Is our Lord’s relation to creation a theme of John’s Gospel?

This text is from a letter written by David Gooding in 1991.

I am sure that our Lord's relation to creation is one of the leading themes in John's Gospel—obviously so, because chapter 1 explicitly makes the point that all things were made through him; and in chapter 5, likewise, Christ claims equality with the Father as the source of life in creation and in the new creation.

Take, for instance, how the miracle in John 5 raises directly the topic that is raised in Genesis 2:3. The theme of the Sabbath, and God resting from his work on the Sabbath, lies at the very heart of John 5. Indeed, chapter 5 takes the whole matter one step further, because our Lord remarks 'the Father worketh hitherto, and I work'. This raises questions about the understanding of the Sabbath. Is our Lord talking about his continuing maintenance of the universe, as distinct from its original creation, or is he talking about his work of redemption and restoration of the creation since its fall?

Similarly, our Lord's miracle of giving sight to the blind man in chapter 9, and his claim to be the Light of the World in chapters 8, 9 and 12, obviously has clear connections with Day 1 of Genesis, 'Let there be light'. Perhaps even more than with Day 4, since the sun and moon are represented in Day 4 as being luminaries rather than light. In other words, more as vehicles of light rather than light itself.

My impression is that, in order to see the close comparisons between the signs in John's Gospel and Genesis, it might be better not to confine yourself to the seven days of Genesis 1:1–2:3, but to include the other creation accounts in chapters 2–4 and chapter 5.

For instance, the question of Christ as the Bread of Life, preaching as it does that 'man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God', raises for me the same question as Eve's temptation in the garden in chapter 3. The tree was good for food and good to look at, and desirable to make one wise; and because of that, Eve was induced by the serpent to take it in disregard of the word of God.

Similarly, when John records our Lord's saying in chapter 8—'Ye are of your father the devil' and 'the devil was a murderer from the beginning'—that makes me think of Genesis 4 (compare 1 John 3:12). Again, I think that the death, and then the resurrection, of Lazarus in chapter 11 raises not only the question of man being made in the image of God, according to the sixth day of creation, but also reminds us of that same truth as it is raised in Genesis 5 in connection with Adam's death.

Another thing that occurs to me is what happened on Day 2 of creation. Genesis 1 tells us that, when God made the firmament, he called it heaven. John's Gospel surely has a lot to say in general about heaven in relation to earth.

One other fragment: As to the succession of night and day, which is such a prominent feature of Day 1 of creation, would you not think that John 11:9–10, and again John 12:35–36 would be extremely relevant? In other words, I think that, while it is interesting to compare the seven days of creation with the seven signs in the Gospel, it would be helpful to compare the issues at stake in the seven days of creation, plus the creation story in Genesis 2–4, and again in Genesis 5, with not only the signs in John's Gospel, but also with the larger context of those signs as well.

With much love in the Lord,