The God Who Re-Creates

May 9 2025 - Eric Buresh

“Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.” 
—Genesis 1:31 (NKJV) 

Spring has arrived! It is a good time to look around at the work of God's hands—mountains piled like fortresses, oceans vast as the heavens, every leaf a painting, every star a sermon. And what did God say of it all? “It is good.” Not merely useful. Not barely functional. Not “just enough.” No—good. 

And when the crown of His creation was given life—man, made in God’s own image—He paused, looked upon it all, and declared: “very good.” 

The first garden bloomed with glory. The earth echoed with harmony. There was no death, no discord, no shame. Man walked with God in the cool of the day and felt no fear. This was what it meant to be human: to bear God's image, to reflect His beauty, to live in the eternal perfection of His presence. 

But man quickly grew dissatisfied with the role of image-bearer and reached for the role of image-maker. He listened to the serpent's hiss: “You shall be as gods.” And so the hand that was made to lift in praise reached instead for forbidden fruit. The voice that was made to glorify God spoke lies to cover guilt. The heart that once delighted in the Lord turned inward in selfishness and rebellion. 

The good became corrupt. 
The very good became broken. 
The image became marred. 

But then the gospel’s thunderclap of grace: God does not abandon His creation—He redeems it. He does not discard the ruined; He re-creates the ruined into something even more glorious. 

Listen to the apostle’s cry: 

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17) 

In Christ, the image of God—once fractured—is being restored. The dirt of Eden’s fall is washed by Calvary’s blood. The soul once clothed in shame is now robed in righteousness. The rebel becomes the son. The broken becomes the beloved.  

Let us not return to the old self, that broken image that sought to be its own god. Let us not paint ourselves again with the brush of pride, or shame, or self-righteousness. Let us walk in the Spirit, for it is by the Spirit that we are being conformed to the image of Christ—the perfect man and the very radiance of God. The same voice that thundered in the beginning, “Let there be light,” now whispers into dead hearts, “Let there be life.” And by that word, we are raised. Reborn. Remade. So look not at yourself through the eyes of your past. Look through the eyes of the Father, who sees you clothed in His Son, and He smiles once more and says, “It is very good.”