First published: Creation 13(3):43–45 June 1991 Browse this issue Subscribe to Creation Magazine

Is Jesus Christ the Creator God?

by Russell M. Grigg

The Bible affirms in several places that Jesus Christ is the Creator God. For example, ‘All things were made by him [the Word, in Greek logoV (logos), = Jesus Christ]’ (John 1:3), and ‘For by him [Jesus Christ] were all things created’ (Colossians 1:16).

If this is true, we should expect to see some parallelism between what happened at creation and the works of Jesus during his ministry on earth. What do we find?

First let us consider what kind of evidence we are looking for.

Some of the essential and distinctive elements of creation, as revealed in Genesis chapter l, as well as elsewhere in the Bible, are:

1. Creation involved the act of God in bringing into being immediately and instantaneously matter which did not previously exist, without the use of pre-existing materials or secondary causes; for example, in the creation of the heavens and the earth, as recorded in Genesis 1:1. Creation also involved the shaping, combining, or transforming of existing materials, as when God created Adam from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7), and Eve from Adam’s rib (Genesis 2:21–22).
2. Creation involved the imparting of life to otherwise lifeless matter.
3. The mechanism of creation, or the means whereby the above aspects were accomplished, 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 creating was to display His glory,² to make known His power, His wisdom, His will, and His holy name,³ and that He might receive glory from His created beings.⁴

Note: We should not expect to find exact parallels between the miracles of Jesus and what happened at Creation, as Jesus did not come to re-create the universe, but ‘to seek and to save that which was lost’,⁵ and ‘to give his life a ransom for many.’⁶ With this in mind, let us compare these four aspects of creation with the works of Jesus.

1. Creation out of nothing and/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.

Jesus’ first miracle 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 master of ceremonies of the wedding banquet. When they arrived, the water had been turned into wine,⁷ that is, there had been the instantaneous creation of the carbon atoms and chemical molecules that made up the grape sugar, carbon dioxide, colouring matter, etc., of the wine.

Other examples are the two times when 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

Here there were bread and fish to begin with on both occasions. Jesus either caused these original items to multiply, or He may have dispensed all the original food and then created new 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 not just the creation of the appropriate carbohydrate, protein and other molecules, but their immediate arrangement into the complex forms and structures needed to make baked bread and fish (albeit dead and cooked).

Some of Jesus’ miracles of healing, for example, of lepers,¹⁰ the blind,¹¹ and paralytics,¹² involved the instant repair of tissues, nerves, muscles, etc., 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 atrophied parts.

2. The giving of life

Jesus gave life to the dead on three occasions: to a widow’s son,¹³ to Jairus’ daughter,¹⁴ and to his friend Lazarus.¹⁵

In the case of Lazarus, the body had been in the grave for four days, and Martha’s words are recorded for us: ‘...by this time there is a bad odour, for he has been there four days.’¹⁶

This shows that the process of decomposition whereby a dead body eventually becomes dust had already begun. So here we have 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.

In the case of the widow’s son and of Jairus’ daughter, death was more recent, that is, probably on the same day that Jesus gave life to their dead bodies. The principle still applies.

3. The method Jesus used

Jesus appeared to use a variety of means in performing His miracles. These included touching lepers, the blind, and the deaf; the use of saliva to heal a deaf mute¹⁸ and a blindman;¹⁹ the use of clay (with instructions to wash) to heal a blind man;^20,21 and 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 willed the event to happen and it did. This is nowhere better illustrated than in the healing of the nobleman’s son. Jesus was at Cana in Galilee and a certain royal official asked Him to travel to Capernaum to heal his son who was close to death. The Apostle John records what happened, as follows:

‘So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine, And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum.’

‘When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judaea into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son: for he was at the point of death.’

‘Then said Jesus unto him, "Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe."’

‘The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die.’

‘Jesus saith unto him, "Go thy way; thy son liveth." And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way.’

‘And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and—told him, saying, Thy son liveth.’

‘Then enquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.’

‘So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house’ (John 4:46–53).

Capernaum was about 27 kilometres (17 miles) from Cana as the crow flies, which means there was no way that the sick son, or anyone else in Capernaum, could have heard Jesus or been influenced by His physical presence in Cana.

Jesus willed the sick boy to recover, at a distance of 27 kilometres, and he did so. Similarly, Jesus willed the water to become wine, as it was being taken into the wedding feast in Cana, and it did so. He willed the bread and fish to form and they did, 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

It is interesting that a Gentile centurion recognized this authority of Jesus. The centurion had sent servants to request Jesus to come and heal his servant, as Luke records:

‘Then Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof:’

‘Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.’

‘For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.’

‘When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, "I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel."’

‘And they that were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick’ (Luke 7:6-10.)

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‘ authority, would be no less effective because of this.

4. Jesus’ glory seen in his miracles

After narrating Jesus’ first miracle—the turning of water into wine—the Apostle John says, He ‘manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.’²³ When Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick He said, ‘This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified’. And then, after Lazarus had died and before Jesus raised him to life, He said to Martha, ‘Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?’²⁴

John calls Jesus’ miracles’ signs ²⁵ and in his Gospel John shows which way the signs point:²⁶ ‘these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.’²⁷

Conclusion

Jesus Christ is the Creator God. Not only does Scripture affirm it,²⁸ but during His earthly life and ministry He 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, and at the same time it is a reproof of the doctrine of theistic evolution. 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 used such processes to create and give life to all things ‘in the beginning’.

Notes and References

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.