Remaking, Reforming, and Restoring

"Arise and go down..."

Mar 06, 2024

When we come to Jesus, most of us require work. No matter how life may have looked before, once we receive Him into our hearts there is a need for some remaking, reforming, and restoring. Can I get an amen?

At six years old, I got up and went down to the altar at the church my daddy pastored. Being born to parents in full-time Christian ministry, there was not much serious trouble I could get into as a young girl. Even then, I felt God’s pull to “arise and go down...”

God met me there, and the work began.

At salvation, when we are made new in Christ, the initial remaking is immediate, but additional, ongoing work has also begun. This ongoing work is sanctification—the reforming process of becoming more like Christ in behavior and attitude.

Regardless of the timing or circumstances of our salvation experience, we are most likely introduced to the spiritual disciplines at some point. The practices of Bible reading, prayer, and corporate worship are often the first phase of spiritual formation (reforming) for most Christians.

Spiritual formation has, for me, been a lifelong process. By this, I mean that I have continued to learn and grow (be reformed) in my walk with the Lord. More than once, I have drifted away and returned to God repentant. Perhaps you, like me, are eternally grateful for the restoring power of God in those moments.

Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will announce my words to you. Jeremiah 18.2

The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah often used the word arise in delivering God’s words to His people. In addition, this particular translation of the word is found over 300 times throughout the Old Testament (NASB). This tells us the term “arise” would have been readily understood by Jeremiah’s audience. In this passage, however, the use of the word is from God to Jeremiah.

The meaning: Arise—rise, get up, stand up, come to fruition, endure, belong to, stay fixed.

The Old Testament book of Jeremiah serves to inspire and guide us today. The key is understanding what its words would have meant to the original audience. (This is always where we should begin when reading the Old Testament—to learn what it meant to the original hearers.)

In Jeremiah’s day, “society was deteriorating economically, politically, and spiritually. God’s word was deemed offensive.” The people hearing his messages were mostly hostile or indifferent. Jeremiah repeatedly found himself threatened.1

While the modern church is not ancient Israel, those of us in the American church can relate to a society that seems to be deteriorating right before our eyes.

God’s word to Jeremiah.

In Jeremiah 18, God gave instructions through a parable (a short story used to illustrate a lesson). The Lord told Jeremiah, “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house…” The parable says that when Jeremiah arrived he saw the potter doing his work at the wheel. “But the jar [of clay] he was making did not turn out as the potter had hoped…” (vv. 2-4)

Pause for a moment.

Do you see anything of yourself in this parable? I sure do. Over the years, since that six-year-old girl (me) got up and went down to the altar, the Potter has had to do some reforming and restoring with me up on the wheel. How kind is our God to allow us to begin again?

The potter in the parable represents God. First, He spoke to Jeremiah, telling him to arise and go. Jeremiah was obedient to the command. Then, God spoke to Jeremiah through the scene at the potter’s house, revealing a warning to be communicated to the nation of Judah, Jeremiah’s audience.

…so he crushed [the jar] into a lump of clay again and started over. Jeremiah 18.4

In the story, Judah was the clay—a rebellious and sinful people given every opportunity to repent and turn back to God. “Oh, Judah. Here is your chance to climb on the Potter’s wheel and let Him remake you. Be reformed. Be restored.”

But Judah failed to heed the warning. The Scripture says the people told Jeremiah, “Don’t waste your breath. We will continue to live as we want…” (v.12) Eventually, Judah was carried off to Babylonian captivity, as predicted.

What are we to take from an Old Testament story such as this?

If this parable and Jeremiah’s message were specifically for his original audience, what does it matter to us?

First, understand that a large majority of Old Testament prophecy was given to and for the original audience, at that time in history. To drive this point home, “Less than 2 percent of Old Testament prophecy is messianic. Less than 5 percent specifically describes the new-covenant age. Less than 1 percent concerns events yet to come in our time.”2 So, the majority is not specific to us…but read on.

That said, there is another element to reading Scripture that we must consider. It is that God’s word “is alive and active”(Hebrews 4.12). When we read any part of His word—Epistles, Old Testament Narratives, Gospels, The Law, Prophets, Wisdom—through the working of the Holy Spirit, that word comes alive to us. This is a miraculous element not to be ignored.

His living word has the power to bring insight, encouragement, conviction, or whatever God deems we need at the moment.

Today, I am struck that Jeremiah did arise and go down as God asked him to. He was obedient to the call. This reminds me of the importance of obeying God, still today. This can apply to many facets and opportunities in life.

For others, you may be impacted by the parable of the potter and the clay. This may cause you to feel the need to fall at the feet of Jesus—to climb up on the Potter’s wheel and let Him remake you, reform you, or restore you.

Whichever the case, or if He reveals something else to you in the Scriptures, may we always be willing to arise and go down.

“God, have your way in me.”