to proclaim the Year of Jubilee, the acceptable Year of the Lord (Luke 4:19).

3. The Redemption of Languages.

Just as with the redeeming of our bodies, where God takes one and the same body that was defiled by sin, and cleans it up, and then uses that same body as a vessel for His glory and honor, and just as with the redeeming of the land, where God takes the same land that has become defiled and polluted by sin, and then cleanses the land with the blood of Jesus, it is even so with the redeeming of languages.

The effects of sin have also defiled and polluted languages with expletives, and curse words, and swear words which mar and tarnish the image of God, and which take His Name in vain. Just because our languages have become defiled by sin, does that mean that God is going to throw out the whole language without separating what is precious from what is worthless in each language?

No, with the redemption of languages, it is even as it is with the redemption of our bodies, and with the redemption of the land. The work of redemption is going to clean up our languages, so that instead of cursing God, we will use our language to praise God and to worship Him, and instead of cursing our fellowman, we will use our language to bless them, to edify them, and to forgive them.

What John saw around the Throne of God was a great company of people from every tribe and nation and language who were using their language to sing a new song, the song of the redeemed. They were all reconciled to God and to one another, and were now praising God in their own language.

“And they sang a new song, saying: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain. And have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and language and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:9, 10).

The redemption that is in the blood of Jesus extends itself to the languages of the nations. It is important that our languages be restored and redeemed, because there are some concepts and sounds in every language that are untranslatable. If the language is lost, those concepts and sounds are lost, and we need those concepts and sounds to be a part of the human family which will fully reveal the greatness and the glory of our God.

We not only need every language in order for the nations to praise God fully, but it is only when one speaks in their own native language, or their first language, that they speak with a much stronger anointing, and with a greater degree of spiritual authority. When that real spiritual authority expressed in one’s own heart language is unleashed, the spirit realm is very aware when they encounter real authority. My theory is that the demons do not understand every language. Some of them do not speak English, so one needs to take authority over them in a language that they will understand. We need every sound and language to address the principalities.

Every sound and every language releases a different level of anointing. That is why every sound and every language that is locked up in the peoples of every nation needs to be released. It should not stay locked up in the hearts of the people in whom God has deposited those languages and sounds. It needs to come out. It needs to be released, so that the anointing level will also be increased, and the land will be cleansed of uncleanness, defilements and idolatry.

The New Testament clearly teaches that every language, and every sound has significance and meaning.

“There are, it may be, so many kinds of languages in the world, and none of them is without significance” (I Corinthians 14:10, NKVJ).

“There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification” (KJV).

“It may be true that there are all kinds of sounds in the world, and none is without meaning” (NCV).

4. The Redemption of Cultures.

I repeat that the New Testament word for “nation” is “ethnos,” which is not the same as a nation-state. A “nation” is “a distinct people group who share a common language, a common culture, and a common way of life.”

A nation’s culture includes their music, their art, their food, their dress, their way of life. Why do we not use the arts, for example, to tell redemption’s story which triumphs over injustice? Just because every culture on the face of the earth has become stained and defiled by sin to some degree, some people use that as justification to chuck out everything to do with culture, and as a result, many indigenous nations have been assimilated, to some degree into dominant cultures, and have been suppressed to conform to an identity that is not theirs.

As with our bodies, as with land, and as with languages, it is even so with culture. God takes one and the same thing within the created order that He has designed with a loving, redemptive purpose, and He does not chuck out the original. He cleans it up, purifies it, and then transforms it to reflect that part of His image that He deposited there to begin with. In redemption, He is calling for that deposit back!

John saw a great multitude around the Throne of God, each nation and each culture reflecting something unique and distinct about the multi-faceted glory of God. I believe that around that Throne, some of them were singing, and some were dancing, and some were shouting, but all of them were worshiping the Lord. Each was worshipping God in their own expression, I believe, with the songs, the dances and the sounds that he had deposited uniquely within them.

Each nation was able to be themselves. They did not have to conform to somebody else’s identity. They could example exactly who God the Creator had authentically created them to be, and they could release exactly the deposit of Himself that He had placed within every nation, each with their own sounds, their own songs, their own dances, their own instruments, their own cultural expressions.

