Restoration

Paul says in Philippians 1:6 – “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” In this verse Paul is talking about the last part of the Gospel message: that God is restoring what sin destroyed.

God does not just save us, he also restores us. At salvation we are transformed into new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17), set free from sin (Romans 6:18), and made righteous (Romans 5:19, 2 Corinthians 5:21). If this is the case why don’t we see lives that are changed or made perfect? Why do we continue to struggle with sin?

While our standing before God is that of a person declared righteous, we have still not been made perfect. We continue to struggle with sin and worship idols. But the difference is that our struggle is not alone or without hope. The Holy Spirit resides in us and is taking us through a restoration process that continues throughout our Christian lives (2 Corinthians 3:18, Hebrews 13:20-21). God is making us Holy as He is holy, and one day Jesus will return and the restoration process will be complete.

So the question is then, “what do we do in the meantime?” We don’t want to continue to struggle with sin because we know the damage it does, but we seem to be unable to stop. Why is this the case and how do we change?

How Does the Gospel Change Us?

Tim Keller says, “Sin cannot simply be resisted at the volitional level through mere will power, but on the other hand, we are not helpless victims. Sin must primarily be rooted out at the motivational level through application of gospel truth.”

We trust God for our salvation, but when we battle sin and seek to live righteously we often trust in ourselves, our good works, our will, or something else to finish the work that God started. These methods are insufficient at best and at worst they are functional saviors that will disappoint, for they do not have the power of the Gospel to root out sin and destroy our idols. What we need is to have the Gospel expose our idols and point us back to Jesus, the true Savior with the power to make us righteous.