Was Jesus Eternal, Did Jesus Create?
James Quiggle
(This is a revision of an essay posted in January, to clarify issues the previous essay did not.)
Someone asked, “How could Jesus create living creatures, when he was limited as a man, for a period of 33 years? How could he be on earth and in heaven at the same time, creating people and other living creatures?” My answer was simple: Jesus didn’t, but Jesus Christ did. Undoubtedly an explanation is required.
The question arises because of the way theologians and Christians speak of Jesus Christ. For example, theologians speak of the “pre-incarnate Christ” appearing in the Old Testament (a “Christophany”). I had a discussion the other day with a young man who said Jesus was eternal. Both views are wrong. Some definitions are needed.
Let us define who Jesus was. Jesus was a human being conceived in the womb of Mary of Nazareth circa 7–5 BC. He was Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus of Nazareth came into existence when he was conceived. When conceived he was a human being, with all the qualities, characteristics (sin excepted), and limitations of all human beings.
Let us define God the Son. God the Son is a Person in the Godhead, that Trinity who is one deity—one God—and three Persons, God Father, Son, Spirit. The members of the Trinity are co-equal, co-eternal, co-essential. The do not combine to make God, they are not parts of God, they are God. There is one God who is three Persons.
Let us define Jesus Christ. The person Jesus Christ is the incarnation of God the Son in the human being Jesus of Nazareth. That incarnate person is Jesus the Christ. He is deity and human at the same time.
Immediately after the human being Jesus of Nazareth was conceived, God the Son joined himself in union with the human body and human soul of Jesus the human being. That act of God the Son joining in union with Jesus the human being is known as the incarnation. The result of the incarnation was one person with two natures, human and deity, and one personality, the personality of God the Son, as informed by the two natures. The humanity remained human, the deity remained deity. The person resulting from the incarnation is the God-man, Jesus the Christ, the Son of God.
God the Son filled the office of the Christ when he incarnated himself in Jesus of Nazareth, thereby becoming Jesus the Christ, the God-man, the Son of God. The term “Christ” (Hebrew: māshîah; Psalm 2:2, anointed; Greek: christós; Christ) is an office of the incarnate God-man. The office of the Christ had a beginning, which was the incarnation of God the Son with the newly conceived Jesus of Nazareth. That is the meaning of Psalm 2:2, 7; Isaiah 7:14; 9:6.
Therefore, although it is beyond our complete comprehension, we must recognize that Jesus the Christ had a dual presence in the universe. As stated by the Puritan theologian William Ames, (1576–1633),
“There were in Christ two kinds of understanding: a divine understanding whereby he knew all things, John 21:17, and a human whereby he did not yet know some things, Mark 13:32. So there were two wills, one divine, Luke 5:13, and the other human, with a natural appetite, Matthew 26:39. So Christ has a double presence, but the human presence cannot be everywhere or in many places at once.” [Ames, “Marrow of Theology,” 131.]
Returning to the example above, “the ‘pre-incarnate Christ’ appearing in the Old Testament,” that is a wrong statement. Rather than the “pre-incarnate Christ,” the person who appeared in the Old Testament was the pre-incarnate God the Son, because God the Son did not occupy the office of “Christ” prior to the incarnation. The office of the Christ began when God the Father sent God the Son to incarnate with Jesus of Nazareth and anointed him to redeem sinners (first advent) and rule the world (second advent).
Over time the title Christ became part of the name: Jesus Christ. But, one must always take care to preserve with equal passion both the deity and the humanity of Jesus Christ. The deity is eternal; the humanity had a beginning. The deity created everything; the humanity lived in the creation.
“How could Jesus create living creatures, when he Was limited as a man, for a period of 33 years? How could he be on Earth and in heaven at the same time, creating people and other living creatures?” The answer depends on a proper understanding of the person. Jesus the human being did not create people and other living creatures: the humanity Jesus of Nazareth had a beginning.
But the incarnate God the Son did create, and therefore it is proper to say Jesus the Christ is deity, is eternal, and did create everything, because the Scripture always views the deity and human natures of the incarnate person acting together in the one person. Jesus Christ raised the dead, and Jesus Christ slept. Jesus Christ created everything, and Jesus Christ lived in his creation.
The humanity—the human body and the human nature—of the God-man was not on Earth and in heaven at the same time during his earthly ministry. But the incarnate person Jesus Christ was on earth and in heaven at the same time during that earthly ministry. The incarnate person is now, after his ascension, in heaven, sitting on the throne of God and at the same time is omnipresent within the universe he created.
Jesus the human being had a beginning, in the womb of Mary. The office “Christ” had a beginning, which was the moment God the Son incarnated in the humanity in the womb of Mary. The incarnate deity-human person had a beginning, at the moment of the incarnation in the womb of Mary. That incarnate person, Jesus the Christ, as Ames said, had “a double presence”: on earth in his humanity, and everywhere-at-once (omnipresence) in his deity.
So, even though almost everyone talks about Jesus creating or Jesus being eternal, the actions of creating and eternality properly apply to the deity, not the humanity, prior to the incarnation. But it is biblical to speak of the incarnate person, Jesus Christ, as creating, as eternal, as commanding the weather, because Jesus Christ is the God-man, the union of deity with humanity. Just as it is equally biblical to speak of the incarnate Jesus Christ as hungry, thirsty, sleeping, and enduring the weather because Jesus Christ is the God-man, the union of deity with humanity.
God the Son will always be incarnate in Jesus Christ. The deity nature is eternal. The human soul is immortal. His body was transformed and glorified and made immortal at his resurrection. The human nature—human body and human soul—is always in one place at one time, limited in the ways all humanity is limited (sin excepted), because Jesus Christ is genuinely human. The deity nature is eternal, omnipresence, omnipotent, and omniscient because the deity nature is unlimited in all ways. The God-man, Jesus Christ, is the person who created, was crucified, resurrected, and ascended, will always be with his saved people in heaven and on earth.
If I may, I suggest the book, “God Became Incarnate,” by James D. Quiggle to give you more information on this subject.