Restoration

When Rebecca and I were first married, we bought an old desk at an auction.  It needed a lot of work to be restored.  There were layers of paint where previous owners covered up the deteriorating look of the original wood.  It wasn’t easy scraping off the old paint, we used paint thinners and removers, I bought a scraper and even then it that took many hours, and lots of muscle to peal away each layer.  When we finally reached the wood it was a beautiful cherry wood desk, with tongue and grove drawers.  I sanded the wood, trying to remove scratches and dents inflicted upon it from years of use.  When it was finished it didn’t look too bad, but being the first attempt at refinishing, I was not able to bring it back to its original luster.

Eph. 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”  We are God’s refinishing project.  In the beginning God created, in Christ He is recreating, making right what man banged up and destroyed.  We had been sold to sin, buried under years of paint and neglect.  On the cross he paid for our sin, bought us out of darkness and slavery, and now has begun the process of stripping away the layers of our attempts to restore ourselves.  Not an easy undertaking, but with God all things are possible. 

If in the beginning God was the source, people created for relationships, God was the boss, and we all had roles, how has the new life in Christ begun to restore us to that condition? 

God is the source: Colossians 1:16b -18. “All things have been created through Him and for Him.  17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.  18 He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.” In Christ we are once again brought into a relationship with the Father, where we understand that we are not the source of all good things.  James 1:17 “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.” 

Relationships:  Gal. 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”  The things that have separated us from the time of the fall are brought together in Christ.  We can now enter into loving, caring, relationships, because we have a new perspective of what is important.  Instead of seeking our own will, we seek the will of God, and the good of others.

God is the boss:  Rom. 6:17 “But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed.”  Since the fall, man has shunned God, and set himself up as the arbiter of what is right and good.  In Christ, we come to understand once again that God is the boss, and that his rules are meant for our good.  We come to realize that God is for us, and if God is for us who can stand against us? 

We all have roles:  1Cor. 12:4   “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.  5 And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord.  6 There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. 7 But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”  Ever since the garden men and women have fought over the right to be the one in charge, but dominance was never God’s intention.  He has given different roles to men, women, and children.  In Christ our roles become honorable, they become respectable, and they become an extension of who are.  Most of all, our roles are tied to our gifts, and those gifts are from God and are good.

As God strips away the layers of false teaching, thinking, and behaving, He begins to reveal an image, one that bears his stamp.  This life is about the restoration process, about the process of transforming us into the image of Christ Jesus, “Col. 3:10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.”  I’m just saying….