Restored by Grace

By Fred Wikoff

My wife likes collecting and restoring antiques. She has two dolls from the mid teens that set facing each other in a basket on top of an old treadle sowing machine in our recreation room. A Christian friend initially had them as a child and my wife restored them for her. But out of love the friend gave them back to my wife because she wanted her to have them when she died.

The friend passed away early this year, but the dolls remain as a testimony to the many years of a dear and happy friendship. They entice visions of simpler times, crammed with shared activities and fun filled days. But most of all they bring back the joy our friend expressed upon seeing her dolls restored to their earlier splendor.

People restore things for many different reasons. My wife restored the dolls out of love for our friend. Old paintings, cars, and houses are restored to preserve them, or simply to make them look or run better. My computer has a restore program on it, so, if the computer stops working correctly, I can restore it to a time when it was running properly. Whatever the reason, it often seems that we spend as much time restoring things from the past as we do inventing new things.

This should not be totally surprising. Man is noted for resisting change, and restoration could be said to be a backhanded, if not covert, way of resisting it. But at the same time it also gives us a worthwhile feeling of accomplishment, similar to making something new, and preserves the best of the past to help us progress toward the future.

Christ’s Church has a long tradition of blending the past with the future. Martin Luther and the protestant reformation aside, the Church has historically sought to restore itself. Even the Apostles saw the need to warn straying believers to stop following false doctrines and teachings and return to the truth of Christ. (See Galatians 1:6-9)

In fact restoration could be said to be an underlying theme throughout the entire Bible. Ever since man let sin separate him from God in the garden, he has tried to restore his former relationship, but failed, and continues to fail miserably. He fails because he does not have the power to free himself from sin.

How did man get into such a dire predicament? God certainly didn’t create him this way. In the beginning man had dominion over the earth. He had a special relationship with God built upon trust and understanding. The world was created for man and he was the boss as long as he trusted God. (See Genesis 1:26-28)
Then Satan came into the picture. You know the story. In one bit of disloyalty and greedy ambition, man transferred his trust in God, along with his dominion over the world, to Satan; and sin was born.

Sin can be likened to a black hole in outer space. Once anything gets within the grasp of its gravitational field it’s powerless to free itself, and is sucked hopelessly inward with no hope of escape. This is mans predicament in regards to sin. He is caught in sin’s deadly grip and can’t free himself, and faces certain death without God’s intervention: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23

Fortunately, what man could not do on his own God did for him. That’s why we call salvation a gift. Christ death on the cross provides a way for us to be free from sin and restore our lost relationship with the Father, and escape spiritual death. He entered into heaven, “…to appear in the presence of God on our behalf . . . once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” (See Hebrews 9:24-26)

The dolls that my wife restored will in time deteriorate into oblivion unless someone else again restores them. Christ’s victory over sin and the subsequent restoration of our access to the Father is for eternity.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

“Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Ephesians 5:1-2

Fred Wikoff writes from Eugene, Oregon. EugeneSpud@msn.com