God Will Reclaim His Creation

Philip Bliss wrote the hymn “Hallelujah, What a Savior” in 1875. One of the verses says, “Ruined sinners to reclaim.” That is a theme of the entire Bible. God is always reclaiming what is his. God has never surrendered his title to humanity and to this earth. He owns it—and he will not relinquish it to his enemies. David wrote, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it” (Ps 24:1).

The word redeem means to buy back to restore to its original state. Redemption is just that, whether God’s wayward people or the earth itself. God will one day restore this earth to its original design, and we will be who God intended us to be. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things” (Matt 19:28). There will be a renewal of all things. Jesus is the creator and will make his creation as it was before sin brought devastation to it.

Jesus will redeem the earth, our culture, and everything about those he has redeemed. Isaiah wrote, “Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn” (Isaiah 60:3). Drawing from these words, John wrote: “The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it” Rev 21:24). God’s work of redemption involves the purging of human arrogance and the restoration of his creation to its original beauty and splendor. Nothing is wrong with what God has made, but the misuse of those things has distorted it. Isaiah chapter 60 is a vision of heaven—the new earth. This chapter is followed by a description of the power of Jesus’ ministry to reclaim his creation in Isaiah 61:

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,  to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor

and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair” (Isaiah 61:1-3).

Isaac Watts wrote “Joy To The World” not for Christmas but as a poem in 1719 based on Psalm 98: “Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him” (Ps 98:1). This psalm is a vision of the new heaven and earth.

2 Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ,
while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains

3 No more let sins and sorrows grow,
nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
far as the curse is found.