Without a doubt, the human being rushes to degradation and urgently requires a new time of restoration to recover his original image with his perfect likeness in God.

From the moment when man was fired from the Garden of Eden, and separated from the tree of life that was in his midst, Adam had children in his own image, disobedient and selfish, and not in the image of God. From that moment, the human being fell more and more into depravity, until God decided to destroy the race and start over with only one family, that of Noah.

The rainbow covenant (Genesis 9:13) was one of the most important of the many signs given by God during this period, a sign through which he indicated his desire to restore what was lost in Adam's time and Eve. In fact, this is an eternal reminder of God's plan to restore, after the test, the human being according to his purpose.

With Abraham's call (Gen 12), that plan began to develop, since God's purpose was manifested through a specific individual. The "Great Nation" that promised to prosper through Abraham began to take shape with Israel, but was destined to become the church, the house of God. Although there are many prophecies dedicated to Israel, we can be sure that from the beginning God had the church in his heart regarding its fulfillment. The church was not a simple premonition in the divine mind, nor was the promise of the Messiah: Jesus Christ.

This leads us to understand that within the plan of God, the urgent process of restoration that God seeks must focus on both the individual and collective aspect, that is, with the church.

What does individual restoration mean?

Perhaps the best way to summarize all that restoration means to the individual believer would be to invoke a simple word used in both the Old Testament and the New: "life." In Deuteronomy 30:20, Moses says of the Lord: "He is life to you." In Colossians 3: 4, Paul speaks of "Christ, your life." And Jesus says: "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it in abundance" (Jn 10:10).

Restoration, for the individual, means replacing spiritual death with spiritual life. Ezekiel 36: 25-28 graphically describes this substitution. But not only do we receive a new type and a new quality of life, but we must also grow in it. In many verses we see this process of growth reflected as a work of the Holy Spirit (Jn 16:23; 17:22; Ro 8:13; Flp 1: 6; Col 1:27).

What does the collective or church restoration mean?

For the church as a whole, restoration means more than becoming a duplicate of the New Testament church. Remember that restoration means the creation of something that exceeds the original.

First, restoration means that the church will show the kind of love Jesus manifested during his ministry on earth. Jesus said that people would know his disciples by his love (Jn 13, 4-35). Restoration also means the manifestation of God's unlimited power through his church. This will happen when the gifts of the Spirit flow through the people of God and work without limitations or restrictions, under his direction and in the holy spirit of divine love.

Through the full manifestation of God's gifts and ministries, and working in accordance with the essential love of his own nature, the church will reach a level of maturity and unity that can only be measured in terms of the "measure of stature of the fullness of Christ. " "(Ephesians 4:13). While the church becomes a sacred temple (Eph. 2:21), inhabited by a consecrated priesthood that offers acceptable sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ (1 P 2: 5), all people are attracted to the Lord; and the world will finally see the glory of God through this restored church.