05 October 2009

Bavinck: 'the Reformer'

A dominant chord struck again and again in Bavinck's Reformed Dogmatics is the notion of grace restoring (rather than re-creating from scratch) nature. Here's a comment on the regeneration of the cosmos (Matt 19:28).

[T]he re-creation that will take place in the renewal of heaven and earth is not the destruction of this world and the subsequent creation out of nothing of another world but the liberation of the creature that is now subject to futility. Nor can it be otherwise, for God's honor as Savior hinges precisely on his reconquest from the power of Satan of this human race and this world. Christ, accordingly, is not a second Creator, but the Redeemer and Savior of this fallen creation, the Reformer of all things that have been ruined and corrupted by sin. (Reformed Dogmatics, 4:92; emphasis original)

Magnificent.

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