"[God] will make [Israel's] wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord...." Isaiah 51:3b
"So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than the beginning...." Job 42:12a
"And He that sat upon the throne said, 'Behold, I make all things new....'" Revelation 21:5a
Redemption is restoration, and restoration is the greatest of human needs. Though the unbelieving man or woman may be a bit fuzzy on the particulars, there is nonetheless an underlying uneasiness within the human race, a restless certainty that all is not well. Now, two things need to be said about that last sentence: (1) This is not abstract psychology; it is a rugged fact of humanity: to be human is to know that something is wrong. Perhaps one does not know exactly what, how, or in what way things are wrong, but they know there is something wrong. (2) This is not stating the obvious. People may say, "Sure the world is messed up; just look at the news," and they are right. However, that people know that something is wrong does not merely mean that they know that bad things happen; it means they have a disturbing feeling that things are wrong, that at rock bottom all things (good, bad, and neutral) are wrong, damaged, abnormal, not the way it ought to be. It is not just bad things that feel wrong, but all things that feel wrong, including ourselves. Whatever or whoever has been wronged and it whatever way, it is the greatest human desire that things be rectified and reconciled.
God satisfies this greatest of human needs by telling us in his factual, propositional, revealed Word exactly what went wrong and how it can be fixed, i.e., the Fall and the Cross: a real, space-time evil that mankind perpetrated and thus inherited; and a real, space-time solution that God instituted and mankind can either accept or reject. Acceptance means restoration: of man to man, man to himself, and man to God. Rejection means...well, nothing. Things stay the same, i.e., things stay wrong; and mankind is left unsatisfied.
"Our greatest need, oh God,
Our greatest need is You,
With us; us back to You.
Our greatest need, oh God
Is Immanuel..."
-Jon Vowell
"So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than the beginning...." Job 42:12a
"And He that sat upon the throne said, 'Behold, I make all things new....'" Revelation 21:5a
Redemption is restoration, and restoration is the greatest of human needs. Though the unbelieving man or woman may be a bit fuzzy on the particulars, there is nonetheless an underlying uneasiness within the human race, a restless certainty that all is not well. Now, two things need to be said about that last sentence: (1) This is not abstract psychology; it is a rugged fact of humanity: to be human is to know that something is wrong. Perhaps one does not know exactly what, how, or in what way things are wrong, but they know there is something wrong. (2) This is not stating the obvious. People may say, "Sure the world is messed up; just look at the news," and they are right. However, that people know that something is wrong does not merely mean that they know that bad things happen; it means they have a disturbing feeling that things are wrong, that at rock bottom all things (good, bad, and neutral) are wrong, damaged, abnormal, not the way it ought to be. It is not just bad things that feel wrong, but all things that feel wrong, including ourselves. Whatever or whoever has been wronged and it whatever way, it is the greatest human desire that things be rectified and reconciled.
God satisfies this greatest of human needs by telling us in his factual, propositional, revealed Word exactly what went wrong and how it can be fixed, i.e., the Fall and the Cross: a real, space-time evil that mankind perpetrated and thus inherited; and a real, space-time solution that God instituted and mankind can either accept or reject. Acceptance means restoration: of man to man, man to himself, and man to God. Rejection means...well, nothing. Things stay the same, i.e., things stay wrong; and mankind is left unsatisfied.
"Our greatest need, oh God,
Our greatest need is You,
With us; us back to You.
Our greatest need, oh God
Is Immanuel..."
-Jon Vowell
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