The Chemistry of Restoration

Every cell in your body is under constant attack. Ultraviolet light, free radicals, and the simple chemistry of living damage your DNA approximately 10,000 times per day — per cell. Left unaddressed, this damage would cascade into mutation, disease, and death.

But Swedish biochemist Tomas Lindahl made a discovery so remarkable it earned him the 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry: our cells have built-in repair systems that continuously scan the DNA strand, identify damaged segments, excise them entirely, and reconstruct the correct sequence — letter by perfect letter. The damage isn't masked or tolerated. It is removed, and the original design is restored.

Lindahl later recalled that early colleagues questioned whether DNA could really be that chemically fragile. The prevailing assumption was that the molecule was essentially permanent. His work revealed that stability wasn't the absence of damage — it was the result of constant, invisible repair.

This is a picture of divine forgiveness. We sometimes imagine that God's grace merely tolerates our failures — looks the other way, leaves the scar in place. But the Scriptures describe something far more radical. The Most High doesn't simply overlook sin. He removes it as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12) and restores in us the image we were originally designed to carry.

Your cells are doing repair work right now, quietly and without your help. God's grace, extended through Christ, does the same — thoroughly, faithfully, restoring what sin has damaged.