My perspective was so narrow about these antiques. I took them as exactly what I saw, and that was that they were rusty, dirty, and fragile. Even though they might have been clean and beautiful at one point, the fact that they were dirty and rusted meant they were useless.
If I could choose a way to describe this world in its current states I would say this: it's an antique store. Since we disobeyed God in the garden and continue to live for ourselves (myself included), we are subject to our own decay and destruction. But here is the beautiful part. Much like my grandparents, God does not walk through the antique store and simply say, "what a bunch of junk". No, God looks at all of us in our sinful and decaying state and says, "I still love you so much, and it breaks my heart to see you this way. I created you to be beautiful and to have everlasting life".
2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."
Since God sent his son, 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us that if we are in Christ, everything that is old, dirty, and decaying about us has passed away, and we are made new by the power of what Jesus did for all of us on the cross.
Please see this. Even if you think you are dirty beyond recognition, even if you think you are nothing but a pile of dust, God loves you so much and is offering you restoration and renewal. He isn't asking you to take a rag and try to clean yourself up before approaching Him, He's telling you to only believe that Jesus' death on the cross is sufficient for your sin and that you will be made new.
God is good, all the time. How blessed are we to be made NEW by nothing we've done on our own but rather by what His son has already done.
Jake
