What’s the best way to find spiritual restoration in your life?
Have you ever felt like you needed some spiritual restoration? I sure have.
Several weeks ago I had a wonderful conversation with a new podcast listener, Al, who lives in England. He was looking on Spotify for podcasts about the Bible and came across The Bible Speak to You. He has a job where he can listen to music or podcasts at work and so he’s been listening to some past episodes of the show.
One of the ones he really appreciated was Episode 227: God Still Loves You.
Here’s what Al wrote me:
I shared your ” God still loves you” talk with my boss and it moved him to tears as it had me . We have been going through a really tough time at work, needing new commissions and your teaching has been helping us. This morning the money came in! Thanking God for his provision!
As we talked I learned some pretty cool stuff about Al’s background. His mother restored art, or the more correct term may be she conserved art. And Al has done this as well. She would get a piece of art that was dirty with old, discolored varnish. Before she could make any needed repairs, she would have to clean off the dirt and grime along with the varnish.
Al said, and I loved the way he put it, her whole purpose was to uncover the artist’s original intention for the painting. If you’ve ever seen a video of someone cleaning an old painting, it’s really cool. Once all the grime is off, you see the original colors the artist painted with.
As we talked Al and I realized this process of restoring a painting as close as possible to its original condition is a wonderful metaphor for the spiritual restoration that takes place in our lives when we follow Christ and let the Holy Spirit guide us.
Cleaning an old painting
Have you ever seen a video of someone cleaning an old painting? It’s amazing how they can clean off so much dirt and grime, and all the darkened varnish. It’s a very gentle and delicate process. They use some cleaning solvents and usually a tiny cotton swab.
It’s really a fascinating process. Here’s a short YouTube video of someone cleaning an old oil painting.
So I’ve been thinking about this process of cleaning a painting and getting down to the original colors underneath as a metaphor for the way God removes the dirt and grime of sin in our lives, and dissolves the old cracked varnish of past hurts.
God’s spiritual restoration
When God heals and restores us, it’s just that, a restoration to the original condition of how He created us in His image and likeness.
Have you ever felt like one of those old paintings that’s covered with years of dirt, grime, and varnish that’s darkened over time and is full of tiny little cracks? You can still see the painting underneath, but you can’t see the vibrancy of the original color. Sometimes it’s even so bad you can barely see the shapes and forms at all.
Sometimes, in the way we see and think about ourselves, we let things from the past like hurts and fears, sins we’ve committed and bad choices we’ve made, pride or self-depreciation, or whatever, cover up the way God originally created us.
So how do we start this restoration process for ourselves? How do we even know we need to be restored? Sometimes we get so used to the accumulated layers of stuff from the past, we’ve forgotten the original vibrancy God created us with and don’t realize it has become dimmed.
It often takes us getting uncomfortable in a situation like this before we realize we need help. And once you realize you actually need help, that you need to rediscover the way God created you and live accordingly, it becomes a matter of humbly asking God to show you what you need to do, and be aware of what God is doing.
When you turn to God and begin, in a fresh way, to follow Christ in your daily life, this begins the process of cleaning away the materialistic, sinful, self-focused attitudes that may have shaped your life.
Spiritual restoration is sometimes fast, sometimes slow
Let’s come back to the metaphor of a person restoring a piece of art. When an expert hand gently rubs an old dirty painting with a cotton swab dipped in the appropriate cleaning solvent, the dirt and the discolored varnish are slowly removed, which reveals the original work of art underneath.
In a way, this is how we are restored spiritually. Christ washes away, bit by bit, everything that is not like the way God originally created you, in His image and likeness.
Over the years, I have met people who have been completely transformed when they accept Christ and begin to follow his teachings. They feel like they are a completely new person in the blink of an eye.
Others I’ve met, and this is true for me as well, have had a more gradual transformation.
Newness of life
But in every case there’s a sense of newness to life, a spiritual vibrancy rediscovered.
This is exactly what Paul is talking about when he says
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV
You may be thinking: Hey, wait a minute James. Paul says we’re made new, but you’re saying we’re being restored to our original condition as God’s image and likeness. Which one is it?
That’s really a great question. That use to puzzle me too. But the more I’ve tried to get beneath the surface of these Bible verses, it seems to me, and don’t take my word for it, think this through for yourself, that when someone is transformed by Christ, it may feel like to them they are a whole new person.
But from God’s perspective, they have just discovered how He originally made them. They were always God’s image and likeness. They just weren’t aware of it. It does seem new to them. But it’s not new to God.
Everything becomes new
Let’s come back to this verse from 2 Corinthians, when you’re in Christ, you’re a new creation. The old passes away. Everything becomes new.
