Many Christians have the simplistic understanding that the next life will be a matter of the reward of heaven and eternal bliss for those who accepted the Lord and a corresponding eternal punishment for those who did not. There is far more to the plan of God than that. Basic to understanding the coming kingdom, we must understand that the Lord will restore mankind and the earth to its original purpose, the paradise that it was intended to be. We also need to understand the process of restoration through which this will be accomplished.
We need to understand this because this is what we are being prepared to be a part of, what the church is called to prepare the way for by modeling the coming kingdom, and helping to prepare the nations for this transition. This is why we are called to make disciples of all nations, not just individuals, and begin teaching them now to observe everything that the Lord has commanded.
The Lord is coming back to the earth to rule over it for a thousand years in order to restore it to its originally intended purposes. Just as we were not instantly perfected when we were born again, but began the process of being delivered from the sin nature and the consequences of the fall by having our minds renewed, the rest of mankind, and the earth will go through this same process. We will reign with Him during this time because our having been through this process will enable us to be help others through the process of restoration. All that we are now learning will have a practical use in the age to come.
There are many who have a concept of the next life being everything from sitting on a cloud in heaven, to being resurrected on this earth. Actually, you can justify almost all of these concepts of the resurrection from Scripture, and they do not conflict with each other. We are also told in Scripture that there is "a better resurrection," which means there are different resurrections. Just as there are levels and ranks among angels, there will be levels and ranks among the resurrected just as the Lord Jesus Himself made clear in His own teachings.
Another concept we need to grasp is that we will have work to do in the resurrection. It will not be toil and will be more fulfilling than any job we could have had on the earth, but we do have work to accomplish. We will reign with Him for a purpose. Our labors now are even a preparation for our ultimate purpose in His coming kingdom. We will find that nothing we have been through in this life will have been without purpose.
The world will not be instantly perfected when the Lord returns, but will, like us, go through a process of restoration and being renewed. To again fortify this most important purpose about which we are now engaged in preparing for and will be engaged in for the next one thousand years, we must understand and have God's heart for restoration and devote ourselves to being joined with Him, having His heart for restoration.
As we considered many months ago, and to review briefly for those who have more recently joined us, except for just six chapters in the Bible, the first three and the last three, the entire Bible deals with this one essential subject—restoration. If you read the first three chapters of the Bible, and the last three, you have a complete story. Everything in-between is devoted to restoring mankind and the earth from the consequences of the Fall. This includes redemption, reconciliation, and then the process or restoration. This is what we must have in our heart as a primary purpose of God in us, and through us—restoration.
How does this apply? As we go forth to conquer our Promised Land in Christ, it is the opposite of fallen human attempts at conquest. We go forth to conquer in order to set people free, not subdue them. We lead them to redemption and reconciliation to God so that they can be fully restored. We do not go forward to conquer in order to take things from people, but to give to them from our own resources that we have been entrusted with. Our goal is not to plunder, but to leave every place we go to better off, and on the path toward full restoration.
For this reason, we need to begin to look at every situation and consider how we can begin to implement or at least prepare it for the restoration process. As we are exhorted in I Peter 1:13-16,
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance,
but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior;
because it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy."
In this way, we should consider all that we do as holy to the Lord. We could also consider this word holy as wholly. All that we do, we should do as unto the Lord and according to His ways, always seeking to see all redeemed and reconciled to the Lord. It was with this in mind that Paul the Apostle was devoted to seeing "every man" made complete in Christ, as we read in Colossians 1:28-29:
And for this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.
Even then Paul had a kingdom mentality, knowing that one day all would be restored. We, too, have been redeemed for this purpose. As agents of Christ and His kingdom, we are literally preparing for His takeover of the world. As we go forth to possess our inheritance in Christ, which are the nations, we must go forward in order to help everyone begin the process that will lead to their full restoration to their God intended purpose.
As we have also discussed previously, something restored after devastation has a much greater glory than something just built. This is why the restored temple in Jerusalem was promised to have a greater glory than the original. Restored mankind, after its fall into almost total depravity, will forever be one of the greatest testimonies and demonstrations of the nature of God. He did not leave us and just throw mankind and the earth away—He gave His life to restore us. The process of restoration will forever be one of the great witnesses of the ways of God. This is what we must study and be devoted to now.
This Word for the Week has been mostly a review because we need to back up just a bit and address some of the practical ways that we are going to possess our Promised Land in Christ as a part of His plan for His kingdom to come to the earth so that His will is done here just as it is in heaven. We also need to discuss in a bit more detail the bridge between the heavenly and earthly realms that must exist for His kingdom and how we are presently called to live in and be at home in both realms.
