Tim Hodge - The Gospel of The Restoration of All Things

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 all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.’

(Gen 18 v 8)

Now we not only have all families but ‘all nations’ being blessed in him. In whom? In the one coming from Abraham, the messiah Jesus Christ.

In Genesis 28 v 14 it says:

‘And in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’

Paul tells us in Galatians 3 v 16 that the seed of Abraham is Christ, so we not only have ‘all families’ and ‘all nations’ but we now know that they will be blessed ‘in Christ’. Now to be ‘in Christ’ is to be saved! Here it clearly teaches that all families and all nations will be blessed in Christ - in other words, ‘saved’!

Eph 1 v 7 says:

‘In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.’

So part of being blessed in him is having redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.

But the passage is expanded again, the NIV says:

‘All people on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.’

(Gen 28 v 14)

We not only now have ‘all nations’ and ‘all families’ but we also have ‘all people’ being blessed in Christ. In other words, every individual who has ever lived will one day be blessed (in other words saved) in the seed of Abraham, who is Christ.

This Gospel went out into the ancient world but was quickly thwarted, firstly by the Jews, who said that not all nations, families and people would be saved, only Jewish people, just as the Church says only Christians will be saved! This message of universal salvation was repeated in the New Testament when quoting these verses:

‘And the entire world will be blessed because of you.’

(Acts 3 v 25 Living Bible)

‘ As God said to Abraham, “through your descendants I will bless all people on Earth.”’

(Acts 3 v 25 Good News Bible)

And so the scripture announced the good news to Abraham:

‘Through you God will bless all mankind.’

(Gal 3 v 8 Good News Bible)

This was the original Gospel preached to Abraham and through Abraham to the people.

Now of course Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, including Genesis, and understood fully that one day God would bless all mankind in Christ. He also gave the children of Israel the law, but as Paul says in Galatians 3 v 17 that the law covenant cannot annul the universal promise made to Abraham, that one day ‘In Christ’ all the families, nations and people of the world would be blessed.

For Moses says in Numbers:

‘The Lord said ‘I have pardoned them according to your word, but indeed as I live, all the earth will be filled with the Glory of the Lord.’

(Num 14 v 20)

‘All the earth’ means everyone who has ever lived on earth will one day be filled with the glory of the Lord’.

The prophet Samuel understood God’s universal gospel when he said:

‘God does not take away life, but plans ways so that the banished ones may not be cast out from him.’

(2 Sam 14 v 14)

God has a plan so that anyone who has been banished from him, either ‘on earth’ or ‘under the earth’, can be saved, and this plan is called ‘the Gospel of the Restoration of all Things’.

But King David is probably the Old Testament’s biggest exponent of universal salvation and was a man after God’s own heart, for he said in Psalm 22:

‘All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you for the kingdom is the Lords and he rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth shall eat and worship. All those who go down to the dust shall bow before him, even he who cannot keep himself alive.’

(Psalm 22 v 27-29)

The phrase ‘all the ends of the earth’ means ‘all mankind’ (from both ends of history), again echoing the gospel spoken to Abraham. We have ‘all families’ and ‘all nations’ and this also applies to all those who have died ‘all those who go down to the dust’, will what? Will ‘remember and turn to the Lord’ and will ‘bow before him’!

In Psalm 65 David makes this simple declaration:

‘ Oh you who hear prayer to you all flesh will come.’

(Psalm 65 v 2)

‘You who hear prayer’ is God himself, and ‘all flesh’ is all mankind. Many in the church today believe that when every knee bows to God and confesses ‘Jesus is Lord’, God is somehow forcing his enemies to submit to him and it will be too late to be saved, but David says this:

‘ Through the greatness of your power your enemies shall submit themselves to you. All the earth shall worship you and sing praises to you. They shall sing praises to your name.’

(Psalm 66 v 3-4)

So rather than being forced to submit they shall submit themselves to God. Not only that, but ‘all the earth shall worship God’ means all people and all people will become believers, for when are unbelievers going to worship God or sing praises to his name?

‘ All the ends of the earth shall fear him.’

(Psalm 67 v 7)

‘ All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God.’

(Psalm 98 v 3)

The phrase ‘all the ends of the earth’ means all mankind (again from both ends of history) and all will fear (or show reverence) to him and all will see the salvation that God has planned for everyone.