Why did Jesus and His apostles
perform miracles? What is it about the “miracle” that makes it unique in God’s
plan? What was God really doing with miracles some 2,000 years ago? These are
very important questions the answers to which are extremely important as it relates to our
overall understanding of Scripture.
The modern American hermeneutic
reads the reader into the text. The typical evangelical Christian sees himself
in Scripture. He assumes that the activity of God recorded in divine Scripture
is normative. That is to say, he fails to distinguish between God’s actions in
the revelation of redemptive history and God’s actions outside that revelation.
Unless Scripture and its contents are understood within the right framework, a
variety of error is sure to follow. The purpose of this post is to make a case
for the view that God’s activity in Scripture must not be confused with God’s
activity outside Scripture. The logical implications for a right understanding
and defense of Scripture are far-reaching when it comes to this particular
subject.
To begin with, a miracle is not
just as unique event, although it is that. A miracle is a unique event not
capable of being duplicated. It requires divine, or supernatural activity. God,
in His providence decreed that the Messiah would be identifiable as one who
could work miracles of every conceivable type. The promise of a Messiah came
early in the history of mankind. From the beginning of the fall, the promise of
the “head-crushing seed of the woman” was given explicitly to the serpent. What
was a curse for the serpent was the glorious promise of life and grace to our
first parents! Who would this “seed” be? Who would be the “serpent-head-crusher”
that would come to rescue mankind? As God continued to unfold or reveal His
plan in history, He slowly began to reveal identifiers. The seed would come
through Abraham, specifically then through Isaac, through Jacob, through Judah,
and finally through David. Additional identifiers for who this redeemer would
be came through the prophets. The Messiah would be born of a virgin, perform
many supernatural acts, and sit upon the throne of David.
The NT writers went to great
lengths to connect the works of Jesus Christ with the promises of the coming
Messiah. Their goal was not to give us something thrilling and exciting. It was
not their intent to impress us with the dazzling display of God’s power so that
we too should expect similar works of God in our lives if we could just conjure
up enough faith. The purpose was to demonstrate to their first-century audience
that Jesus Christ is in fact, the “head-crushing-redeemer” promised in Gen.
3:15. It was to show that this is the one the prophets and Moses wrote about.
Now, it seems reasonable to hold that God would select proofs for the
identification of the Messiah that no human could replicate so as to create
confusion. And to that end, God providentially used the unique phenomenon of “miracle”
to display the Messiah. God is not the author of confusion. He made a promise,
gave clear criteria for that promise, and then delivered on that promise without
ambiguity. Hence, we have the miracles of Jesus Christ.
(1) Only the Messiah will have
these miracles surrounding his life.
(2) Jesus had those miracles
surrounding his life.
(3) Therefore, Jesus must be the
Messiah.
(4) Since Jesus is the Messiah, His
message must be from God and must be believed.
Jesus selected a small group man,
taught them his doctrine, gave them a special relationship with the Holy Spirit
to enlighten them and preserve his teachings in them, entrusted them with His
message, and commissioned them to be authoritative leaders of the church. Paul
describes it this way; “having been built on the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone.” (Eph. 2:20) Jesus
also empowered these men to work miracles as an identifier that they are His
apostles, speaking with His authority. (1 Cor. 12:12)
So now we have seen that God used miracles as a means to identify the Messiah
and His apostles. Miracles then, should not be understood as a way for to
excite us, to impress us, to wow us with displays of His incredible power. They
are always pointing to something greater. Miracles are signs deliberately pointing
to revelation. They are identifiers. They point to Christ. They point to the
Word of Christ. The words of the Messiah are authoritative because they are the
words of God, and they are identifiable because they are accompanied by the
facts of the prophets, which included miracles. The words of the apostles are
authoritative because they are the words of the Messiah. Moreover, we know that
they are the Messiah’s special apostles because of the miracles and signs the
risen Messiah enables them to perform. And since they are His special apostles,
His authoritative agents carrying His message, we know their message is the
Messiah’s message and therefore, authoritative. From these facts we know that
the apostles were special messengers of Christ. Their relationship to Christ
was unique. We also know that the apostles had a special and unique
relationship with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit worked in them, enlightening
them to understand the teachings of the Messiah, and He worked in them so that
they would remember everything Jesus had said to them. Because this is true, the
first-century Christians and every Christian thereafter have a Word from God
for our lives that we can identify.
It is not difficult to see the relationship of miracles to the
revelation of Scripture. They serve as identifiers of that which eventually
became written down: The Word of God. If we will only acknowledge that the
works of God in Scripture were unique in that they served this purpose of
identification, perhaps we can avoid the erroneous view that Scripture is
nothing more than a history of God acts at that time, no different from God
acts at subsequent times, and in particular, at this time.
When someone claims to have heard from God, that God spoke to them and
told them to do x, it is only fair that we ask for justification. Why should we
accept the claim that “God has spoken to this person?” It is an extraordinary
claim, and always has been, to say that God spoke. God has a long history of
making it crystal clear when He speaks. If you do not believe me, ask Adam, or
Enoch, or Noah, or Abraham, or Moses, or any of the prophets and apostles. And
that is the point of the miracles we see in Scripture. The last time I checked,
we are not living in Scripture. As the one TV character put it: “This isn’t the
Bible.”
·
Unique proofs were to
accompany the Messiah.
·
The unique proofs were
specific.
·
Jesus performed these
specific, unique proofs perfectly
·
Jesus is the Messiah
·
Jesus says that His
apostles will do the works that He did
·
The apostles performed the
miracles that Jesus performed
·
Therefore, these apostles
of Christ were readily identifiable as Christ’s authoritative messengers
·
Jesus said His apostles
would be especially gifted with the Holy Spirit to understand, remember, and
proclaim all His teachings
·
These apostles, identified
by their unique abilities, issued a specific body of teachings
·
Therefore, these teachings
are the teachings of Jesus Christ as interpreted by the Holy Spirit in the
writings of the holy Apostles
·
If we look at Scripture
from this perspective, we can certainly understand the role of the miracle in
God’s revelation: it was an identifier to the first-century eye-witnesses but
it began with God’s promises in the writings of Moses and the prophets long
ago.
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