This is the second week on which we are going thinking about the opening verses of John’s gospel. Today I invite you to think about John 1:3 where we are told that the unique logos were also the agent of creation. It says “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made”. Some people think that John 1-14 is a hymn of praise to Jesus. If that is the case then maybe some of the assertions of these verses can be put down to poetic license. Others look to verses 1-14 as a source, not of poetic license, but of profound philosophical and doctrinal truth
The Bible teaches in more than one place that Jesus the Christ had a role to play as the agent of Creation. For example,
All things were made by him [the Word, in Greek ëüãïò (logos), = Jesus Christ]’ (John 1:3), and ‘For by him [Jesus Christ] were all things created’ (Colossians 1:16).
If the logos is the agent of creation and was manifested in the person of Jesus then we should expect to see some parallels between what happened at creation and the works of Jesus during his time on earth. (Last week Alan Whitehead pointed out the parallels between Gen 1 and John 1
There are four distinctives of creation mentioned in Genesis.
1. Creation involved the act of God in bringing into being immediately matter which did not previously exist, without the use of pre-existing materials; for example, the creation of the heavens and the earth, recorded in Genesis 1:1. Creation also involved the shaping, combining, or transforming of existing materials, like the creation of Adam as a fully formed adult male from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7), and Eve from Adam’s rib (Genesis 2:21–22).
2. Creation involves life coming to otherwise lifeless matter.
3. Creation, was by the Word of the Lord, that is, God said (= God willed it to happen1) . . . and it happened.
4. The purpose or motive of God in creation was threefold
(i) according to Psalm 19:1to display His glory,2 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
(ii) to make known His power, His wisdom, His will, and His holy name,3
Exodus 9:16But I have raised you up [a] for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth
(iii) and that He might receive glory from His created beings.4 1 Chron 16:29 ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name. Bring an offering and come before him;
worship the LORD in the splendour of his [d] holiness.
There aren’t exact parallels between the miracles of Jesus and Creation in Genesis because, because his primary purpose in coming was not to create, but ‘to seek and to save that which was lost’,5 and ‘to give his life a ransom for many.’6
Let’s look then at these four aspects of creation, comparing them with the work of Jesus.
1. Creation out of nothing or from existing materials
Several of Jesus’ miracles involved the creation of new material. Whether this was out of nothing or from existing materials is not spelt out by the Gospel writers, as they major on the fact of the miracles and the effects they produced (John emphasizes the teaching that Jesus drew from them), rather than on any analyses of the modus operandi.
(i) Jesus’ first miracle in John’s gospel 2 involved the creation of wine. At a wedding breakfast, Jesus instructed the waiters to fill six stone water-pots with water, and then to take them to the M.C. of the wedding banquet. The sign of the water changing to wine had more purpose than just helping the party to go with a swing. When they arrived, the water had been turned into wine. For that to happen there must have been, 7 the instantaneous creation of the grape sugar, carbon dioxide, colouring matter, of the wine. The purpose of this was to show God’s creative purposes at work through Jesus (4:46 indicates this was something talked about later).
(ii) Then on two occasions Jesus fed a multitude: on the first occasion more than 5,000 people from five loaves and two fish,8 and on the second occasion more than 4,000 people from seven loaves and a few little fish.9
On each occasion He started with bread and fish. Jesus either caused these original items to multiply, or He may have dispensed all the original food and then created additional loaves and fishes until everyone was fed.
Either way, Jesus created sufficient extra bread and fish, not only to feed many thousands of people, but also to provide 12 basketfuls of leftovers on the first occasion and seven basketfuls of leftovers on the second. This involved creation of the appropriate carbohydrate, protein and other molecules, and their immediate arrangement into the complex forms and structures needed to make baked bread and fish which was both dead and cooked.
(iii) Some of the healing miracles, for example, of lepers,10 the blind,11 and paralytics,12 involved the instant repair of tissues, nerves, muscles, and the instantaneous growth or regrowth of healthy cells.
The net result was the creation of healthy functioning parts of the body to replace diseased, non-functioning or malformed parts.
1. Creation out of nothing or from existing materials
2. The giving of life
Jesus gave life to the dead on three occasions:
(a) To his friend Lazarus. John 11 1-44
With Lazarus the body had been decomposing for four days , and was on its way to returning to dust ’16 This is a parallel with what happened on the sixth day of creation when God formed Adam from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and Adam became a living being.17 Jesus called Lazarus back to life, and the molecules of matter that were in the process of becoming dust became, again, a living human being.
(b)To a widow’s son,Luke 7 11-15
(c ) To Jairus’ daughter, Luke 8:41 ff
With both the widow’s son and Jairus’ daughter whilst the corpses hadn’t actually been buried the principle still applied.
1. Creation out of nothing or from existing materials
2. The giving of life
3. The mechanism Jesus used
Jesus appeared to use a variety of means in performing His miracles. These included touching lepers, the blind, and the deaf;
(a) the use of saliva to heal a deaf mute18 and a blindman;19
(b) the use of clay (with instructions to wash) to heal a blind man;20,21
(c )the word of command to heal, to raise the dead, and to exorcise demons.
However, what happened in these and in all of Jesus’ miracles was that Jesus sent forth his word either directly or through prayer with his father and things in the created order changed.. This is nowhere better illustrated than in the healing of the nobleman’s son recorded in John 4:46–53
46While Jesus was in Galilee, he returned to the village of Cana, where he had turned the water into wine. There was an official in Capernaum whose son was sick. 47And when the man heard that Jesus had come from Judea, he went and begged him to keep his son from dying.
