Revival Is Resurrection

I'll never forget the day I found out my dad had a deadly brain tumor. I was seventeen. My dad, the founder of Life Action Ministries, was only forty-two. We buried him nine months later on a bitterly cold November morning.

For me, the air went out of life. In one piercing moment, the pain of the world became overwhelmingly, crushingly visible. I now had eyes to see ... and life was more broken than I could ever imagine.

That was almost 25 years ago. I wish I could say my young faith held. But for the next seven years, I gave way to confusion and sadness, searching everywhere for answers.

In the process, I came across a telling of the Christian story, thanks to some friends at L'Abri, that I had never heard quite like this before:

God grieves too. In fact, life as it is was never meant to be. Instead, God's good intentions for the world He created were hijacked by sin, and sin and evil brought death and unspeakable sorrow into the world. But God has stopped at nothing to rescue and repair creation in and through the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. Right now, restoration is underway.

From this simple unpacking of the gospel, a glimmer of hope began to break into my world. That glimmer has since grown into a fierce shining as I have come to grasp something of the staggering magnitude of redemption. What flows from the work of Jesus Christ is not only forgiveness and right standing with God, but also the systematic reversal of everything that was lost because of sin.

Consider for a moment how the consequences of sin in Genesis are dealt with, point by point, in the resurrection life of Jesus:

The spiritual death that took place in the Garden because of sin gives way to rebirth as believers become alive to God, "new creations" who share the very DNA of God (2 Corinthians 5:17).

The banishment from the presence of God that took place in the Garden is obliterated as the very presence of God comes to dwell with believers through the Holy Spirit, bringing divine communion, guidance, and empowerment (John 16:13-15).

The forfeited human mandate to mediate God's wise rule over creation is re-inaugurated, as ordinary people like you and me are restored to our truly human purpose to love and care for the earth, and to bring God's kingdom life into our spheres of influence as a "kingdom and priests" (Revelation 1:5-6).

The curse that was placed on creation is ultimately lifted, and human beings act now to "push back the effects of the fall" in every sphere of life (Romans 8).

The scope of God's rescue and repair of all creation is punctuated by the fact that the Bible ends with the same imagery with which it began. In Revelation 21, we are given a glimpse of new heavens and earth. Like the Garden in Genesis, it's a place of remarkable beauty and perfection. And a river runs through it.

But this time, instead of Adam, a new human representative is the center figure. He is the resurrected Jesus. And His words fill our lives with meaning, purpose, and hope for living today: "I am making everything new!" (Revelation 21:5).

You see, right now, God is inviting us to participate in the resurrection party. He is commissioning a band of believers who will awaken to the true hope of the gospel that is bigger than the brokenness all around us. He is calling us to join Him in His purpose to bring Christ's healing and life to every aspect of our world. This is not only our mission—it is our destiny.

That's why I believe in revival. Called by another name, revival is resurrection—because the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work right now. It can't be stopped. And it is breaking into our world in thousands of ways every single day, right in the middle of the pain. For those with eyes to see and faith to believe, things are not the way they will be. Jesus has risen, and restoration is underway!