I rarely think of my duty as a responsible Christian to include maintenance or upkeep of the Earth. While I am familiar with our consumption of the Earth’s resources, and our over consumption mostly, it logically makes sense to me that those “natural resources” will replenish themselves. However, science has informed us that this is not the case. So it brings me to the question, does God consider the Earth when Jesus came to redeem it?

My answer to this question is yes. When I evaluate the biblical text, I can recall a couple of places where the Earth needs to rest, but only for the benefit of it continuously yielding what humanity needs. The Earth appears to be a place that is created for humankind to have dominion, to use for their benefit, and to reap of its produce. We happen to know now through science, the command to allow the earth to rest is what allows humanity to constantly reap of the Earth’s inherited goodness. The danger is we are moving at such a rate of consumption that we cannot possibly redeem the world in our strength. This is why we need Jesus to save the “world”. All of it. We are incapable because of our selfishness, our urbanization, and our need to control everything. I believe this is why the book of Revelation reveals a vision of a new heaven and new earth.[1]This will be God’s final restoration of both human relational error and human provisional, dimensional error. Oh how thankful we should be for restoration through Jesus Christ!

[1] Revelation 21:1