So what’s really going on here? Does God take a materialistic, selfish, sinful person, or someone who has been harmed and abused, someone who has made a mess of their lives, and turn that mess into one of His loved children when they accept Christ?
Or is God actually removing the dirt and grime, to use the painting restoration metaphor, and uncovering what was there all along, one of His sons or daughters, originally created in His image and likeness and now seen that way?
Some churches teach a theology that insists mankind, and therefore every single person ever on earth, was, is, and will be born into a state of sin. They are convinced that your original nature, since birth, is inherently sinful and can only be redeemed by Christ.
Well, I agree with the redeemed by Christ part, but if sinfulness is our original nature, who would want to be restored to that? God’s will is just the opposite of this. God wants us to be free from sin, because it is not part of our original nature or identity.
The secret to spiritual restoration
The Bible makes it clear that our true identity and original nature is how God created us in the very beginning, in His image and likeness.
If your starting point of how you see yourself is as a sinner and/or a victim, it’s going to be a lot harder to let go of those thoughts about yourself, because that’s who you think you are at your core being.
The secret to spiritual restoration is not that God turns a sinner into a saint. He removes the sin, the hurts, the fears, whatever it is that’s covered up God’s original creation, because these things are not part of the original way God created you.
Paul talks about this in his letter to the Ephesians.
Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy. Ephesians 4:21-24 NLT
Again, it seems new to us, but to God it’s what’s always been true about us.
Spiritual restoration reveals your true identity
Paul does not say we’re trying to fix up our sinful nature and try to be better through self-will and self- determination.
If you can put off the sinful nature, that means it’s not part of who you really are. You’re not giving up something that’s part of you. We’re not trying to patch ourselves up or paint over our sins.
Someone restoring a dirty painting, does not paint over the dirt and try to guess what the original colors were to paint with. If he’s good at his craft, he knows exactly how to remove the dirt and isn’t satisfied until all the dirt is removed.
Just so, Christ doesn’t cover over the mistakes we’ve made. He doesn’t tolerate anything unlike God to remain in us. Christ knows he can remove all the dirt and grime, all the sinful nature, even the inclination or desire to sin. Christ removes all the hurts from the past, the guilt and the shame and whatever else discolors our true colors as a child of God.
Spiritual restoration going on now
Now, sometimes this may be a very slow process. And sometimes it happens more rapidly, as I already mentioned. But this spiritual restoration process is going on right now. Christ is always restoring you, is always uncovering and revealing God’s original intention in how He created you.
I want to come back to this unfortunate idea, which some people really struggle with, the idea they are inherently a sinner. This is a pretty heavy burden to carry around. It darkens every thought and action you have. Guilt and shame are just a breath away.
If this sinfulness is your original state of being, the way God originally created you, restoration would mean returning to and remaining in this sinful condition and negative mindset about yourself.
If you believe God created you as a sinner, or inclined to sin, it would sort of be like a painter either mixing in dirt to his paint before he painted a piece of art, or immediately after he finished a painting, to smear dirt all over the wet paint so it became part of the original painting itself. The original work of art would be flawed.
Well, in this case, or course, you could argue that was the artist’s intent. Restoration in this case would mean leaving the dirt in and on the painting.
God’s original intent for you
But was God’s original intent for you to be full of sin, uncertainty, and hurts from the past? If that is our original identity, then where is the hope to find freedom from those things? We would have to change who we are from the way God created us.
But when we can see that the mistakes we’ve made and the things people have done to harm us, are not part of the way God originally created us or them, then restoration to our this original state of creation, becomes possible.
I love this verse from Psalms
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Psalm 51:12 NIV
What I see here is that the joy of God’s salvation, God’s wholeness, God’s saving and redeeming presence are part of our original identity and relationship with God, part of our birthright as a child of God. And it can be restored to us. We can rediscover that.
Complete spiritual restoration
Think of experiencing the complete restoration in your life to all God made you to be as His image and likeness. Complete freedom from all sin and inadequacy. Complete joy and love. Complete wholeness.
God says to Jeremiah,
But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,’ declares the LORD, Jeremiah 30:17 NIV
What a beautiful promise. For me, the key here is that health will be restored. Health is the original condition of who you are as a child of God. It’s part of your spiritual identity. Unfortunately we sometimes lose sight of our divine right to health and the canvas of our lives gets covered with the grime of disease and disability.
An illustration
What if, 200 years ago, a prankster bought a painting from a well-known artist, and painted an open wound on the right hand of the person in the painting? He never showed it to anyone until the artist passed on, but then he displayed it openly.
