Jeremiah described the earth as being “without form and void,” echoing the condition of Genesis 1:2. That phrase carries weight. It reminds us that rebellion against God does not lead forward but backward. In creation, God moved a chaotic, lifeless world into one filled with order and life, calling it to be fruitful and full. Sin reverses that movement. It slowly unravels what God has made, drawing everything toward emptiness and confusion. Jeremiah paints a vivid picture of this decline: “I looked on the mountains, and behold, they were quaking, and all the hills moved to and fro” (Jeremiah 4:24). Even creation itself seems unsettled, as though the very ground beneath our feet shares in the consequences of human rebellion. It is a sobering thought. Left to ourselves, we do not drift toward order. We drift toward disorder, often more quickly than we would like to admit.
That pattern is not limited to ancient Judah. It shows up quietly in our own lives. We may begin with good intentions, but without God’s steadying hand, things tend to slide out of place. It is a bit like trying to keep a desk perfectly organized while continuing to use it every day. Papers multiply, small items wander off, and before long the neat arrangement has become a mystery even to its owner. Spurgeon saw in this a picture of the human heart. He described it as “Tohu and Bohu, disorder and confusion,” until God steps in to do something entirely new. He does not renovate the old structure or patch up a few cracks. He builds anew. As long as we live in these bodies, Paul reminds us there is a struggle between the pull of sin and the order God brings. Yet there remains a deeper hope that God’s work is not partial or temporary but complete and lasting.
That hope finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ. The new creation Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones describe is not an idea but a reality brought about through Him. Scripture says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Just as “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” in the beginning, so the Spirit now moves within the heart, bringing life where there was none. Jesus spoke of this when He said, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). John Henry Newman captured it well: “A second Adam to the fight, and to the rescue came.” Christ restores what sin has undone. Where there was darkness, He speaks light. Where there was emptiness, He brings life.