Dec
21
2009
The Great Reversal
In C.S. Lewis’s masterful children’s story The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, he tells of a country, Narnia, which is under the curse of the White Witch. This evil queen places a spell on the land so that it’s “always winter and never Christmas.” Under her control, the future of Narnia looks bleak until word gets out that “Aslan is on the move.” In the story, Aslan is a noble lion who represents Christ. He’s coming to set things straight. He’s coming to destroy the White Witch and thus reverse the curse on Narnia. The first sign of Aslan’s movement toward this cursed land is that the snow begins to melt–“spring is in the air.” The cold begins to fade as the sun rays peer through the dark clouds, promising the dawn of a new day. Everything in Narnia begins to change.
You’ll have to read the book to see how the story ends, but when I’m asked to describe the true meaning of Christmas, I like to say that the birth of Christ is the sure and certain sign that “God is on the move.” The arrival of Jesus two-thousand years ago ensured that God had begun the process of reversing the curse of sin and recreating all things. In Jesus, God was moving in a new way and, in the words of C.S. Lewis, “winter began stirring backwards.”
All of Jesus’ ministry—the words he spoke, the miracles he performed—showed that there was a new order in town: God’s order. When Jesus healed the diseased, raised the dead, and forgave the desperate, he did so to show that with the arrival of God in the flesh came the restoration of the way God intended things to be. New life was given, health was restored; God was reversing the curse of death, disease, and discomfort. The incarnation of Christ began the “great reversal.”
Tim Keller observes that Christ’s miracles were not the suspension of the natural order but the restoration of the natural order. They were a reminder of what once was prior to the Fall and a preview of what will eventually be a universal reality once again—a world of peace and justice, without death, disease, or conflict.
To be sure, when Christ comes again, the process of reversing the curse of sin and recreating all things will be complete (1 Cor. 15:51-58). The peace on earth that the angels announced the night Christ was born will become a universal actuality. God’s cosmic rescue mission will be complete. The fraying fabric of our fallen world will be fully and perfectly rewoven. Everything and everyone “in Christ” will live in perfect harmony. Shalom will rule.
Isaiah pictures it this way:
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:6-9)
For those who have found forgiveness of sins in Christ, there will one day be no more sickness, no more death, no more tears, no more division, no more tension. The pardoned children of God will work and worship in a perfectly renewed earth without the interference of sin. We who believe the gospel will enjoy sinless hearts and minds along with disease-free bodies. All that causes us pain and discomfort will be destroyed, and we will live forever. We’ll finally be able “to enjoy what is most enjoyable with unbounded energy and passion forever.”
Christmas is the celebration of this process begun and the promise that it will one day be completed.
(For a detailed expansion on the theme of God’s mission, see chapters 5-8 of my book Unfashionable: Making a Difference in the World by Being Different.)
15 Comments
Excellent perspective! Miracles and the forgiveness of sin are a return to what IS natural in God’s reality. Great way to put things.
Will remember to pray for Matt Chandler. May grace and healing abound in Jesus.
Fantastic post Tullian! Thanks for the use of L,W,W (one of my favorites). This will make an awesome sermon thought for next year.
I know you don’t know me and I am new to your blog but have enjoyed what I have been reading. Thanks.
Something of possible interest… David Greene (founder of Hobby Lobby retail chain) just purchased property in the Northfield, MA to establish C.S. Lewis College. It is impressive how the more mainstream media has come to appreciate some of Lewis’ works. He certainly was an incredible writer.
Pastor Tullian
Thanks for the right perspective, this is the best season of all as the song says.
We who have been saved can truely celebrate. I spoke to a jehovah witness and felt terrible for him. First because he doesn’t celebrate Christmas and secondly because he doesn’t know Christ as He is and was meant to be to us. Very sad, I am praying God will open up his eyes to the truth. I think that thier knowledge of the kingdom of God is skewed. I am thankful for the truth and that God chose to share His knowledge with me.
I pray that God blesses you all with the best Advent season ever.
Thanks for the post Tullian. Where does the quote come from about enjoying what is most enjoyable with unbounded energy and passion? It sounds like Piper, but do you have specific reference?
You’re welcome Larry. The quote comes from Piper’s book “Pleasures of God.”
