Jesus, the Creator of New

As the days in December dwindle each year, many of us begin to entertain ways to improve our situation or become a better person. We look forward, both eagerly and hesitantly, to experiencing something new and different. When a fresh calendar goes up on the wall with a never-before-seen year, January greets us full of possibilities for the newness we crave: beginning a new habit, starting a new hobby, landing a new job, making a new friend, embarking on a new adventure.

However, the things we think are new aren’t really. They are only new to us. The wise King Solomon said, “⁹What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. ¹⁰Is there anything of which one can say, ‘Look! This is something new’? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time” (Ecclesiastes 1:9-10).

Warren Wiersbe wrote, “Because something is recent, they think it is new; they mistake novelty for originality . . . Whatever is new is simply a recombination of the old. Man cannot ‘create’ anything new because man is the creature, not the Creator . . . Only God can create new things (The Bible Exposition Commentary: Wisdom and Poetry, p. 484-485).

Indeed, God is the Creator of all things that are really new. He began creating when nothing existed, he continues to create today, and he has told us of his future creations.

God Created New in the Past

In the beginning, God created all matter, life, powers, and the laws of nature that govern how the world works. Nothing exists aside from God’s original creation. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1). The apostle Paul reinforced this in the New Testament when he wrote of Christ: ¹⁵He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him (Colossians 1:15-16).

More recently, but still in our past, God continued to do new things. The Lord spoke through the prophet Isaiah: “¹⁸Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. ¹⁹See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland” (Isaiah 43:18-19).

At the time, the Israelites were in captivity in Babylon. The Lord told them not to dwell on their delivery from slavery in Egypt. He was now going to do something, in the words of Barnes, “so great and wonderful . . . in your behalf, that what he has done, great as that was, shall be comparatively forgotten”(Barnes’ Notes on the Bible). He was about to deliver them from captivity and return them to their homeland, guiding and providing for them through a pathless wilderness.

Though their deliverance from Babylon would be remarkable, many commentaries agree that the deliverance from Egypt was much greater. Therefore, they say the Lord was also speaking of something even more magnificent he was about to do.

The new thing was the incarnation of the Son of God, Jesus being born of a virgin and taking our sin upon himself on the cross in order to secure eternal redemption for mankind. By this new thing he would “make a way in the Gentile world, comparable to a wilderness for its barrenness and unfruitfulness, for the Gospel to enter into it . . . where Christ, the way of salvation, should be made known” (Gill’s Exposition).

God Creates New in the Present

Because of the marvelous new thing God did concerning Jesus coming to earth and redeeming us from our sin, he is creating new hearts every day. The Lord spoke through the prophet Ezekiel to the Israelites about the day when he would restore them and return them to their land: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove  from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26).

The Lord was talking about giving the Israelites new spiritual hearts. Through Jeremiah the Lord said, “I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart” (Jeremiah 24:7).

The old heart was stubborn and hardened, set on its own ways, not capable of receiving God’s Word, as dry and stony ground cannot receive seeds. But God gave them a new heart, tender and soft, that listened to his words and sought his will.

Paul spoke of this exchange when he said, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). When we accept God’s gift of redemption and turn our life over to him, he gives us a new heart, making us a new creation. The Greek word translated new in this verse means “of a new kind; unprecedented, novel, uncommon, unheard of” and, more specifically, “previously non-existent” (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon).

God does not just tinker around with our spiritual heart to get it working better, or even perform a major overhaul. Nor does he switch our heart out for a refurbished one. He fashions for us a brand new, previously non-existent, heart. One with spiritual interests and godly pursuits.

Peter described this same experience when he said, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3). The Greek word for new here means “thoroughly to change the mind of one, so that he lives a new life and one conformed to the will of God” (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon).

God also gives a new song. After David had waited patiently on God through a dangerous time and God delivered him, David said, “He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God . . .” (Psalm 40:3). “The deliverance was so marked, and was such an addition to former mercies . . . that the language used on former occasions . . . would not be sufficient to convey the sense of gratitude felt for the present deliverance” (Barnes’ Notes). The book of Psalms is full of “new” songs that God put into the hearts of David and others. He does the same for us today.

God Will Create New in the Future

When the Lord’s Day of Judgment arrives, God will destroy the old earth and the heavens surrounding the earth. Then he “will create new heavens and a new earth” as prophesied in Isaiah 65:17.

In John’s revelation from God, he “saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea” (Revelation 21:1). A few sentences later he said, “He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’” (Revelation 21:5). The Greek word for new in these two verses means “new, which as recently made is superior to what it succeeds” (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon).

All that God has made, he has declared to be good (Genesis 1:31). The Hebrew word for good here means “excellent” (Brown-Driver-Briggs). Yet, God’s new creations in the future will far exceed even the perfection of what he has already made.

Perhaps when you are contemplating what new things to pursue this year, you’ll give some thought to all the “new” creations from God that are available.

• There’s a whole world God created for you thousands of years ago when he spoke it into existence.
• Because of his magnificent plan of salvation two thousand years ago, you can have a new life and a new heart.
• Then you will be able to look forward in hope to a new heaven and earth where the Light of God will dispel all darkness forever.
• While you wait for that day, you can sing new songs to him that he puts in your heart.

Scripture quotations are from NIV.

Hebrew and Greek definitions and commentary are from Bible Hub. See Resources.

Feature photo by Daniel Mirlea on Unsplash