‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the highest will overshadow you, therefore that ‘holy thing’ who is to be born will be called the son of God.’
(Luke 1 v 35 KJV)
The Apostles are called ‘things’ in 1 Cor 3 v 21-22
‘For all things are yours whether Paul, Apollos or Cephas’
(1 Cor 3 v 21-22)
All human beings are called ‘things’ in Philippians chapter 2:
‘At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, of things on earth and things under the earth and that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.’
(Phil 2 v 10-11 KJV)
Can we see that ‘things’ in this passage have knees and tongues and a will to confess Jesus is Lord, so are clearly ‘beings’.
Angels are called ‘things’ in Colossians chapter 1:
‘For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers’.
The phrase ‘principalities and powers’ is also used in Ephesians 6 when speaking of evil angels.
So the word ‘things’ clearly means ‘beings’, human and angelic, and Peter says that there will come a time when ‘all things’ will be restored to God.
All humans and all angels will be restored to their original place in God because of the work of Jesus Christ, the saviour of the world.
Jesus said:
‘All things have been delivered to me by the Father.’
(Math 11 v 27)
And ‘the Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hands.’
(John 3 v 35)
All humans and all angels have been given to Jesus Christ by God the Father. Jesus promises that:
‘All that the Father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out, for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of the Father who sent me that all he has given me I should lose nothing no-thing) but raise it up at the last day.’
(John 6 v 37-39)
Jesus says ‘all have been given, all will come to him, none will be cast out and all will be raised up on the last day.’ His job is not to lose any that the Father has given him.
St Paul tells us that
‘All things will be reconciled to God.’
(Col 1 v 20 )
‘All things will be gathered into Christ.’
(Eph 1 v 10)
‘All things will consummate in God and end in him.’
(Rom 11 v 36)
And the apostle John tells us that:
‘All things will be made new.’
(Rev 21 v 5)
Now we have an understanding of the word ‘things’ and what Peter meant by ‘the restoration of all things’, let us see how God has spoken this Gospel through all his holy prophets since the world began.
In the early chapters of Genesis, we have the creation of man and woman, their fall through the eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and their hiding from God among the trees of the garden of Eden, and the Lord God comes to them in the cool of the day. This is the pre-incarnate Jesus appearing to Adam and Eve and he speaks with them, after pronouncing curses (firstly on the serpent, then on the woman, then on the man) he does an amazing thing - it says he made coats of skin and clothed them! We know that there was no death on earth until Adam and Eve sinned, so it could be that the Lord took an innocent animal and killed it, pre-figuring his own death four thousand years later on the cross, but what we do know is that the Lord took these coats of skin and put them on Adam and Eve, representing the robes of righteousness or garments of salvation. Adam is described in scripture as the representative head of all of fallen humanity; in other words, all of us in our fallen state are described as being ‘in Adam’. Eve, here, is called the mother of all the living, so Adam and Eve represent the whole of the human race which come from them, and Jesus clothing them is picturing the salvation of the whole human race and his death that will atone for all. But it is in Genesis chapter 12 that we get a fuller description of the Gospel of the restoration of all things when the Lord appears to Abraham and says to him:
‘In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’
(Gen 12 v 3)
In other words, Abraham, one coming from you will be the source of all blessing for every family on earth and we know that the one coming from Abraham was Jesus Christ, the messiah who would bless all mankind.
But this promise is expanded and repeated throughout the book of Genesis:
‘And all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.’
(Gen 18 v 8)
Now we not only have all families but ‘all nations’ being blessed in him. In whom? In the one coming from Abraham, the messiah Jesus Christ.
In Genesis 28 v 14 it says:
‘And in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’
Paul tells us in Galatians 3 v 16 that the seed of Abraham is Christ, so we not only have ‘all families’ and ‘all nations’ but we now know that they will be blessed ‘in Christ’. Now to be ‘in Christ’ is to be saved! Here it clearly teaches that all families and all nations will be blessed in Christ - in other words, ‘saved’!
Eph 1 v 7 says:
‘In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.’
So part of being blessed in him is having redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.
But the passage is expanded again, the NIV says:
‘All people on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.’
(Gen 28 v 14)
We not only now have ‘all nations’ and ‘all families’ but we also have ‘all people’ being blessed in Christ. In other words, every individual who has ever lived will one day be blessed (in other words saved) in the seed of Abraham, who is Christ.
This Gospel went out into the ancient world but was quickly thwarted, firstly by the Jews, who said that not all nations, families and people would be saved, only Jewish people, just as the Church says only Christians will be saved! This message of universal salvation was repeated in the New Testament when quoting these verses:
‘And the entire world will be blessed because of you.’
(Acts 3 v 25 Living Bible)
‘As God said to Abraham, “through your descendants I will bless all people on Earth.”’
(Acts 3 v 25 Good News Bible)
And so the scripture announced the good news to Abraham:
‘Through you God will bless all mankind.’
(Gal 3 v 8 Good News Bible)
This was the original Gospel preached to Abraham and through Abraham to the people.
Now