God’s Writing 7: Restoration
This series has followed a journey through salvation history
by considering references in the Bible to God’s writing. We have seen how God wrote intelligence into
our nature in creation, both through DNA and in our conscience. We saw that God remains intimately involved in
our world and in our lives in His providence.
We considered how He has revealed Himself in words in Scripture and how
He records our deeds as the righteous Judge.
We have also encountered the forgiveness inherent in the not guilty
verdict that is ours in Jesus and the transformation that the Spirit brings
about as He writes God’s Law on our hearts.
In this episode we reach the end of the story, or perhaps the beginning
of the new story, as we reach the book of Revelation. In last week’s post, I emphasised that the
gospel is not just about us being saved to go to heaven – it is also about our
transformation so that we can serve God on earth. It is important to remember, however, that
this world is not our ultimate home. The
restoration of all things is necessary and it will take place at the end of
time when Jesus returns as Judge.
I mentioned Revelation 20, with its account of the final
judgement, in Part 4 of this series, where I said that God records our
deeds. The judgement comes after Jesus
has returned in person to defeat the enemies of God and the dead have been
raised to life. It takes place before
the New Jerusalem – a picture of the bride of Christ, the people of God – and the
new heavens and earth are revealed in Revelation 21. The account of the judgement is brief, so I
will quote it in full (Revelation 20:11-15):
“Then I saw a great
white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled
away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small,
standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was
opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written
in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who
were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were
judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades
were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And
if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into
the lake of fire.”
The books that are opened provide ample evidence to condemn
every individual to the lake of fire, but there is another book in the scene,
referred to as ‘the book of life’. According to Jesus’ promise in Revelation 3:5,
the names of those who conquer will be permanently recorded in this book, never
to be blotted out. Those who have faith
in Christ, a true faith that endures despite trials, will be saved not on the basis
of what they have done (not because the record about them in the books is
better than that about others), but on the basis of what He has done. 1 John 5:4-5 explains that conquering, or
overcoming, the world is something that happens because of our faith in Jesus
through which we are born again. This
resonates clearly with Paul’s declaration in Romans 8:37 that we are more than
conquerors through Christ.
Only those whose names are in this book of life, which is
said to belong to the Lamb, will have a place in the new restored creation
(Revelation 21:27). The final judgement
is decisive – the eternal destiny of people will be decided on the basis of
their response to God. Either eternal
condemnation (the lake of fire) or eternal union with God among His people and
in His service. When I was a child I remember
a question seemed to go round about whether or not we would know each other in
Heaven. The question was based on a
great deal of ignorance and misinformation about our eternal destiny. Revelation (and other parts of Scripture)
describe it in terms of a new world which seems to be similar to our present
world but with all of sin’s effects stripped away. It isn’t some disembodied existence floating
on clouds. We will have new bodies and
we will serve God and know Him. We will
take our place among God’s redeemed people, but we will also retain our
individuality. Two other references to
God’s writing in Revelation emphasises this.
They come within the letters Jesus writes to the churches. In Revelation 2:17, Jesus promises that:
“To the one who
conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white
stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one
knows except the one who receives it.”
Here is the completion of the work the Spirit has already
begun in us. We are finally perfectly
transformed into Jesus’ likeness and we have a new identity which is personal
to us alone. Christ will write our own
new name and give it to us – it is our true name, the name He alone knows, our
purified, sin-free self. We are restored people ready to inhabit a restored cosmos.
The other mention of Jesus writing, with which we end this
series, is in Revelation 3:12:
“The one who
conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go
out of it, and I will write on him the name
of my God, and the name of the
city of my God, the new
Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.”
This statement does much further than the one in Revelation
2:17. Not only will Jesus reveal to us
our true identity – the person He has saved us to be – but our identity will
include three other dimensions – three other things that Jesus will ‘write’ on
us. The first is the name of God. We belong to Him as His child and treasured
possession. Our identity is as people of
God. The second is the name of the New
Jerusalem. Salvation is not an individual
reality alone – we are saved collectively to be part of the people of God (as
mentioned above, this city is a representation of God’s people under Old and
New Covenants – this is clear in Revelation 21, where it is synonymous with the
bride of Christ and the twelve apostles and twelve tribes of Israel are both
mentioned in its description). Our
identity is not only as isolated sons and daughters of God, but as the family
of God’s people, the Church. The third
thing to be written on us is Jesus’ name itself – in fact, His ‘new name’,
whatever that means. Our identity is as
people who are bought by Jesus and whose lives are in Him.
As we live in the present age, facing opposition and temptation,
we must hold on to this glorious vision of our future. We stand secure in Christ, knowing that we
belong to Him, but we need to remember our true identity and allow it to shape
every aspect of our lives. We need to
live out the reality of our inclusion in the Church as we do this. This requires us to have fellowship and share
together, imperfect as our churches might be.
We also commit ourselves consistently to being God’s servants in this
world, holding forth the gospel and doing God’s will until Christ comes. Let it be as it is written! Amen.
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