Bavinck: Not a Second Creator

The closing paragraph to the introduction of Bavinck's discussion of calling/regeneration, which captures something Bavinck has been teaching me this year--namely, the restorative nature of redemption. God does not start all over; he is restoring, resurrecting, re-enlivening, awakening, renewing, the created world and, supremely, human beings:

The purpose of regeneration is to make us spiritual people, those who live and walk by the Spirit. This life is a life of intimate communion with God in Christ. Though believers are made new creatures in Christ, this does not mean that their created nature is qualitatively transformed. Believers remain fully human, fully created image-bearers of God as in the beginning. As in creation itself, no new substance enters into the world with redemption; the creature is liberated from sin's futility and bondage. Sin is not of the essence of creation but its deformity; Christ is not a second Creator but creation's Redeemer. Salvation is the restoration of creation and the reformation of life.

--Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 4:32-33