By Signs, Wonders And Various Powers

by P.L Hickling, Cromer England | Category: The Eternal God Revealed | Apr 1994

Evidence; the works of the Lord Jesus:

When the Lord Jesus spoke, His voice had the ring of authority1, and people were impressed by what He said. The officers sent to arrest Him said, "No man ever spoke like this Man?"2 However, it is possible for a man to make grand claims; history abounds with demagogues who claimed to have special commissions from God, or to he leaders of a master race, or even to be divine.

The Lord Jesus was able to authenticate His words by His actions and challenge His hearers, "Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves"3. This is characteristic of the whole of the Christian revelation; it is not a matter of sophisticated words or vague ideas, but it is firmly founded in physical and historical facts4. Many of the things which Christ did were things which could only be done by God, and they were the physical evidence of His deity which He gave during His life; evidence which was, of course, crowned by His resurrection. It is remarkable that God should condescend to men's weakness of faith by giving proof; even so, some would not believe5.

Power over nature:

A previous article has shown that the Lord Jesus Christ, acting as one of the Godhead, was the divine executive in creation6'7. Furthermore, the whole creation owes its continued existence to Him8. As a demonstration of the truth of this, it would therefore be expected that He should show His control over the natural world in His earthly life. Quite apart from the miraculous occurrence of events, it is worth thinking about the physical power involved. I live by the sea side, and if I go down to the promenade at high tide on a stormy day, I can see the tremendous power of breaking waves, sending spray high in the air, sometimes in winter carrying things away and breaking up solid concrete.

Even if waves are not breaking, there is a great deal of power in ocean swell; civil engineers have designed floating generators to act as small power stations. Thus it was a mighty demonstration of the power of the Lord Jesus when, from a little boat, He said to the wind and the sea "Peace, be still!" and there was a complete calm. The disciples said to each other, "Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him'; the answer has to be, God incarnate.

The Lord Jesus' power as Creator was also seen in the miracle of changing water into wine10. Two things were involved; the actual constituents and the miraculous change. Water is composed of hydrogen and oxygen atoms, while wine contains carbon in addition; the carbon therefore would have to be created. The creation and the change were both effected by the Lord Jesus, inevitably calling to mind the scripture which says of the Lord "He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast"11. The power was in the word alone; no mere man could cause any change simply by speech.

Power over disease and death:

The Lord's power over disease and death was also an example of divine power, but for a different reason. In the case of the physical world He had control because all things were created by Him and consist in Him; but disease and death are the penal consequences of sin, not intended (although foreseen) in the original creation. Mankind had brought these penalties upon itself but they could be remitted, albeit temporarily as far as this life is concerned, by the grace of Christ. Because the penalty (racially, rather than individually, imposed) was divine in origin, it could only be remitted divinely.

The Lord's healing was widespread; from "all Galilee" and "all Syria" He healed "all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease"12. He responded to all who called on Him in their need: Scripture records that large crowds followed Him and "He healed them all"13. His motives in this were twofold. First, He had compassion towards those in need' and secondly, the things which He did were signs, intended to authenticate His Person. However, a number of times He told His disciples and those who had been healed not to spread the news14. Why was this? There was a danger that people would follow Him not because they received Him as the Christ, the One sent from God' but because they were attracted by the things that He could do, like those who followed Him because of the bread He multiplied15. His primary purpose was that those who received Him should be confirmed in their faith by the signs that He did.

The most convincing actions of this sort were those where the Lord raised the dead. Sceptics might talk of psychosomatic illness and auto-suggestion in healing, but these cannot apply to the dead. The clearest instance is the raising from the dead of Lazarus, who had been in the tomb four days; time enough, in that country, to account for Martha's unwillingness to have the tomb opened because the body would smell16. The Lord prayed to His Father, thanking Him for hearing Him before the act, then commanded Lazarus to come out. The natural process of decay was reversed, life returned to the hotly, and Lazarus came out. Many believed in Jesus because of this, so much so that there was a plot to kill Lazarus17. Once again, the power of God was seen; there could be no other explanation for the raising of the dead.

Power over demons:

This demonstration of power is again different. In the first case it was

exercised on inanimate things, and in the second on people, but here spirit beings are involved. If these things were to happen today the first two could easily be recognized for what they were, but we should find it more difficult to identify spirit activity. However, Scripture is quite unequivocal that the Lord did at times face opposition from demons; He identified them as such, and addressed them15. His hearers, too, often referred to unclean spirits, and although their diagnosis was not perhaps always correct there does seem to have been an upsurge of demonic activity during the Lord's earthly life. The Lord had the right and the irresistible power to command demons to go out of a man; this He had because He was God. Demons are created beings who are evil, but who were not created evil. They chose to rebel against God, just as man chose to rebel against God, but they cannot evade the power of God, either now or in the future. The effect of the Lord's commands on the demons possessing the Gadarene was that he was "clothed and in his right mind"18, an evident work of God.

Authority to forgive sins:

There is a difference between power (Gk. dunamis) and authority (Gk. exousia), which can be expressed as that between might and right. The word "authority" is used in the title of this section, rather than "power" used in the preceding ones to emphasize that forgiveness of sins is a matter of right. When the Lord Jesus said to a paralysed man, "Son, your sins are

forgiven", some of the Jewish scribes thought, "Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?"19 If He were just a man, they would have been right to condemn Him. Sin is ultimately against God' although sin against others may also be involved, so God alone can forgive it. The Lord had the right, but, of course, anyone could say the words, and no one could tell whether sins had really been forgiven or not, so to show His authority He told the man to rise and take up his bed. When he did so, all those who saw it glorified God, for the Lord's authority to forgive sins was vindicated.'

Works of the Triune God:

We have concentrated so far on the things which the Lord Jesus Christ did during His earthly life, because these were intended to reveal the nature of God20. Since so many of them were things which could only be done by God, they also demonstrated His own deity; He is the Son of God, who shares in full the nature of the Father "I and My Father are One"21. Scripture reveals to us the cooperation of Persons of the Trinity in some works of power. These incidents cannot readily be analysed, because we can only really understand things in terms of categories which we already know. We have no experience of a single Being which includes three Persons, yet Scripture reveals God in this guise, and we must accept it. A later article will examine the subject more fully, while we here relate it to special works.

The Lord expressed His unity with the Father, as demonstrated through His works - "Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves"22. Honour is due to the Son, just as it is due to the Father, because He is equal with God, and He did what He saw the Father do. Works done by the Father through the Son were done in the power of the Spirit of God.

The Sovereign God:

Our brief review has shown that God's sovereignty over His world was fully expressed by the Lord Jesus Christ in His earthly life. The things that He did were intended to confirm the faith of those who saw them, and the same applies to us. We have not seen them ourselves, of course, and have to rely on historical record, but this is true of anything which occurred in the past, and the number of ancient copies of the Scriptures far exceeds those of any other document of comparable antiquity. We reiterate that God graciously chose to authenticate His revelation by signs of His power.

References (NKJV).

1. Mat 7:29.

2. John 7:46.

3. John 14:11.

4. 1Cor. 2:4.

5. John 15:24.

6. John 1:3.

7. Gen. 1:1.

8. Col. 1:17.

9. Mark 4:39,41.

10. John 2:1-11.

11. Ps. 33:9