HARRY MARTINEZ: A new creation, pt. 2

Published 7:16 am Wednesday, July 30, 2025

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” is a familiar expression.  Too often, tinkering with that which is not a problem creates new ones and usually costs escalate.  However, some things need to be discarded for that which is new.

Only the beauty of God’s creation of the worlds can explain its continuance and magnificence in spite of sin having entered into it bringing a curse on that which was perfect in its design and structure.  Nehemiah acknowledged … “You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship” (Neh 9:6 NIV).  This Jewish official praised the LORD as the sole Creator and the giver of life itself to all that He creates.  

The ancient record of Truth in Job states … “He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea. He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the constellations of the south. He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted” (Job 9:8-10 NIV).  Job possessed phenomenal knowledge of creation, though living thousands of years without todays advanced technology, that enables scientists in their study of the universe.  

The Psalmist continues his praise of Creation and its Creator … “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.  Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat” (Ps 19:1-6 NIV). 

Yet, the reality of the curse first pronounced in the Garden is evident and inescapable. The divine prohibition and its consequences if violated would have adverse effects on all creation.   “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.  And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die” (Gen 3:15-17 NIV).  The death upon eating was spiritually instantaneous.  Adam lost his relationship with the Creator, the pre-incarnate Christ.  That spiritual death would bring with it condemnation before a Righteous God, the acquisition of a sin nature and eventual physical death. 

Paul affirmed the lost spiritual condition of the human race … “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death [spiritual] through sin, and in this way death [spiritual] came to all men, because all sinned” (Rom 5:12 NIV); “For as in Adam all die” (1 Cor 15:22a NIV).  Had the apostle stopped there, mankind would remain hopelessly separated form God.  However, Paul continued … “so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Cor 15:22b NIV).  Faith in the finished work of Christ on the Cross would remove the condemnation of spiritual death. 

However, creation still groans under the curse imposed in the Eden.  That too will change.  The Apostle John, given the privilege of seeing the “rest of the story,” wrote … “Then I 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. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new” (Rev 21:1, 4b, 5a NIV))! 

Harry Martinez, a resident of Albany, is a retired minister who served a nondenominational congregation in Florida. His weekly column appears in several South Georgia newspapers.