No one who looked at the painting knew this was not part of the original. Over the years, art critics would discuss why the artist chose to depict his subject this way. Think of all the theories they’d come up with. Theories that were never part of the artist’s original intention. They’re trying to explain something that never happened.
Now, 200 years later, the painting is examined more carefully and the discovery is made that the wound was not part of the original painting. The piece of art is professionally restored to its original condition, cleaning off not just the dirt and old varnish, but the added image of a wound.
What a difference that would make in the way you thought of painting.
Spiritual restoration to health
Let’s think of this little allegory in light of what God says to Jeremiah, in the verse I just mentioned. “I will restore you to health and heal your wounds.”
God’s promise to Jeremiah is also a promise to you and me. God is willing and able to restore us to health, to reveal and return us to our original wholeness as His children. That wholeness and health is there, it’s just been covered up.
What if God restoring health to us is like the image of the wound being removed from the original painting?
Is it God’s will for you to be restored to health? Yes. Absolutely. How do we know that for sure? Is it just wishful thinking? If it’s God’s will for everyone to be healed, why isn’t everyone healed?
These aren’t the easiest questions to answer, but the best way to get a glimpse into God’s will is to look at the way Jesus lived his life, with a special focus on his healing works.
Jesus made it clear that he came to do God’s will, not his own will.
I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will. John 5:30 NLT
Jesus always did God’s will
When you look at the fact that Jesus healed everyone who asked him for healing, through the lens of Jesus always doing God’s will, it quickly becomes clear that it must have been God’s will for everyone to be healed.
If that’s what God’s will was then, then it has to be God’s will now. It is always God’s will for you to be restored to, to become aware of, your original wholeness as a child of God.
Now, if you’re thinking way in the back of your mind that you don’t deserve to be healed or that it might not be God’s will for you to be restored to health (or any other aspect of how God originally created you in His image and likeness), these thoughts are like dirt, or something added to a painting that keeps you from seeing the original intention of the artist. This negative way of thinking about yourself prevents you from seeing God original intention for you as pure and whole and free.
Collective spiritual restoration
Every time you experience a spiritual restoration, every time you discover how God originally made you in His image and likeness, it adds to something much bigger going on.
There’s a collective restoration taking place way down deep in the heart of humanity. God is working on an individual level to bring restoration, but He’s also working on all of us collectively to redeem and restore His whole creation to its original beauty and glory.
The original beauty and glory of God’s entire creation are still here, always here. We just need to remove what is hiding them. It’s Christ that shines the light of truth in the world that dissolves this darkness.
Peter makes this very point when he’s talking to the crowd after he and John healed the lame man at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. Peter says, referring to Jesus,
For he [Jesus] must remain in heaven until the time for the final restoration of all things, as God promised long ago through his holy prophets. Acts 3:21 NLT
In other words, we need to remember and bear witness to the fact that Christ is, and remains, in heaven, at the right hand of the throne of God. This is a metaphor to explain the power and authority of Christ. And the ultimate result of Christ’s spiritual power and authority, his presence in heaven, is “the final restoration of all things.”
Kingdom of heaven at hand
Now, that doesn’t mean Christ is just way off in heaven somewhere and not with us right now and always. Jesus promised us that,
the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Matthew 4:17 NKJV
That means Christ, in heaven, is with us here right now as well.
The secret of spiritual restoration is the simple fact that God originally created you in all glory, beauty, purity, and wholeness. Whatever has covered that up is not part of God’s original intention for you, any more than layers of dirt on a painting are part of an artist’s original intention for a piece of art.
God does not change you from the way He originally made you. He removes everything that is not original to how He created you.
God is now, and every moment, restoring the fullness and glory of His entire creation, individually and collectively.
Do you need some spiritual restoration in your life? Do you need to get back to how God originally created you?
Let Christ gently clean you, inside and out. Be willing to let go of anything and everything that does not belong to you as a child of God, made in His image and likeness. And rejoice in this.
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James Early, the Jesus Mindset Coach, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and podcaster. He conducts Bible workshops online and in person. His focus is on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus by embracing the mindset of Christ in daily life. Contact him here.
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Bible References
2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Ephesians 4:21-24 NLT
21 Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him,
22 throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.
23 Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.
24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.
Psalm 51:12 NIV
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Jeremiah 30:17 NIV
17 But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,’ declares the LORD,
John 5:30 NLT
30 I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will.
Acts 3:21 NLT
21 For he [Jesus] must remain in heaven until the time for the final restoration of all things, as God promised long ago through his holy prophets.
Matthew 4:17 NKJV
17 the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
