Comparisons And Contrasts

by Bishop, A. C. | Category: The Lord's Miracles | Dec 1992

Miracles remain a problem to many. We live in an orderly world of cause and effect; one which is predictable given a sufficient understanding of its underlying principles. Our experience of life gives us an intuitive sense of normality and miracles are departures from it.

Antony Flew defines a miracle as "Something which would never have happened had Nature, as it were, been left to its own devices"1. The Christian view of such departure from normality, as expressed in the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church2, is "A sensible fact produced by the intervention of God ... transcending the normal order of things, usually termed the Laws of Nature". All things derive from God, depend upon Him, and would be altered at His bidding. Once God's existence is admitted it is likely that, from time to time, He would act directly within His creation. God's very existence, therefore, renders miracle not just possible, but probable.

The Occurrence of Miracles in the Old Testament:

The Bible says "He formed it (the earth) to be inhabited" (Is. 45:18), God's purpose being that man should be to the praise of His glory (Eph.1:12), and alter the Fall such an end could be achieved only through God's redemptive purpose in Christ. The redemption of man involved the revelation of God, not only through creation and by His servants, but also directly in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God is revealed in general through creation (Rom. 1:20), whereas miracles reveal divine power in a particular and purposeful manner.

Most of the Bible deals with God's relations with Israel. Miracles are not uniformly distributed with time, however, but tend to group round the turning points in Israel's history and to cease once their purpose has been achieved. There are two such groupings in the Old Testament; at the times of Moses and his successor, Joshua: and of Elijah and his successor, Elisha. The purpose of miracles at these particular times was to show that these men were God's servants who spoke with divine authority. Moses led Israel at the crucial time of their redemption from Egypt and their subsequent constitution as a holy nation governed by God's Law. Moses' miracles demonstrated God's power in order that Israel might know that He was with them and was speaking through Moses. Elijah and Elisha mark the beginning of the times when God was to speak through His prophets to persuade Israel to return to God from idols. Their miracles also demonstrated God's power compared to the impotence of the heathen gods and so endorsed the prophets' standing as God's messengers; Few miracles were performed after Israel initially settled in Canaan, and the return to Jerusalem of the survivors of the Babylonian captivity was unmarked by miraculous events.

The Occurrence of miracles at the Time of the Lord and the Apostles:

Hebrews 1 stresses the superiority of God's revelation in Christ to that through the prophets. John the Baptist, the last of the prophets and the one who pointed directly to Christ as God's Son (John 1:29,34), did not work miracles (John 10:41): there was no need, for the Son Himself had come. Christ, from the very outset of His ministry, performed miracles which demonstrated His deity, power and glory (Heb. 2:4; John 20:30,31).

Christ's incarnation marks the very pivot of God's dealings, not just with Israel, but with all men. The old national era of the Law was ending and, following the Lord's death and resurrection, the new dispensation of God's grace toward all men would begin. His miracles proclaimed that "My Servant" had come and, with the single recorded exception of the cursing of the unfruitful fig tree (Mat. 21:18,19), revealed also God's love acting in Christ in blessing to men. The ultimate revelation of God, therefore, was accompanied by an overwhelming demonstration of His power and glory: John 21:25 suggests that the Lord's miracles may have outnumbered all those of Old Testament times.

The Occurrence of miracles in Post-apostolic Times:

The apostles and others were also empowered to work miracles, but they

ceased early in the history of the first century churches. The Bible indicates, however, that miracles will recur at some future time when the Antichrist has established himself in Jerusalem. Two witnesses, described in Revelation 11, will appear and, by means of fearful acts of judgement, will assert God's power that is being so directly challenged.

The Lord's miracles:

Three Greek words are used to describe miracles in the New Testament; they are translated as 'signs "wonders", and "powers". Of these, "signs" is used only incidentally in the synoptic gospels, but frequently by John, especially as an evidence of the Lord's divine commission (John 3:2). Christ's miracles were primarily an encouragement to faith (John 11:45) and to belief in Him as the Son of God (John 20:31): other purposes were listed in the opening article of this series. They did not force men into faith, however indeed, many remained indifferent despite the signs and some, unable to deny the evidence, attributed His power to Satan (Luke 11:14-20). Others, like Herod Antipas, simply wished to see Him perform wonders to satisfy their curiosity (Luke 23:8).

The incarnation and the resurrection are the central miracles of Scripture: they stand apart from all others. The Lord often said that He would rise from the dead' and He linked the rising of Lazarus with His own resurrection (John 11:2-7). The reality of Christ's bodily resurrection has been challenged frequently, but it is central to the Christian frith.

