Restoration

We had a full and good Belleville staff meeting this morning. The only challenge was the cold in the meeting room. Some of us wore our coats, scarfs, and hats during the meeting.

One of the prayer subjects of the meeting was for unity among Christians in France. This is something very close to Brian McLaren's heart as well, based particularly on his Saturday seminar.

The baby is still taking her time making her grand arrival.

Rob Bell's section on "restoration" (Velvet Elvis, Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 2005)"goes along with Brian McLaren said about holistic salvation at his recent conference. He writes:

Restoration

To say that salvation is holistic is to acknowledge that there are many dimentions to living in harmony with God. In one sense, salvation is a legal transaction. Humans are guilty because of our sin, and God is the judge who has to deal with our sin because he is holy and any act of sin against his core nature. He has to deal with it. Enter Jesus, who dies on the cross in our place. Jesus gets what we deserve; we get what Jesus deserved. (p. 107)

For Jesus, however, salvation is far more. It includes this understanding, but it is far more comprehensive--it is a way of life. To be saved or redeemed or set free is to enter into a totally new way of living in harmony with God. The rabbis called harmony with God. The rabbis called harmony with God "olam haba," which translates "life in the world to come." Salvation is living more and more in harmony with God, a process that will go on forever. (p. 107)

When we understand salvation from a legal-transaction perspective, then the point of the cross becomes what it has done for us. There is a once-and-for-all work of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins and saying, "It is finished." Nothing more to be offered and nothing more to be sacrificed. Jesus' death perfectly satisfied God. We claim this truth as Christians. All has been forgiven. But let's also use a slightly different phrase; the work of the cross in us. There is Jesus'death on our behalf once and for all, but there is the ongoing work of the cross in our hearts and minds and souls and lives. There is the ongoing need to return to the cross to be reminded of our brokenness and dependance on God. There is healing we need from the cross every single day. (p. 108)


Which leads to forgiveness. The point of the cross isn't forgiveness. Forgiveness leads to something much bigger: restauration. God isn't just interested in the covering over our sins; God wants to make us into the people we were original created to be. It's not just the removal of what's being held against us; it is God pulling us into the people he originally had in mind when he made us. This restoration is why Jesus always orients his message around becoming the kind of people who are generous and loving and compassionate. The goal here isn't simply to not sin. Our purpose is to increase the shalom in this world, which is why approaches to the Christian faith that deal solely with not sinning always fail. They aim at the wrong thing. It is not about what you don't do. The point is becoming more and more the kind of people God had in mind when we were first created. (p. 108)

It is one thing to be forgiven; it is another thing to become more and more and more and more the person God mae you to be. (p. 108)

Let me take this further: If we only have a legal-transaction understanding of salvation in which we are forgiven of our sins so we can go to heaven, then salvation essentially becomes a ticket to somewhere else. In this understanding, eternity is something that kicks in when we die. But Jesus did not teach this. Jesus said that when we believe, we have crossed over from death to life. God always ahs been and always will be. And when I enter into a relationship with God through Christ. I am connected with God now and I will be connected with God forever. For Jesus, salvation is now. (pp. 108-9)

I need a God for now. (p. 109)

I need healing now. (p. 109)

I need help now. (p. 109)

Yes, even greater things will happen someday. (p. 109)

But salvation is now. (p. 109)

This now leads to another danger of embracing only one dimension of salvation. When faith is defined soley in legal terms, the dominant idea often becomes "inviting Jesus into your heart," a phrase that is not found anywhere in the Bible. That doesn't mean it is not legitimate. It just means we have to be careful that we don't adopt ideas that come with it that aren't what God has in mind. The problems come when salvation becomes all around me. Me being saved. Me having my sins forgiven. Me being reconciled to God. (p. 109)

The Bible paints a much bigger picture of salvation. It describes all of creation being restored. The author of Ephesians writes that all things will be brought together under Jesus. (p. 109)

Salvation is the entire universe being brought back into harmony with its maker. (p. 109)

This has huge implications for how people present the message of Jesus. Yes, Jesus has come into our hearts. But we can join a movement that is as wide and deep and big as the universe itself. Rocks and trees and birds and swamps and ecosystems. God's desire is to restore all of it. (pp. 109-110)

The point is not me: it's God. (p. 110)

It is one thing to be saved. To believe in Jesus. It is another thing to be healed. It is possible to be saved an miserable. It is possible to be saved and not be a healthy, whole, life-giving person. It is possible for the cross to have done something for a person but not in them. (p. 110)