Friday, January 28, 2011

Grace Restoring Nature

"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." John 3:17

"The whole world, then, has been given over to corruption through sin, but through grace it is also being saved in its entirety from sin"

Jan Veenhof

"It is grace alone. And this grace does not abolish nature, but affirms and restores it."

Herman bavinck

"So Christianity did not come into the world to condemn and put under the ban of everything that existed beforehand and elsewhere, but quite the opposite, to purify from sin everything that was; and thus to cause it to answer again to its own nature and purpose."

Herman Bavinck

For the most part, my thoughts about God's restoring grace are way to small and limited. I usually think of God's grace in a personal, individualistic sense. Jesus came to save ME. Well, this is true, that Jesus' death and resurrection secure my individual justification with God. However, Jesus doesn't just save us as individuals and leave the rest to waste. Jesus came that the WORLD might be saved through him. If sin's corruption has stretched to every sphere of life, God's restoring grace stretches as far as the curse is found. God created the world. By nature, God's creation is good. But, every part of the world has been corrupted by sin. Therefore, Jesus came to restore God's creation to its original nature and purpose. God's restoring grace is way bigger than just me.

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