God gave us forgiveness, but Paul encouraged to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12). So, first was grace (a gift) given, and then we are expected to work ourselves up as high as we could possibly get through Christ who strengthens us – by the renewing of our minds. The goal is to conform to the image of the Son, the forgiver. Which is really about the depth to which that we have attained can endure with God. And without holiness no man can see God – talking about being in communion with Him. You may still retain your cherished salvation here on earth, but you cannot enter into that one-on-one communion in His presence where you can talk and be talked to. Nor can two walk together except they be agreed. You are, however, only a stone throw from making it at any time. The one thing preventing you being about what you know: the truth that he that comes to Him, He will in no wise cast out. So appealing, I would say.

Notice that this applies whether you are making a fist-time decision to be born again, or you already can eat strong meat. The rise and fall lead us to graduating into higher levels in Him, which translates to how much He can entrust with us. This is His wisdom! To go to him means to seek reconciliation by acknowledging and confessing the error, until the time of the adoption of the purchased possession: when with His love He shall cover (eliminate), transform, and deliver us from all of our sinful dispositions; and we would be made perfect like Him. Our confidence and commitment to the rules is then fully secured of Him.

Being restored, we have unrestrained fellowship with Him. For then, we shall know, even as we are known of Him – face to face. Only then can we fully partake of that blessing of Abraham, which says, “I am … thy exceeding great reward,” (Genesis 15:1). Notice that the reward of Abraham was to be one with God. Abraham is to be fully restored to his former estate; the position Adam fell from, and even a better one. But he was to wait for the promise: like Joseph, who “Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the LORD tested him” (Ps. 105:19). Even as He admonished the children of Israel, saying, “And thou shall remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep His commandment, or no” (Deuteronomy 9:2).

For us then, our wisdom should work similarly. I must ensure to carefully follow the forgiven in his resolve to play by the rules, especially in the area that was abused. Wisdom therefore tasks the forgiver’s ability to apply godly counsels in dealing with the forgiven, and to systematically restore the forgiven to his former estate, mirroring God’s manner of redemption. Full restoration could be instant or gradual depending. Clearly, this wisdom can only be God’s kind of wisdom for it to be effective; not worldly wisdom. To be able to employ it then, the forgiver must sync with God entirely. For unless the branch abide in the vine, how can it bear good fruit?

I like to see redemption as a rehabilitation process. The forgiven is rehabilitated and then restored to his former estate (Ezekiel 20:34-37). The degree of rehabilitation varies according to how the forgiven responds to prescriptions; that is, his willingness to obey and conform to God’s standards. This is why we would be rewarded according to our doings; to the degree of Christlikeness formed in us and Prayer is indispensable in the process, because that is exactly what Jesus is doing for you and me seating at the right hand of God: until we can fully attain oneness with Him, the forgiver. Literarily, He is pulling us up and up to His level through intercession prayer.