The Dawn Treader

This simple truth jumped off the pages of scripture this past week.

I am reading Ezekiel, which is kind of a tough book to read in some ways.  God's covenant people had given themselves over to idolatry.  They had defiled the land with idols and bloodshed.  Their conduct had profaned the very name of God.  They deserved judgment, and indeed, were experiencing it.   Then, outta no where, comes the wonderful promise of restoration given in Ezek 36.  Through Ezekiel, God says "I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols."  Because Israel had earned it?  No. There were restored because of God's grace.

Then, I was reading the story of Mary and Martha.  Martha, unfortunately, is most remembered for receiving a rebuke from Jesus.  That was not the Mary and Martha story I am talking about.  The other Mary and Martha story comes from the gospel of John.  Mary and Martha have a famous brother ... named Lazarus.  Martha runs out to greet Christ upon his arrival which is four days after the death of her brother.  Christ asks her a question to restore her.  He says, "I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"  Martha gives an answer for the ages.  Martha's beautiful declaration of Christ as Messiah and Son of God restores Martha.  Christ puts her remarkable faith on display for all of us to see.  Martha is an amazing woman of faith.  She is restored.  Martha is my hero.  How I wish I had her faith.

Then, Jesus restores Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha.  Jesus not only restores the sick, he restores the dead back to life.

I was also reading Francis Schaeffer's classic, . Chapter 8, Freedom From Conscience, is particularly noteworthy. Schaeffer notes the theme of restoration in terms of freedom from the tyranny of our consciences.  Schaeffer writes,

"This is the point of reality for me personally.  If I lay hold upon the blood of Christ in faith, reality rests here, not in trying to live as though the Bible teaches perfectionism.  That is no basis for reality; that is only a basis either for subterfuge or despair.  But there is reality here: the reality of sins forgiven; the reality of a certainty that when a specific sin is brought under the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is forgiven.  This is the reality of a restored relationship. Reality is not meant to be only credal, though the creeds are important.  Reality is to be experienced, and experienced on the basis of a restored relationship with God through that finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross."
p. 93

Schaeffer goes to great length to talk about the reality of restoration.  Why does he do this?  Because Schaeffer, like us, experienced sins which disrupted the relationship he enjoyed with God.  Sin separates.  It separates us from God.  It separates us from each other.  It also separates us from ourselves.  How so?  Our consciences turn on us.  Our hearts condemn us and cry out "Loser!! You did it again!".  We lose peace in our souls.  We long to be restored.

How can we experience relief from the false tyranny of our consciences?  Where do we go when our heart condemns us?  How can our peace be restored?  We return to the foot of the cross.  We put our specific sins under the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Though we may not feel forgiven (at least initially), the reality is that we are.  The answer to restoration is not in perfectionism ... it is through ongoing confession, ongoing repentance, and ongoing faith in the reality of Christ's finished work on the cross.

God is clearly in the restoration business.

This is one reason why I have such hope in life.  I continue to feel the heaviness of last week's events involving Clete Childs.  The Childs family experienced their first Thanksgiving without Clete in sixteen years.  That must have been tough.  However, we worship the God who is there and who restores.  And that gives me hope.  I know he will restore that family.  That is what God does.

In the words of Schaeffer,

"There must be death, we have seen, before there can be resurrection.  But on the basis of the victory of Christ, resurrection should follow death.  The Christian life never ends on a negative.  There is a negative, because man is a rebel.  But it does not end there; it always goes on to the positive.  As my body will one day be raised from the dead, so I am meant to live the a resurrected [i.e. restored] life now."
p.91