This is better than restoration …

There’s a lot of Christian leaders putting a focus on God restoring things. Fortunately for us, they’re often missing the point, for if God only restored things to the way He originally intended things to be, we would miss out BIG time!

God does want to restore some things. He also wants to go beyond that and transform other things, like me and you. And then comes an amazing aspect of grace when God changed something so big it’s mind-numbing to consider.

If you look at the creation story in the first few chapters of Genesis, you see that God created this magnificent planet to be our dwelling place, and located the first man and woman within a paradise of a garden. Life would have been unbelievably different than it is today if we human beings wouldn’t have introduced sin into this world.

But that first couple did choose to sin … and so have all the rest of us, since that beginning,

Originally, God would sometimes stroll through the Garden. That’s a picture of an intimate interaction with God that Adam and Eve had that is very different from the kind of interaction we have with our Creator today.

However, if God were to simply restore things to the way He originally intended, we would miss out on what He now offers and intends for His children.

God’s response to our sin wasn’t limited to a boundless love that brought the grace of a Savior to provide for our salvation. It also included a change in how we will be able to relate with our Creator in the future. Look closely at these words of Jesus in John 14:1-3:

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. 2 There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.”

God’s response to our sin was a grace so deep and so rich that it went beyond saving us to drawing us even closer! He adopted us as His own children, and has now designed an eternity of being with Him. Instead of simply restoring us to an earthly paradise with some direct interaction, He’s preparing His own dwelling place to take us in so we can hang out with Him in His house … forever!

God’s fix to our sin gives us an outcome that is far better for us than His original plan of creation.

That’s how awesome grace is!

It exceeds restoration. It even surpasses transformation. It is the whole breadth and width and depth of God’s perfect love. It is being able to be with Him, where He is, forever.

I’ll take that over restoration any day!

Scotty