How Jesus Restores

esus gives us an incredible promise. He tells us we can experience eternal life and be restored to a right relationship with God. That is beyond wonderful! Eternal life means far more than just living forever. It means being restored in our relationships with God, others, and ourselves.

In the Bible, God promises that He will never leave us or forsake us. When we are restored through Jesus, we have access to the Father's wisdom and strength in times of trouble, joy, sickness, fear and doubt.

Jesus restores our relationship with God through His sacrifice on the cross. Jesus loves us and wants to restore our relationship with Him. He makes a way for us to have a true and lasting relationship with God that will last forever.

Jesus Restores Us to God

​​We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) because of Adam and Eve's disobedience in the Garden of Eden. The consequences of their sin were devastating because they were the first human beings, and they passed on to all their descendants a sinful nature (Ephesians 2:1-3). When we choose to ignore God's commands, we also choose to break His heart.

God is perfect, just and holy, and He cannot allow any imperfection in His presence. Therefore, He had to deal with our sin problem. He provided a way for us to be restored to the perfect relationship we once had with Him. That way is Jesus Christ.

The Bible tells us that Jesus was born of a virgin (Matthew 1:18), lived a sinless life (Hebrews 4:15), and died as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 2:2). Because He was God as well as man, His perfect life offered God full payment for our sins, restoring us to a right relationship with Him.

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

Jesus came to restore our relationship with God. He came to show us how to be in right relationship with him. With the help of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, we can now be reconciled with God and have right standing with him because of what Jesus did for us.

This is so good. It's so important that we understand that Jesus, our High Priest, came to restore our relationship with God. We can't leave it at that thought though, we also need to understand why it is so important to have a relationship with God.

There are many reasons why we should have a close relationship with God and one is because he knows us better than anyone else does. Because he knows us intimately, he knows what is best for us and what we truly need in order for us to live satisfying lives. Additionally, He wants to give us the things that will bring us true happiness and the resources that we need in order for us to live fruitful lives.

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures.” (Psalms 23:1-2)

When we don't have a close relationship with God, it can lead to devastating consequences. The problem of sin comes from not knowing God's desires for our lives and not following his commands (1 John 3:4). This leads people astray from the purpose for which they were intended because they don't know how their lives

Jesus Restores Right Relationship with Ourselves

Most of us have a warped image of ourselves. We don't see what God sees. We don't know who we are because we can only see the world through our own eyes. We've never been able to see ourselves with God's eyes. Our sins prevent that from happening, but Jesus came to change all that.

God created us in His image, and He knows us better than we know ourselves. Because of Adam and Eve's original rebellion against God, at the core of our being is a darkness that prevents us from seeing ourselves as God sees us—in His image and likeness. However, by His sacrifice on the cross, Jesus has brought light and freedom to all who believe in Him.

Because He rose again, Jesus (the son of man), has given back to all those who believe in Him their ability to see themselves as God sees them—as sons and daughters who are made in His image and likeness. This restoration is powerful and life changing!

You have been created for a purpose by the One who loves you most. Even if you have had a misstep in the past (even Peter denied Jesus), don’t allow that to stop you from getting things right with God (see John 21). He wants you to realize your true potential so that you can enjoy a whole new level of relationship with Him!

Jesus Restores Right Relationship with Others

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” (Romans 15:13)

Jesus came to restore the relationship with God and then, through us, to restore the relationship with others. The word of God teaches us in Genesis 3, that this is the opposite of what happened in the Garden of Eden. Consider it like this: The fall of humanity was a sin of rebellion (self-centeredness). Now, the gospel is a story of restoration (God-centeredness).

Jesus came to restore the relationship with God and then, through us, to restore the relationship with others.

As followers of Christ Jesus, we can and should be actively restoring the right relationship with other human beings. Here's how restorative justice works:

Right Relationship With Self

In order to have the right relationship with others, we have to have the right relationships with ourselves. That means being at peace with our past. We must not let our past define who we are or determine our future. And we must not let our sin define us either.

Right Relationship With Others

Jesus revealed the Father to us through His life and teachings. He showed us that God is love and how we can have a right relationship with others, which reflects God's love. What this means is that we can treat others as our brother or sister in Christ (Matthew 22:39). Jesus had a perfect example of how we should relate to others, but He also modeled for us what it looks like to change relationships for the better when they're in a bad state. This was true when Jesus entered a relationship with His disciples, who were suffering from spiritual blindness and rebellion, and even after being betrayed by one of them (Judas), Jesus still demonstrated unconditional love for Judas (John 13:1-20).

Jesus' love was not limited to some people but extended to everyone, including sinners like prostitutes and tax collectors (Matthew 21:31-32). It was this love that led people who never experienced God's forgiveness firsthand to believe in Him (John 12:37-40). We can learn from Jesus that our greatest concern shouldn't be how we've wronged someone else, but rather how we can restore the relationship with them. God gives grace to all of us because of what Jesus did on the cross and in the grave.

Live Life Restored

Jesus Christ came into this world to restore our relationship with God. He did not simply bring God's judgment and wrath. He came so that we could know God and walk with Him in love, forgiveness, and acceptance. Jesus came to restore what was lost in the fall of humankind. He came to restore us to a right relationship with God and with ourselves. He came so that we could forgive others and be forgiven. Jesus is the way to true restoration with the Creator of the Universe.

Jesus Christ's death on the cross is the ultimate act of love for us. We are fully accepted by our Creator when we accept Christ as our Savior. We are forgiven fully when we acknowledge that sin has separated us from a holy God, but that Jesus conquered sin for us on the cross (1 John 3:5). When we put our faith in Christ, He removes all of our sins from before God (2 Corinthians 5:17).

By this we know we have a restored relationship with God, when we realize we are loved unconditionally, fully accepted and forgiven in Christ, and extend that same grace and love to others. Through this, the Lord restores life in us and through us.