Tullian, How do you respond to those who question the possiblity of a perfect, pre-Fall natural order because scientific evidence necessitates millions of years of life and death, predation and decay, before the emergence of human beings? Biologists would say that the earth was built on death, disease and conflict, and that there could never have been a time without them. The miracles could then not be the restoration of the natural order but the prefiguring of the new heavens and the new earth.
Hey Tullian,
Thanks for this post. I think it is helpful to think about the gospel along these lines (i.e. reverse of the curse). I’d love to hear your opinion on something. Lewis obviously thinks that we are under Satan’s curse and that Jesus came to battle him. Yet you, however, refer to the curse as “God’s curse”. Jesus did come to rescue us from Satan and the powers of evil yet, we know from the beginning of the Bible, that man is under the curse of God. Now this is an honest question (I’m not trying to put anyone in a theological corner) but how do we keep the balance? If humanity is ultimately under God’s curse then how do we avoid making it seem like Jesus was doing battle against God?
CRPC
Have the best Christmas ever
Hi Ted, you raise an interesting point. However, Romans 8:20-22 and Genesis 3:17-18 seems to indicate that all of creation was “free” from sin and death until the fall.
Hi Nick, you are right about Lewis. He believed in what theologians refer to as the “ransom theory.” The early church father Origen believed that as a result of Adam and Eve’s disobedience, Satan formally aquired ownership of all humanity and the rest of the world. And in order to free people from Satan’s dominion, God agreed to send Jesus as a ransom price to be paid to the devil. You can see this in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, when Aslan agrees to be killed by the White Witch in order to “pay her off” so as to gain Edmund’s freedom. For various reasons, Evangelical theologians would disagree with Lewis at this point. Because the penalty of offending an infinite God requires an infinite price, it is God and only God who can pay it. 1 John 4:10 says, ‘And this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.’ Propitiation simply means that Christ’s payment satisfied God’s justice, not the Devil’s demands. The word propitiation presupposes the wrath of God which is ‘revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men’ (Rom. 1:18). The gospel is the good news that Jesus delivers from the wrath of God. Revelation 6:16-17 tells us that God’s wrath will be unleashed against those who reject the Lamb of God. And 1 Thes. 1:10 tells us that Jesus came to deliver us from the wrath to come. He came to absorb God the Fathers wrath for us. The love of God rescues us from the wrath of God.
I hope that helps. Sorry my response was so long.
WISHING YOU, YOUR WIFE, KIM, AND YOUR SWEET CHILDREN A VERY BLESSED CHRISTMAS………I AM BLESSED TO BE A PART OF YOUR FLOCK & WILL BE SAVORING THE CELEBRATION OF OUR SAVIOR TONIGHT AT CORAL RIDGE.
MAY GOD CONTINUE TO BLESS YOU & YOUR FAMILY IN THE COMING YEAR.
COOKIE WILLIAMS
Thank you, Tullian, for clarifying the point that Nick raised. Your explanation of the difference between Origin’s view and the one that most Evangelicals hold is helpful. Without realizing it, I was holding to both views in different corners of my thinking. Thank you for showing me once again why Jesus Christ had to be infinite God to pay the infinite price required for our redemption.
P.S. Richard and I really appreciate the Advent series!
Oh yes, “God is on the move”. Some days we are more cognizant of it than others but rest assured, He certainly is.
Merry Christmas to TT and all of the CRPC family.
Tullian, Thanks for your response. The challenge to us in interpreting Romans 8 and Genesis 3 is that sin could not have entered the world until man was created in the image of God – non-human creation could not sin. Yet physical death existed before humanity was created in the image of God. So death as the result of the fall must have been spiritual death, i.e. separation from God. That creation was ‘subjected to frustration’, and ‘bondage to decay’ (Rom.8:21) must have been from the beginning, before human creation, as fossil records indicate. Our liberation is future of course. I have found “The Groaning of Creation: God, Evolution and the Problem of Evil” by Christopher Southgate, helpful in this regard. Physical death is part of the pains of childbirth which existed from the beginning as God is preparing us, and all creation for the redemption of our bodies. The curse of Genesis 3 seems to be the result of sin and applies to our perception and guilt.