On the other hand, those who come to share Christ’s nature and holiness are destined to shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father590. Once frail children of dust, through obedience to the gospel they will have drawn Life from the Saviour591 and placed their necks under His yoke so that through self-disciplined obedience He might be formed in them. For God’s healing plan for the world was to purify a special people who would be devoted to His Son and the pursuit of good works. In Paul’s words:
“The grace of God has appeared for the salvation of the human race teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts to live sensibly, righteously and devoutly in the current age, anticipating the blessed hope and Shekinah of our Great God and the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sake so that we should be delivered from lawlessness and be purified as a specially chosen people for Himself
burning with zeal to do good works” 592.
The purpose of the people chosen for Christ being devout and devoted to doing good, apart from their own salvation and eternal reward, was to bring light and healing to
the world that God loves and intends ultimately to reconcile to Himself. The scale of His restorative plans that shall now be briefly examined is reflected in Luke’s description of Christ’s second coming: “Chronon apokatastaseos panton” - the time of the restoration of all things593.
587 1Jn3:2
588 1Cor13:4
589 Jn14:28
590 Mt13:43
591 Jn6:57
592 Tit2:11-15
593 Acts3:21
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This brief chapter anticipates the time when the Kingdom of God, present in mystery through the Church is at last realized in the presence of the One “whom heaven must keep until the universal restoration comes which God proclaimed speaking through His holy prophets”594. As a result of the secret hidden in the Father concerning the reconstitution of God’s people and the dispensation set apart to establish it, Paul confirms that it is the next
age that is in a meaningful sense “the Kingdom of Christ”595. In this age the implementation of Christ’s reign on earth is confined to His Church, for only she acknowledges Him as Sovereign and observes His Royal Charter. Luke confirms that it is at Christ’s second coming that the restoration promised to Israel by the Old Testament prophets truly comes about in the world. Paul speaks again of this consummation in Ephesians:
“God made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of times; the summing up of all things into Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth”596
Reference to the Greek Interlinear Bible clarifies that Paul is envisaging an administration that Christ will be heading-up or gathering into one. Paul refers again to this concept of final restoration in his letter to the Church at Rome, placing it in the context of their current predicament, not just for the Christian but the whole of creation:
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God597. For the creation was subjected to futility; not willingly but because of Him who subjected it in the certain hope that the creation itself will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God598. For we know that the whole creation groans and labours in birth-pangs. Not only (they) but we also who have the first fruits of the
Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, being
the redemption of our body” 599
This passage from Romans chapter 8 is prone to mistranslation for it fits neither traditional Catholic nor Protestant Reformed apocalyptic expectations whereas the major theologian of the second century (Irenaeus) who will have been acquainted with the immediate successors of the Apostles better understood the matter: “It is fitting therefore that the creation itself, being restored to its primeval condition should without restraint be
under the dominion of the righteous, and the apostle has made this plain in the epistle to the Romans when he thus speaks: ‘For the expectation of the creature awaits the 594 Acts3:21
595 Cf. 2Tim4:1
596 Eph1:9-10
597 Greek: huion tou theou
598 Greek: teknon tou theou
599 Rom8:19-23
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manifestation of the sons of God’600 . With the notable exceptions of the King James Version and New King James Version, there is also a reluctance to translate “huion tou theou” as
“sons of God” in verse 19. As can be seen above, the apostle refers to sons ( huioi) and children ( tekna) within the one cohesive passage inferring two distinct groups. The sons of God will be revealed to creation who in turn will receive liberation as children of God. “Sons of God” has both regal and divine overtones, for as Paul has just indicated, the Christian is to be adopted as a child into the divine family. That will be fulfilled when the body is redeemed (v23), the current version being the cause of the Christian’s and indeed humanity’s moral predicament. Christians are certainly numbered amongst God’s children – the Spirit confirms it with their spirits (v16); the sons of God are those being led by the Spirit of God (v14) who share in Christ’s sufferings and will share His glory (v17).
This is the greater of the two restorations spoken of in Scripture, the lesser being the implied restoration of Christendom to prepare for it so that a coherent gospel concerning the Kingdom may be proclaimed601. It is not until Christ’s return that the whole earth shall be perceived to be “full of God’s glory”602 and the outcomes depicted in Old Testament prophecies will at last be fulfilled. Below is an example of such a prophecy from the Book of Isaiah that, like all other Old Testament prophecy, bi-passes the inauguration of the Kingdom through the Church and envisages the joyful events of its fulfilment, which align with Paul’s depiction in Romans when “the whole of creation is brought into the same glorious freedom as the children of God603:
And there shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse
And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.
The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him,
The spirit of wisdom and understanding
The spirit of counsel and might
The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
His delight is in the fear of the Lord
And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes,
Nor decide by the hearing of His ears;
But with righteousness He shall judge the poor,
And decide with equity for the meek of the earth
He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,
And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked
600 Irenaeus against heresies Book V chaps. 32 para1 and chap. 36 para 3 and with regard to the
restoration of the animal Kingdom chap. 33 para 3
601 Mt24:14
602 Is6:3
603 Rom8:21
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Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins,
And faithfulness the belt of His waist.
The wolf shall also dwell with the lamb,
The leopard shall lie down with the young goat
The calf and the young lion and fatling together;
And a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
Their young ones shall lie down together,
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole
And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den.
They shall not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain,
For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
As the waters cover the sea604.
Aspects of this prophetic revelation that are especially relevant to this chapter have been highlighted:
i) The Man appointed to judge humanity is meek and lowly of heart. He will apply the thoroughly comprehensible standards He indicated during His earthly ministry605; ii) The Gospel of the Kingdom is Good News both for the poor in spirit606 and those who are materially poor607;
iii) The wicked as defined in chapter six of this document will have no positive role in the new order and will be physically removed from earth. “These shall incur punishment of age-enduring wholesale ruin from the face of the Lord and the glory of His strength”608; iv) The faithfulness of Christ ( pisteos Iesou Christou), in particular His atoning death for sin will have been the primary means by which humanity is able to benefit from the restoration;
604 Is11:1-9
605 Mt7:2
606 Mt5:3 reflecting Is66:2
607 Lk4:18 reflecting Is61:1
608 2Thes1:8-9
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v) The restoration will be as much physical as it is spiritual incorporating both a renewed heaven and a renewed earth; humanity reconciled to itself and to God; the animal Kingdom at peace with itself and benign towards man as its caring overseer.