The Truth About Restoration
Son, I need to talk to you about this idea of restoration. Some people have twisted the scriptures on this point and ended up way off track. I can tell it’s been bothering you too. Let me clear it up.
The plan of restoration is essential to God’s justice. Everything must be restored to its proper place. Through Christ’s power and resurrection, the soul must be reunited with the body, and every part of the body must be made whole again.
God’s justice requires that people be judged by their actions. If their works were good in this life and their hearts desired good, then in the end they’ll be restored to goodness. But if their works were evil, they’ll be restored to evil. Everything returns to its proper place—everything back to its natural state. Mortality rises to immortality, corruption to incorruption. Some are raised to endless happiness and inherit God’s kingdom. Others to endless misery and inherit the devil’s kingdom. One on one side, the other on the other. One person is raised to happiness because that’s what they wanted—goodness because they desired good. The other gets evil because they desired evil. If someone spent their whole life wanting to do wrong, they’ll get their reward of evil when the night comes. It works the other way too. If someone repented of their sins and pursued what was right until the end of their days, they’ll be rewarded with righteousness.
These are the ones the Lord redeems. These are the ones pulled out and rescued from that endless night of darkness. In the end, people stand or fall because they’re their own judges—they choose whether to do good or evil.
God’s decrees can’t be changed. The path is laid out. Anyone who wants to can walk it and be saved.
So don’t take one more risk offending God over these points of doctrine that have already led you to sin.
Wickedness Never Was Happiness
Don’t imagine that just because restoration has been promised, you’ll be restored from sin straight to happiness. Listen to me: wickedness never was happiness.
Everyone who lives by their natural impulses—their worldly desires—is caught in bitterness and trapped by sin. They’re cut off from God, living against his nature. That means they’re living against the nature of happiness itself.
Does restoration mean taking something from its natural state and putting it in an unnatural one? Placing it in a state opposite to its nature? No, son. Restoration means bringing back like for like: evil for evil, worldliness for worldliness, darkness for darkness. Good for good, righteousness for righteousness, justice for justice, mercy for mercy.
So be merciful to your brothers. Deal justly. Judge righteously. Do good continually. If you do all this, you’ll receive your reward. Mercy will be restored to you. Justice will be restored to you. Righteous judgment will be restored to you. Good will be rewarded to you. What you send out comes back to you and is restored. That’s why the word restoration condemns the sinner more fully—it doesn’t let them off the hook at all.