Scriptorium Daily
Have you ever noticed that God doesn’t reverse anything? Human sins have consequences, but our Almighty Lord doesn’t just turn back the clock to the way things used to be. He lets those consequences stand, but He grows grace out of them.
To put it succinctly: the way God works is redemption, not reversal.
Or to put it more colloquially: this is God’s way of “turning lemons into lemonade.”
The Lord does this all throughout Scripture. Let me take seven examples:
1) The Fall. In the Garden of Eden, mankind sinned and was expelled from Paradise.
-What would the reversal of this have been? God could’ve taken us, wiped the slate clean, and put us back into a Garden.
-But no: it’s a redemption, not a reversal. We don’t go back to Eden; we head forward toward the New Jerusalem. He doesn’t give us another garden, but rather a city.
From the beginning, God turned lemons into lemonade.
2) Joseph and his brothers. The brothers sold Joseph into slavery in Egypt.
-What would the reversal of this have been? We would expect God to pluck Joseph out of slavery and restore him to Israel. And perhaps smiting the treacherous brothers in the process!
-But no: it’s a redemption, not a reversal. God puts Joseph as second-in-command of all of Egypt and allows Joseph to save Israel from famine!
God continues to turn lemons into lemonade.
3) The Tower of Babel. Men tried to build a tower to heaven and were cursed for their arrogance, becoming scattered across the globe into many different races and languages.
-What would the reversal of this have been? Unify everyone back into one language and one people, of course!
-But no: it’s a redemption, not a reversal. At Pentecost, God didn’t make everyone speak the same language; rather, He caused everyone to understand each other in their own languages. And in Revelation 7, every tongue, tribe, and nation will be worshiping around the throne of God together. Even in heaven, we will retain our ethnic and linguistic distinctives—so that which once was a cursed sign (diversity) is now inherently glorious to the Lord!
Again, God turned lemons into lemonade.
4) Saul and the Israelite monarchy. God didn’t want a human king, but the people clamored for one. The Lord relented, and look who they ended up with: Saul, hardly the model for good kingship!
-What would the reversal of this have been? Get rid of the monarchy and return the Israelites back into the age of the Judges.
-But no: it’s a redemption, not a reversal. God used the monarchy to establish David’s line from whence came the Messiah.
Yet again, God turned lemons into lemonade.
5) David & Bathsheba. David committed murder of Uriah and adultery with his wife.
-What would the reversal of this have been? Bring Uriah back to life (or at least have protected him in the front lines), and restore Bathsheba to her husband. Certainly the last thing one would expect is that David would get to marry the woman he stole in his lust!
-But no: it’s a redemption, not a reversal. God used the child of David & Bathsheba—not their first one who died, but Solomon—to build the great Temple and to be the wisest king in Israel’s history. Really? The fruit of adultery would be David’s successor in the line of Christ?
Yes, that’s right: God turned lemons into lemonade.
6) Jesus was crucified for our sins. God himself was nailed on the cross by humans who pierced his hands, feet, and side, with metal.
-What would the reversal of this have been? Not just the resurrection, but the complete healing of Jesus’s wounds, to show that the devil had no effect on God’s Anointed.
-But no, it’s a redemption, not a reversal. God kept the scars there to show doubting Thomas—and indeed, the whole world—that He can work through people’s abuse. We believe that Jesus Christ is, today, still seated at the right hand of the Father with a nail-scarred physical body. Though it is a glorified body, it is still physical, and still retains the marks of His passion.
God turns lemons into lemonade, which doesn’t mean that sin has no consequences, but rather that God can transform anything, no matter how bad, into His good.
7) You. You are sinful, broken, and rebellious against God, as we all are.
-What would the reversal of this have been? To revert you to a state of innocence, before you had original sin, like being in the Garden of Eden again.
-But no: it’s a redemption, not a reversal. Your testimony is part of who you are. Whatever sins you may have committed in the past, they are part of your history and will always be there; but the question is, are you going to let God transform your lemons into lemonade? Will your weaknesses show Him to be strong? And will you learn from your mistakes and not do them again, lest you fall into the trap of cheap grace? Remember how costly it was for Jesus to purchase you with His blood. Remember.
