The Grace Of Two Creations

“There are two kinds of beauty; there is a beauty which God gives at birth, and which withers as a flower. And there is a beauty which God grants when by His grace men are born again. That kind of beauty never vanishes but blooms eternally.” Abraham Kuyper

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Moses

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” Paul, an apostle

God created the heavens and the earth and then he rested on the seventh day (Gen 2:1-2). The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit worked together to create the world out of nothing (Heb 11:3). God rested to indicate that his creative work was complete––

finalized. No one could add to the creative work of God because God had completed it perfectly according to his own plan. It was very good! (Gen 1:31).

The peak of God’s creation was man who he made special—in his own image (Gen 1:27). Man was like God in a manner that the rest of creation was not. Man therefore knew God and walked with God in the garden of Eden. All was at peace in the garden, illustrating and emphasizing again that God’s creative work was complete.

What God creates is complete, needing no assistance from men. What God creates flows from his eternal grace and love. It is for his creatures to simply open their hearts and lives to his gifts and having received every good gift respond in thankful obedience.

An intruder entered the garden. The man and the woman that God had placed in the garden fell through prideful unbelief into sin and rebellion. They ate the forbidden fruit (Gen 3:6-7).

This fall and corruption of the man and the woman and all creation with them necessitated a second creation brought to fruition through a sacrificial/creative act that was also to be a complete work, done once for all of humanity (Heb 9:26). Again the members of the Triune God were participants. The Father loved the world and sent his beloved Son. The Son gave himself freely, shedding his own blood. The Spirit seals redemption in the hearts of men, bringing new creation.  

Fallen men had nothing to add to the second creation. Like the first creation, the new creation is a completed work of God. What God did through his Son, being accomplished on the cross, is a complete salvation––finalized for all eternity (Rom 6:10). It is a salvation that brings creative resurrection life to men who are dead in their trespasses and sins (Eph 2:5).

Man by faith experiences new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). A soul is brought from death to life. “… he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit…” (Titus 3:5). Those who by faith receive the gift of life eternal found in God’s Son are freed from their sins and experience the regeneration and renewal imparted by the Holy Spirit.

Our sins against an eternal God were too great for any human remedy. Every attempt to save oneself must be set aside. Every soul must cast itself on the grace of the cross to be saved. It is by faith that one receives this free gift of God—adding nothing—receiving everything. In that moment of trust the chains of sin fall off, and the new creation comes.