48Jesus told the official, "You won’t have faith unless you see miracles and wonders!"
49The man replied, "Lord, please come before my son dies!"
50Jesus then said, "Your son will live. Go on home to him." The man believed Jesus and started back home.
51Some of the official’s servants met him along the road and told him, "Your son is better!" 52He asked them when the boy got better, and they answered, "The fever left him yesterday at one o’clock."
53The boy’s father realized that at one o’clock the day before, Jesus had told him, "Your son will live!" So the man and everyone in his family put their faith in Jesus.
This is a very interesting account as Jesus was more than 15 miles separate from the boy who recovered. Similarly, Jesus Jesus willed the water to become wine, as it was being taken into the wedding feast in Cana, and it did so. He blessed the bread and fish and they multiplied, and He willed the 10 lepers to become well after they had left Him and were on their way to the priests, and they were healed.22
In Luke 7 6-10 a Gentile centurion recognized this authority of Jesus. 1After Jesus had finished teaching the people, he went to Capernaum. 2In that town an army officer’s servant was sick and about to die. The officer liked this servant very much. 3And when he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish leaders to ask him to come and heal the servant.
4The leaders went to Jesus and begged him to do something. They said, "This man deserves your help! 5He loves our nation and even built us a meeting place." 6So Jesus went with them.
When Jesus wasn’t far from the house, the officer sent some friends to tell him, "Lord, don’t go to any trouble for me! I am not good enough for you to come into my house. 7And I am certainly not worthy to come to you. Just say the word, and my servant will get well. 8I have officers who give orders to me, and I have soldiers who take orders from me. I can say to one of them, `Go!’ and he goes. I can say to another, `Come!’ and he comes. I can say to my servant, `Do this!’ and he will do it."
9When Jesus heard this, he was so surprised that he turned and said to the crowd following him, "In all of Israel I’ve never found anyone with this much faith!"
10The officer’s friends returned and found the servant well.
The centurion recognized that the voice of Jesus could not be heard by his sick servant, but the result, brought about by the exercise of Jesus speaking the word would be no less effective because of this.
1. Creation out of nothing or from existing materials
2. The giving of life
3. The mechanism Jesus used
4. Jesus’ glory seen in his miracles
After telling us of Jesus’ first miracle—the turning of water into wine—the Apostle John says, He ‘manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.
John calls Jesus’ miracles’ signs 25 and in his Gospel John shows which way the signs point:John 30:31But these are written so that you will put your faith in Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God. If you have faith in [b] him, you will have true lif.
The thrust here is to get the reader to reach a conclusion about Jesus
Conclusion
The second person of the Trinity, the eternal Son is the Creator God. We know him better as Jesus of Nazareth. Not only does Scripture affirm it,28 but during His earthly life and ministry Jesus did the very things we would expect the Creator God to do. He did them in the way that we would expect the Creator God to do them—by His word of authority and the exercise of His will. And the doing of them displayed His glory.
This is a source of praise and inspiration for those who believe the Word of God.The thought that Jesus might have used evolutionary chance, random processes to heal the sick or give life to the dead is as unsustainable as the idea that He made use of such processes to create and give life to all things ‘in the beginning’.
1. See R.M. Grigg, ‘Creation—How Did God Do It?’, Creation Ex Nihilo 13(2):36-38.
2. Psalm 19:1.
3. Exodus 9:16: cf. Romans 9:17, 22-24: Ephesians 1:5-10; 3:9-11.
4. I Chronicles 16:29: Psalm 29:1, Revelation 4:11.
5. Luke 19:10.
6. Matthew 20:28.
7. John 2:1-1l. Note verse 9.
8. It is interesting that this is the only miracle which all four Gospel writers record: Matthew 14:15-21; Mark 6:35-44; Luke 9:12-17; John 6:5-14.
9. Matthew 15:32-38; Mark 8:1-9.
10. Luke 5:12-13; Luke 17:11-19.
11. Matthew 9:27-30: Mark 8:22-25; John 9:1- 41.
12. Luke 5:17-26: Luke 6:6-10.
13. Luke 7:11-16.
14. Luke 8:41-42 and 49-55.
15. John 11:1-44.
16. John 11:39.
17. Genesis 2:7.
18. Mark 7:3l-35.
19. Mark 8:22-25.
20. John 9:1-41.
21. Possibly to increase the sense of expectancy on the part of those who would relate in a particular way to touch—the blind, the deaf, and lepers.
22. Luke 17:11-19.
23. John 2:11. See also Luke 17:15,18; John 11:4,40.
24. John 11:4,40.
25. Miracles per se are not necessarily evidence of deity; rather they are evidence of supernatural power. Others in the Bible, from Pharaoh’s magicians (Exodus 7:22) to the false prophet (Revelation 19:20), are said to perform miracles.
26. John does this by showing the occasion, the teaching that Jesus drew from them (for example, ‘l am the Bread of Life’ after the feeding of the 5,000; ‘I am the Resurrection and the Life’ after the raising of Lazarus), the increased faith of those who were willing to receive truth, and the increased spiritual blindness of those who rejected Christ’s claims.
27. John 20:31.
28. John 1:3; I Corinthians 8:6; Ephesians 3:9; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2
