In Microsoft’s operating system, Windows XP, there is a built-in feature called System Restore. System Restore “is used to return your computer to an earlier state if you have a system failure or other major problem with your computer. The point of System Restore is to restore your system to a workable state without you having to reinstall the operating system and lose your data files in the process.”^[1]

 

Don’t you sometimes wish there were a System Restore feature for life, where everything could be easily fixed?

 

When things turn sour in a relationship and you say things you wish you had never said?

 

When you bounce five checks in a row because you were a hundred dollars off in your checkbook?

 

When you look at the burning embers of a once happy family and realize you’ve ruined a good marriage and devastated the lives of your children by your selfishness?

 

When you look back over your tenure as a pastor and realize that it’s littered with the carnage of wasted opportunities or broken relationships?

 

The plan of God, the story that He is writing, is all about God restoring order, harmony, peace, and righteousness into the chaos and confusion of the universe through Jesus Christ. Paul writes about this in Ephesians 1:7-10 (ESV):

 

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

 

This passage is all about God’s “System Restore” for the world. F. F. Bruce said, “It is in Christ that God has planned to gather up the fragmented and alienated universe.”^[2]

 

The analogy breaks down, however, because God is not just putting things back the way they were before the fall. He is doing so much more. He is bringing about a new world where sin and suffering are banished forever and all things are made new in Jesus Christ.

 

Lightfoot comments that this passage is about “the entire harmony of the Universe, which shall no longer contain alien and discordant elements, but of which all the parts shall find their center and bond of union in Christ. Sin and death, sorrow and failure and suffering shall cease. There shall be a new heaven and a new earth.”^[3]

 

And this reconciling work has begun now. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). This is good news. This is gospel! Let’s not lose sight of it in our lives and ministries.

 Brian G. Hedges Making It Personal

• Where is restoration or reconciliation needed in your own life and relationships?

• How does the good news that God is making all things new through Jesus Christ bring hope into your brokenness?

• How can you communicate this hope to others?