Restoration – September 25, 2020

[Jesus said] “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Matthew 18:18

Restoration

Dr. Robert Morin transforms lives. There simply are no two ways about it.

Dr. Morin specializes in reconstructive surgery. Every year, he gathers a medical team and travels to a poverty-stricken part of the world. There, he and the team offer to restore the faces of children—children whose faces have been broken for a wide variety of reasons.

The waiting lines are long to see Dr. Morin’s team. The work is exhausting. It’s not uncommon for the staff to labor from sunup to sundown for six days straight. Family after family. Face after face. Heartbreaking story after heartbreaking story. Procedure after procedure. After each one, however, there are tears—tears of gratitude from the families; tears of joy from the medical team. The tears come easily. After all, everyone there knows that such a restoration will transform that child’s life.

Imagine you are part of Dr. Morin’s team. Imagine how it must feel to have in your hands the means to change a life. According to Jesus, we do.

In love, Jesus saw our lives in all of its brokenness—lives broken by our own sin. He knew we were helpless to put the pieces back together. And so he came to us. He became one of us. In our place, he lived a perfect life—sinless and holy. On our behalf, he carried the entire sorry mess of our wrongs to the cross, blotting them out in his blood. Then he rose from death. Now he comes to each of us through his living Word. He calls us to repentance. And in his gospel message of forgiveness, he brings us healing. He brings us restoration. In himself, he puts the pieces of our lives back together.

But as he does, he also entrusts us with something extraordinary. He entrusts us with that same message of restoration. He says that because he has paid for the sins of the whole world, we have the right to announce forgiveness to repentant sinners–to restore their relationship with God.

And the beauty of this restoration is that it does not simply last a lifetime. It lasts forever.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, thank you for your gospel message of restoration. Move me to bring your healing to a broken soul. Amen.