Tim Hodge - The Gospel of The Restoration of All Things

After Paul is converted in the book of Acts, he is commissioned by God to write his letters to various Churches and these become part of the canon of scripture.

He writes 13 books of the New Testament, and, again, nowhere in any of them does he mention hell!

(Please look up the word ‘hell’ in any concordance to try and find it in Paul’s letters and you won’t find it anywhere!)

What did he write? In Romans chapter 5, he compares the work of Christ with the work of Adam and concludes that just as the work of Adam is universal, so the work of Christ is universal. Just as Adam sinned and plunged the whole of humanity into a fallen state, so the work of Christ redeems everyone.

‘Consequently just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.’

(Rom 5 v 18)

The amplified Bible puts it like this:

‘Well then, as one man’s trespass (one man’s false step and falling away) led to condemnation for all people so one man’s act of righteousness leads to acquittal and right standing with God and life for all people.’

(Rom 5 v 18)

Notice the phrase ‘all people’ in regard to both the condemnation and the acquittal!

Paul then adds:

‘For just as through the disobedience of the one (Adam) ‘the many’ were made sinners (we know that all people are sinners for Romans 3 v 23 says all have sinned) so also by one man’s (Christ’s) obedience, the many (‘the many’ means all people) will be made righteous.’

(Rom 5 v 19)

That is an absolute promise that one day all people will be made righteous.

Then Paul states the incontrovertible fact that:

‘The creation was subjected to futility, not willingly but because of him who subjected it in hope, because the creation itself will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.’

(Rom 8 v 20-21)

The children of God are those that believe now, but the creation means the whole creation, and the whole creation will one day be delivered from the bondage of corruption and be brought into that same liberty.

If most people are lost and end up in hell forever, then how can this scripture ever be true that God will deliver the whole creation?

Paul goes on to show that even though most don’t believe in this lifetime, death will not cut anyone off from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8 v 38-39)

In Acts 15 it talked about the fact that all the Gentiles not in the church will eventually seek the Lord! But in Romans chapters 9 to 11 he deals with Israel and the fact that God has not given up on his people, and that although they are rejecting him at the moment, the day will come when all Israel will be saved!

In fact, the history of Israel throughout time is a perfect picture of the restoration of all things, because God created Israel as a people and brought them into existence. He gave them his law and his commandments and when they broke them he judged them, sometimes allowing foreign nations to invade their land to discipline them and even allowed them to be taken into captivity in Babylon but always promised them restoration.

Eventually, after God sent his own Son to them and after they rejected him, in AD 70, they were kicked out of their land and dispersed among the nations and cut off as God’s people, God still promises them full restoration.

‘For the days are coming says the Lord, that I will bring back from captivity my people Israel and Judah says the Lord and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers and they shall possess it.’

(Jer 30 v 3)

‘“And in that day” says the Lord “I will gather the outcasts and assemble the lame and those I have afflicted, I will make the lame a remnant and the outcast a strong nation” so the Lord will reign over them from now on, even forever.’

(Micah 4 v 6-7)

Paul reiterates this when he says in Rom 11 v 26:

‘And so all Israel will be saved.’

(Rom 11 v 26)

This is confirmed in Isaiah 45 when the prophet says:

‘In the Lord all the descendants of Israel shall be justified and shall glory.’

(Isaiah 45 v 25)

Yes, they shall be justified by faith and will be ‘in the Lord’ - in other words, ‘saved’.

Each individual person (like Israel) was created by God and brought into existence, given his law and disciplined by him when they break it, and if they reject his Son in this lifetime they will be cut off from God by death, but (again like Israel) if they do not continue in unbelief, God can graft them back into his tree of salvation again (Rom 11 v 23).

So not only will all Israel be saved, but Paul says that the fullness of the Gentiles will come in as well (Rom 11 v 25), which is the full restoration of all things.

Paul adds that:

‘Even so then, at the present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.’

(Rom 11 v 5)

Throughout history, there has only been a remnant who believe in Christ but then Paul says that:

‘God has committed them all to disobedience (that’s all Jews and all Gentiles) that he might have mercy on all.’

(Rom 11 v 32)

Paul adds:

‘For of him and through him and to him are all things, to whom be glory forever.’

(Rom 11 v 36)

The amplified version says:

(And remember ‘things’ means ‘people’):

‘For from him and through him and to him are all things (for all things originate with him and come from him, all things live through him and all things centre in and tend to consummate and to end in him) to him be glory forever Amen.’

(Rom 11 v 36)

So just as there is only a remnant saved at the moment, ultimately Paul knows that all will be saved and will end in Christ!

Many people have never heard the Gospel, and many don’t understand it, but Paul says that all will see the truth and shall understand it.

For Paul goes on in Romans:

‘To whom he was not announced they shall see and those who have not heard shall understand.’

(Rom 15 v 21)

In other words, all will hear the gospel either in this life or after this life. After all, Peter says in his first epistle:

‘For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead.’

(1 Peter 4 v 6a) NKJ

‘That although their bodies were punished with death, they could still live in the spirit as God lives.’

(1 Peter 4 v 6b, Living Bible)

Paul adds:

‘For to this end Christ died and rose again that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.’

(Rom 14 v 9)

The Lord of the dead and the living? You never hear that preached in church!

What about those who never seek God or who never ask for him during their lifetime?

Paul says:

‘I was found by those who did not seek me, I was made manifest to those who did not ask for me.’

(Rom 10 v 20)

Many Evangelicals will tell us that unbelievers are not the people of God and are not called ‘sons of God’ but are children of the devil, but Paul says that God will say:

‘I will call them my people who are not my people and her beloved who was not beloved and shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them ‘you are not my people’ they shall be called sons of the living God.’

(Rom 9 v 25-26)

If Paul were alive today, I don’t think he would recognise the so called Gospel that is pumped out by the Evangelical church week after week in comparison with his Gospel as revealed in the book of Romans.

Let’s compare the two: