The Restitution Of All Things...... We could easily fill the page with the words of many other translators, but I think the above is sufficient to testify that this is the true meaning of the words of Peter and that he was teaching us and all who have ears to hear the Spirit’s voice that there is coming a time of universal restitution and reconciliation in which all things will be restored, whether they be things in heaven, things in earth, or things under the earth. It should be very evident to us all that, if the scripture says that all the prophets spoke of the restitution of all things, then there should be some evidence that they did. Though we have neither space nor ability to peruse all the inspired teaching of the prophets concerning that coming age of blessedness and restoration, it is time well spent to notice it at least in part. Isaiah above all others seems to have been given the great prophecies of restoration and they are so extensive that they seem to touch life and creation in every phase. To me it is a most significant and wonderful thing to notice how the prophets, while prophesying terrible doom on the unbelieving and rebellious people, suddenly break off their message to revel in the coming glory. A good example of this is found in the thirty-ninth chapter of Isaiah, in which the prophet tells of Judah’s coming captivity in Babylon. Then he breaks forth with these revealing words of consolation: “Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” Isa. 40:1-5 “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, and the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God. Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will conic with vengeance, even God with a recompence: He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.” Isa. 35:1-7 With many such statements of restoration and restitution does Isaiah picture the glory of those coming times as he speaks of the restoration of nations, of Israelites, of Gentiles, of rugged land and barren places as well as wonderful physical restoration, which undoubtedly prefigures the coming state of incorruption and immortality. Surely Daniel was carried in spirit far into the times of restoration when he said, “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven. and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought Him near before Him. And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion. which shall not pass away. and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed Dan. 7:13-14. Great as are these prophecies, they are limited by man’s ability or inability to understand them. Like so many statements of scripture. they are really only shadows of things to come. See Col. 2:17 where Paul shows that meat and drink, holy days, new moons and sabbaths are in reality shadows of things to come. A shadow is caused when a body or some object obscures the light. It is not the shadow that is important, but the body that made the shadow. That is why Paul says here that new moons and feasts and holy days are shadows, but the body Christ. All these things foreshadow the day when He will be all and in all, and when He will be our sabbath of rest, our holy day and our meat and drink. We have already noted how the simple statement of Gen. 1:20 – - Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle. and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth” is really a foreshadowing of the day when God shall put all things under the feet of man, who is being created in His own image. It seems only normal that the prophets of the Old Testament were largely confined to prophecies concerning Israel and her coming restoration, yet their prophecies reach out to the Gentile nations and proclaim that all flesh shall see the glory of the Lord. Wonderful and glorious as are the prophecies and shadows of the Old Testament, it is not until we begin to see the vastly extended and infinitely brighter light of the New Testament that the Picture of the complete reconciliation of the universe begins to unfold before our wondering eyes. The inability of God’s people to understand and accept the restitution of all things, which was spoken of by all the prophets since the world began, may be traced to three great faults in our traditional teaching. Firstly, very, very few people are familiar with the truth that there is a coming age which the Bible names the dispensation of the fullness of times (Eph. 1: 10), and that that age above all others has been specially set aside for the work of reconciling all things in heaven and in earth and bringing all things into Christ. The age, as I will point out presently, is the age of the ages. It is the greatest age of all ages and is the time in which the Almighty God brings to completion the unfailing word spoken before time began, “Let its make man in our image and after our likeness. ” A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: He shall bring forth judgment onto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till He have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for His law.” Isa. 42:3-4. Secondly, God’s people fail to see the final restitution of all things because they also fail to see the greatness of the work of Christ and the all-inclusive faith which God the Father has in that marvellous work of redemption. Thirdly, and perhaps most important of all, is the failure of God’s people to see that till things are of God, that He is working all things according to the Counsel of His own will. Nothing has ever gone wrong with the merciful purpose of God. Once these three truths become clear to the spiritual mind of a devout child of God, then the mysteries of the ages disperse like mists before the rising sun and all the parts of the puzzle begin to fall into their appointed place to form a perfect blueprint of the progression of God’s purpose through the age
Posted on: Tue, 20 Aug 2013 02:10:46 +0000
Trending Topics
© 2015