“After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples and languages, standing before the Throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the Throne, and to the Lamb!’

“All the angels stood around the Throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the Throne and worshiped God, saying: ‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen’” (Rev. 7:9-12).

We get a taste of heaven when we see the different nations worshiping the Creator in one accord, each in their own ethnicity, clothed in white, meaning that their interior world could become transparent. Sometimes when those of us in the western culture say to those from indigenous cultures that “we need to promote a single Kingdom culture,” we are saying that they should be like us, that they should be assimilated into our culture.

Yet a true Kingdom culture is not monolithic, but a unity within diversity. There is no one “Christian culture,” but there is an authentic Christian faith which can be expressed equally well in any nation and in any culture, as long as each nation is simply giving back to God what He has already deposited within their breast in the first place. God is not asking the people of a sin-stained culture to join another sin-stained culture.

The western culture is as defiled with pride and materialistic values as any culture on the earth. All cultures need cleansing, need transforming, need redeeming, so that God will be glorified in and through them in their diversity. This is where history, or His Story, is now heading. This is how the meta-narrative in the Bible, and how history will end.

5. The Redemption of Identity.

It takes courage to be who you are, to be yourself, to find your own unique and God-given identity. Because the identity of each individual, and of each nation is so different, we have a latent fear that if we become who we really are, and that if we release what God has deposited in us, that other people will not like us, or will make fun of us, because we are different.

It is true that in our fallen state, the different nations do this to one another. Even if we are not at war with one another, we still make fun of one another, we tell jokes about one another at the other’s expense, and we compare others unfavorably to ourselves. And so many people, especially indigenous peoples, have been pressured to be ashamed of who they are, and they therefore suppress it. Yet we all need their giftings.

They may be ashamed even of the food that they eat, the clothes that they wear, and the language that they speak. Therefore, in order to be accepted by the dominant people groups, they tend to suppress their identities. They try to suppress who they are, but the fact is, that deep down, they know that they are not being who they really are. We need to be affirmed in our own unique and God-given identities. This is what the Father does for His children. He affirms each one in his or her own uniqueness. He sees that part of Himself which He has deposited in each, and calls it forth. We are incomplete without one another.

The more people come into the fullness of their identity, the more ready they are for marriage. They can release others to be who they were created to be if they are secure in their own identity. There is then no need for people to be somebody different just to try to please others, or to gain their acceptance or approval.

Just as a marriage is a union of a man and a woman, so the “one new man” or redeemed humanity that God is raising up is comprised of a union, a marriage if you will, of Jews and Gentiles. Ephesians 2:14-18. After marriage, a man is still a man, and a woman is still a woman, but the two become “one flesh.” It is even so in the Kingdom of God. After people become personally related to God, they became their true selves more and more, they become the real person that God created in His image and likeness. A Jew is still a Jew, and a Gentile is still a Gentile, but when they are reconciled, they become “one new man,” the Body of the Messiah.

“For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery… that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles(ethnos) has come in” (Romans 11:29).

I am persuaded that the “fullness of the Gentiles” talked about here is not talking about numbers. It is talking about a fullness of identity. The word for “Gentiles” here is again the word “ethnos,” referring to nations, ethnicities, races, cultures, languages. When the various tribes, nations, languages and people groups come into the fullness of their identity, there is going to be a marriage.

John saw this marriage, this union between heaven and earth, between a heavenly bridegroom and an earthly bride, the bride being a redeemed humanity of Jews and Gentile nations coming into oneness, a humanity where “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2:4).

It will be a time when that which has been lost in every nation will be redeemed and restored in an even greater way. Notice that even in the eternal city, the nations (ethnos) have not lost their identity, but each nation and ethnicity will bring their glory, their honor, their dignity, their giftings, their anointing, their worship into it!

“Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God…The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. And the nations (ethnos) of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there), and they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations (ethnos) into it” (Revelation 21:2, 3, 23-26).

Your comments and feedback to this teaching would be very much appreciated and welcomed. I would also encourage you to follow up this teaching by listening to the song about the city that John saw, the New Jerusalem, as it is sung by the Hopper family on a YouTube clip on the following post.

Already, for those who have ears to hear, "There is a new sound in the nation, a new song on the earth, put there by the Creator, and being released now!"