Restoration (Judgment and Order)
“After Adam and Eve disobeyed God, sin and death entered the human experience. Instead of ordering the world around God, we tried to order the world around ourselves. But this only led to disorder, with the world rebelling against human rulership. The problem with sin is not simply that humankind took on a fallen nature, though of course that is true. The real tragedy of the Fall is that humans became defaced images of God, unable to properly flourish in their royal calling. At the Fall, Adam and Eve forfeited their rulership of the earth to shadowy powers at enmity with God.” (Robin Phillips)
“…the promise God made to Eve in Genesis 3:15. God cryptically promised that the seed of the woman would one day bruise the serpent’s head. This hints at God’s intention to put things right—an intention that would later become a full-scale rescue operation for the entire world. Indeed, the earth would not become a damaged product, fit only for destruction; rather, God would embark on a massive centuries-long project of restoring the earth.” (Robin Phillips)
“Judgment, again, is not the issuing of a criminal verdict, as if there had been a series of such verdicts issued provisionally, and this is the last one. Rather, judgment is the restoration of justice, of the correct order, and harmony of creation…The Hebrew word generally translated as “justice” is mishpat, which conveys a realm of space and time where all things exist in their proper place and relationship to one another…Much of the calamity that befalls people in the Scriptures occurs when God acts powerfully to restore justice.” (Fr. Stephen De Young)
“ “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too” [Acts 17:6]. Contrary to the assertion of the Jews at Thessalonica that the apostles were turning the world upside down, they merely identified how inverted our world truly is. The Apostles Paul and Silas proclaimed that “Jesus…is the Christ” (vs. 3) in whom and through whom God restores all things (see Acts 3:21). God is with us, bringing the world back to its upright position, putting all things in order, and inviting us to join ourselves to Christ and be restored. The gospel declares that Christ our Savior lived in the flesh, just as we do in this upside down world, for He was born from the Virgin Mary. In this very out-of-kilter existence He walked uprightly, divulging the disorientation of the world and exposing the delusion that life is as it should be. Our Lord Jesus promises that a right-side-up world is coming, a world which He calls the kingdom of God. Furthermore, He undertakes the essential corrective action to straighten out the present disorder…the restorative power of our Lord is available to everyone today!...You just run to Christ. He will get you in order. The disorder is probably not as bad as you think.” (Dynamis 6/10/2024, Timothy G. Patitsas)
“The Church is your home. By one degree or another, each of us has drifted away and is in need to start returning to Our Father’s home. Each of us is called to remember our inheritance and our status and to find the One who has shared all of it with us. As the young man began to draw near to the house, his father saw him and ran towards him. God is waiting like this for each of us. If we knew how much God loved us, we would be overwhelmed by it. I’m not sure we could really comprehend it. This love is shown to us in the image of the father who sees his son still at a distance and yet he comes running, not walking, running! How God longs to see us come home! How God longs to embrace us and forgive us and restore us to a place of honor, to celebrate our return! How God longs to see those who are dead, restored back to life and health so that they might dwell with Him! The whole universe of God’s mercy and forgiveness is open wide to receive those who will repent and return.” (Fr. James Guirguis)
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