Have you ever wondered what a 'miracle' really is? We so often use this word when we really mean a series of 'natural' God-ordained events that seem to come together just perfectly. You might be in great need for something and it just so happened that someone you know actually has a spare one that you can have! Or it may be that you meet up with someone who just happens to be just the right person for some aspect of your life. We report such events to any who will hear by saying that it was a miracle. However a miracle is something that is extra-ordinary. It only occurs when the ordinary course of events, (cause and effect), is somehow suspended. We see this very clearly of course when we look at the life of our Lord Jesus. Water is not wine. Apart from the difference in chemical composition wine has a whole plethora of substances beyond mere alcohol depending where it was grown. Walking on water is not something that can be done normally and raising the dead and healing the sick perfectly is also counter to normal everyday experience. These are miracles and they seem to defy the normal operations of life and the 'systems' we observe. People who die do not come back to life. We can heal to an extent but a withered hand doesn't normally reform in an instant. Those who are seriously ill or crippled do not get healed in a moment of time. These events were what made Christ so famous when He was on the earth.
Now we often make the mistake of thinking that miracles are acts of God in distinction to other normal events. There is no such thing really as a normal event in the sense of an event that isn't under the direct supervision of God. He upholds all things by the power of His word. In Christ all things consist. He is in control of every motion, every 'atom', every event as it happens in real time. We call this 'providence'. God is sovereign over all. He rules and governs everything. But what would happen if God were to carry out miracles at random (from our point of view) and frequently? We would then never really know whether we could trust things to be normal! Isn't it wonderful that creation is regular, ordered and predictable? We can trust that day succeeds night and that when you drop an object it will always fall to the ground. We can really on the many useful things that occur like how light behaves and how we can use radio waves for instance. All of these things are the provision of a gracious loving God who has provided a world for us to live in which is regular and measurable. In fact it is this regularity and orderliness of creation which is a great witness to the fact that God created all things in the first place. Now we know that miracles have occurred because we have the word of God (and God cannot lie) which reveals miracles to us both in the Old Testament and in the New. The question is then why did God allow miracles to be performed?
I think this is a question which is not frequently asked. What are the purpose of miracles? After all we may pray for a healing to occur and God may as He wishes do something miraculous and heal a person. Or He may wish to allow the person to be healed in a natural, providential way. Either way both can be attributed to God because He is the One who controls and governs creation and He alone has the right to intervene and perform a miracle if He so chooses. But why did God ever do them? Well I think the answer is because He wanted to signify something. That is why the miracles are referred to in the New Testament as 'signs' and as 'wonders'. They were meant to arrest the attention and to point to something. Clearly the many miracles performed by the Lord Jesus Christ were an indication of His Deity. Who else but the Creator could command the waves and the wind to obey them? Who else had the power of life? Who else could command evil spirits to do their will? The answer is self-evident. God alone and so Christ demonstrated His divine nature.
What then about the apostles? What was the significance of them doing miracles? I think that here it was because there would be nothing objective which would clearly demonstrate that they were indeed God's true representatives. The Old Testament makes it clear that there were two tests for prophets. First whatever they decreed had to come to pass or there had to be some sign or wonder performed to corroborate what they said. Then also what they spoke must be in agreement and conformity with the law and the revealed will and word of God. Think about it God wants to reveal Himself. How can we be sure that the person who stands before us and says 'this is what God says' is true and faithfaul and right? There must be an objective test otherwise we are all at sea. It is no good saying that we have the gift of discernment because anyone could claim such a gift. How do we know that that person really does have the gift of discernment? Think of the copious number of false prophets. Think of Joseph Smith and the founder of the mormon group. What objective evidence do we have that he was inspired of God? The answer is none whatsoever and the story of his tablets and so on is mere fabrication. Likewise the claims of Muhammad and Islam are equally spurious as there was no objective test of the claims made by this man. In sharp contrast the death and attested resurrection of Christ witnessed by more than 500 people and attested by miracles which were noted as such by the authorities of the day gives the Christian faith more than ample credibility. But we then ask is there any further requirement for miracles today? Note I am not asking: do we need miracles today? I am saying what is the reason for miracles today? Do we need to have an objective test for the faith? Have not the miracles which have been recorded (even in such a way as to convince true seekers and some of these with legal credentials) provided such an objective test? Are not the many miracles of conversion to faith a continued evidence of the reliability of our faith in Christ?
Miracles are the signal interventions of God in the natural realm of events which are also organised by Him. They signify something very important. We can think of Moses and his place, of the prophets and chiefly above all of the Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles who were attested as His representatives by the miracles they performed. Should we expect miracles to be performed today? I do not say they will never be performed. But I am convinced that there are none like Christ or the apostles who perform miracles. I say this because there are none today who are laying the foundations of our faith as the apostles did. I say this also because miracles by their very nature must be very rare events. Otherwise we would not know what regular orderliness would be.
One of the greatest miracles of course is true conversion. See how many of these there have been since Pentecost! Do remember that where there are miracles of healing the people who may benefit will later die. Equally where there are miracles of creation (changing water to wine, walking on water and so on) be assured that creation is waiting for its destruction and change. In contrast those who are 'born again' of the Spirit of God are a miracle of God that ill last into eternity.
Praise God for miracles. Praise God for providence!
