The JOY of Restoration and The Gospel

Guilty YouTube pleasure confession: I LOVE watching these videos (that have no music or talking) of these guys taking old rusted out “things” and restoring them to their former glory. A sort of ASMR video for adults.

For instance, I’m watching one right now where he is restoring an old rusted out NIC projector from the 50’s that projected old Disney cartoons (as well as others) on the wall.

I can’t even imagine how long it takes someone to restore such things or what skills they had to learn to take something that looks broken and worthless and restore it to a place where someone would look at this and call it “beautiful”. Maybe even offer to buy at a high price.

I can’t even imagine the amount of patience required to to do this kind of work.

Having to take the whole thing apart…

having to buff out the rust…

having to sand it down…

having to rebuild (from scratch) broken pieces that you simply cannot buy anymore…

having to paint and polish it…

and having to finally put the whole thing back together again.

If I had to guess, these guys not only have the patience and the skill, but they also have the LOVE and passion to do this. What looks like a monumental task for someone like me who couldn’t build something out of popsicle sticks, is something that brings great joy to these guys…something they look forward to doing. It isn’t a burden for them.

These “restorers” could’ve looked at these broken and rusted items and cast them in the trash like most of us would do, but they saw potential. They saw value. They saw an opportunity to bring new life to a broken thing.

You see, much like these guys, we have a Creator who has the skill and patience to take the broken versions of us and dismantle it, buff it up, rebuild the things that can’t be salvaged, give us a new coat of paint, and put us back together again and make us beautiful once more.

Not only does our Creator have the skill and patience, but He also has the LOVE and passion to restore us. In other words, our Creator takes JOY in restoring us. It isn’t a burden to Him. He could’ve left us to our own devices and let us rust, break, wear away and be tossed aside. But instead He offered to pick up our broken pieces and in great joy restore us to the very thing He wanted for us all along.

And how did the Creator of all things choose to do this?

Through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ!

At the beginning of humanity, our ancestors Adam and Eve experienced a relationship with our Creator that was perfect in all ways. They walked with Him personally. However, they royally screwed it up for all of us. They thought that, in their pride, they could become gods themselves. God, in His infinite mercy, created a way for them in that moment (despite their treason and sin against God) through a sacrificial system. This sacrificial system was only an echo of what would come.

For a long time man operated under the sacrificial system to cover their own sins, but time and time again we proved just how incapable we were of “restoring ourselves” and being faithful to our Creator. God knew this would happen (He wasn’t blind sided by it at all), and it was never His plan that this should be it.

From the very first moment of the fall of humanity, God put into place the steps to restore us through another sacrifice…a perfect sacrifice…one that only He could provide. God was patient, and he had the knowledge and skill to provide us with a perfect restoration…and that was through the Lord Jesus Christ!

Jesus lived a perfect life.

He fulfilled hundreds of Old Testament prophecies concerning His life AND death.

He died on a cross…

lay dead for 3 DAYS…

but rose again on the third day conquering sin AND death!

All for what? To restore our relationship with our Creator, and not so we could just have eternal life (that’s certainly part of it) but so that we could live a restored and redeemed life NOW!

This is the good news! THIS is the gospel.

According to Isaiah 53:10-11 (prophesying of the coming Messiah – Jesus), God took JOY in restoring us through the death and resurrection of His own Son.

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities.

Our Creator isn’t looking down on you with hate (for our sin, yes), but with love and with joy because when He sees you He sees His Son. He sees the very thing He always wanted from us – a child of God.