Restoration Software

So one of the most compelling themes for me recently has been the Jesus-following idea of restoration.  Restoring something generally implies taking something that was formerly glorious and majestic but has fallen into disrepair and making it glorious again.

We restore old beautiful houses and old beautiful cars all the time.  What does it mean to restore human beings?

The original description of humanity in the beginning is utterly glorious: made in God's image.  I think that the Genesis creation story communicates the core of who God is and who we are, regardless of what we might think about the literal-ness of it all.

God creates everything, and it's all good, good, good and good. And then creates human beings made in his image to be sub-rulers, managers, sub-creators.  He places them in a beautiful place, a perfect place, and he calls them to go to work making it more beautiful, more perfect, more glorious.

Who were we in the beginning? Image-bearers of the most high God.  What does it mean to bear God's image? It means that in every word, every relationships, every project undertaken, every laugh, every hobby, every email, every time we drove a car, every text message, and in every blog post, something of God's enormously good character would be introduced into the world in a fresh way.

A classic way the work of preaching has been described is "truth poured through personality." In the beginning, all image-bearers did this work in every single thing that they did.  Truth, love, grace, creativity, flourishing, generosity, ingenuity, perseverance, resilience, beauty, wisdom, light, justice, holiness all poured through the grand variety of image-bearers personalities who live in this place, all day, every day.

Of course in the biblical story it is sin that corrupts this original calling. We still have this authority over the earth and the ability to either bless it and each other or further corrupt it and each other.  The ruinous results of sin hijacking the power of image-bearing are well-documented in any history book. We are now the run-down houses and cars, weary, decaying, over-run with thorns and thickets and parasites. We were originally glorious, we are now in need of restoration.

Jesus shows us what perfect image-bearing was intended to be from the beginning. He takes up that rightful place as the perfect image of the invisible God. He represents God perfectly in every interaction as he comes up against all the chaos and pain and pride that darkness might throw at him. He reclaims the role of image-bearer that all of us were created to take up in the beginning.

And in his death and resurrection, he makes the way for fallen image-bearers to be restored. Restoration means for fallen image-bearers to re-take their rightful place in the order of the cosmos as people who are alive in this moment, for this day, to pour something of God's eternally wondrous character into this fallen and broken world.

I am a restored image bearer put here in this moment to have God's character be poured through me as I go to work with him creating shalom in this place.  All aspects of my personality, schedule, tasks, and my very being have been purchased by Jesus on the cross that I might once again take my rightful place on this planet. 

That's the restoration software being reloaded into my heart, mind, body, and spirit, to make me more alive and enabling me to participate in the life-giving restoration mission of Jesus.