C.S. Lewis groups the Lord's miracles into those of the Old Creation'

and those of the New. He comments3:

I contend that in all these miracles alike the incarnate God does suddenly and locally something that God has done or will do in general... They focus at a particular point either in God's actual, or His future operations on the universe. When they reproduce operations we have already seen on the large scale they are miracles of the Old Creation: when they focus on those which are still to come they are miracles of the New.

Most of the Lord's miracles fit into the first category, for example, the miracles of healing, the feeding of the crowds, the destruction of the fig tree, and many of the instances in which He demonstrated His control of nature, as when He stilled the storm on Galilee. In all these instances He did rapidly and locally what naturally happens generally and over a period of time. Miracles of the New Creation, however, involve processes that are foreign to nature, the prime examples being the restoration of the deed to life, but also included here would be His walking on the water. Such signs were anticipatory in that they shadow the enactment of such general statements as "we shall all be changed" and "the dead shall be raised" (1 Cor. 15:51,52). In common with the other miracles, these also encourage faith, for through them God demonstrates His power to do even these astonishingly novel things and thereby His promises receive, as it were, a practical endorsement in much the same way that the gift of the Holy Spirit to the believer is the earnest of his future inheritance.

The impact of the Lord's miracles:

Jesus, like the prophets, did most of His signs in Israel but even His disciples were "slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken" (Luke 24:25). The Lord's miracles became the subject of considerable debate (John 7:25-31); the people even speculated that He was Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets (Mat. 16:14). He was rejected, despite all that He did and said (John 15:24). The unbelief of the people of Chorazin, and Bethsaida in the face of the works He did there was particularly hurtful to Him (Mat. 11:20-24). Jesus said to the Pharisees "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall be no sign given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet (Mat. 12:39-41), implying that the ultimate sign is that of His resurrection. It was to be the touchstone of faith, not just for Israel but for all, and so it remains (Rom. 10:9). His disciples, therefore, placed the resurrection at the very centre of the gospel, whether it was preached to Jews in Jerusalem (Acts 2:22-24) or to Greeks at Athens (Acts 17:31): Paul says, in effect, no resurrection, no faith (1 Cor. 15:17).

Comparisons and Contrasts:

The power to perform miracles was given to the apostles in order to validate their authority and to confirm the divine character of the testimony of the churches they established. Such power extended even beyond the apostles (1 Cor. 12:10) and did not derive from their holiness (Acts 3:12); their signs were an extension of the Lord's miracles and thereby the veracity of their witness to Him was confirmed. There are, however, some significant differences between them. Apart from the withered fig tree, all the Lord's miracles were done in love and resulted in blessing, whereas at least some of the apostles' were judgemental (Acts 5:1-6; 13:4-12). Further, the apostles' miracles were restricted to the person; they appear not to have had power over the forces of nature, as did the Lord. Before long, however, the power to perform miracles ceased. Revelation 2 and 3 give a last glimpse of the churches in Asia and, by then, false teaching had taken hold in some of them.

An even more stark contrast is presented between the Lord's miracles and those of the two witnesses of Revelation 11. They will live when the

Antichrist has imposed his rule, accompanied by "signs and lying wonders" (2 Thes. 2:9). Once again it will be a critical time in Jewish affairs and the power of the two witnesses will show that, like Moses and Elijah, they are God's servants (Rev. 11:3-7). But, where Christ brought blessings in love, they will have a fearful capability to bring death to those opposed to God.

For the present, God has revealed Himself in the Scriptures, which record His dealings with man, the Lord's works, and the Acts of the apostles. There is now no need of miracles. We are invited to trust Christ as God's Son and our Saviour on the evidence provided in the Scriptures. But the word "miracle" is loosely used all too frequently. God's power is as unlimited as ever, but care is needed in drawing the important distinction between answers to the prayers of faith on the one hand and to the working of miracles on the other.

The miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ attested abundantly to His deity, but God did not leave it there. He also declared openly, "This is My beloved Son: hear ye Him" (Mark 9:7).

1.The Encyclopedia of Philosophy P. Edwards (Ed. in chief) 1967 Macmillan inc., vol 5 and 6, p.346.

2.The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church F.L. Cross and E.A. Livingstone (Eds) 1944 (Second ed), Oxford University Press.

3. Lewis, C.S. 1947 Miracles, Fontana, pp.138-9.

Bishop, A. C. | Dec 1992
The Lord's Miracles