Miracles

14 min readNov 4, 2020

13. Your ways, God, are holy.
What god is as great as our God?
14. You are the God who performs miracles;
you display your power among the peoples.
15. With your mighty arm you redeemed your people,
the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.

— Psalms 77, verses 13–15.

“Where are the miracles now?” My friend asked our Sunday bible study teacher. “How come there are no news of pastors or Christians healing cancer patients or raising people from the dead?”

I remember my bible study teacher’s face go through a series of complex emotions: utter confusion of how to correctly phrase the answer to overwhelming doubt of everything he was taught about miracles to total embarrassment of his inability to answer his student. Being an immature, prepubescent boy that I was in elementary school, I was just happy that my bible study teacher was stumped. But now, growing and questioning the faith that I was raised upon, I was having the same questions. What are miracles? What are/were the purposes of Biblical miracles? Who can perform miracles? Why isn’t the world a much better place than it is now through said miracles? Why aren’t stage 4 cancer patients miraculously getting healed, why aren’t the dead coming back to life? Where are the miracles now?

Defining “Miracle”

To answer these questions, we have to look at the definition of the word “miracle”. I’m going to be cliché and use the Merriam-Webster definition:

Mir·a·cle
an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs

I hope you saw my emphasis on the words “DIVINE INTERVENTION”. They are such important words to use in defining miracles.

All the miracles in the Bible or miracles happening now did not occur without the divine. Who or what is the divine? God. A useful life-tip: if someone says they can perform miracles without the divine, that man or woman most likely runs a cult or is an aspiring magician. Most likely.

Let’s look at the definition C.S. Lewis used in his book, Miracles: “I use the word ‘Miracle’ to mean an interference with Nature by supernatural power.” An act that shakes the perspective of natural law that people accept “naturally or subconsciously”, a “super”natural power. Here’s where the word intervention shows itself.

Natural law means something that everyone accepts universally, either consciously or subconsciously. Like how we aren’t floating in the air due to gravity. Or how the Earth will always rotate around the sun. They are laws that we know we can/will never break. But the miracles intervene in these laws.

Let’s look at Dr. Sproul’s definition of miracles; he calls it an “extraordinary work performed by the immediate power of God in the external perceivable world, which is an act against nature that only God can do”. Basically, it is a more precise version of C.S. Lewis’s definition. Instead of supernatural power, now God enters the definition. I appreciate Sproul’s definition more because he makes a relation between supernatural works and God’s miracles.

So, tying all these weird, probably out-of-context definitions together, miracles seems to be defined as “a supernatural work performed only through and by the power of the divine God, which goes against the laws of nature that people innately follow”. So, we can conclude that no men or women, no human or animal can perform miracles on their own.

Let’s get that straight. No pastors, doctors, leaders, presidents, missionaries, your friendly next door retired cult leaders from the 70s, your motivational speakers from a winter retreat so many years ago in youth group, can perform miracles of their own accord.

The Greatness of God

Ok. I think we are done talking about people’s definition of miracles. What does the Bible say about miracles, and what is their purpose? It would be so nice if God made the writers of each book create a dictionary section for later Christians, but we unfortunately do not have that luxury. So let’s look at miracles performed in the Old and New Testaments to see if we can get a better look at biblical miracles.

My absolute favorite miracle in the Old Testament is in Joshua 10. It’s actually a series of supernatural acts that the Lord performs for the Israelites. Joshua and the Israelites are in Canaan. They conquered lands and made alliances that they weren’t supposed to make (that’s a long story of the history of the Israelites in Canaan that I recommend you guys to read on your own free time because it is pretty interesting). The five kings of Amorites, people who were originally living in Canaan, were threatened by the alliance that the Israelites made with Gibeonites, and hence wanted to take over the city of Gibeon before the threat became greater. Gibeonites ask the Israelites for help, and Joshua, leader of the Israelites, brings the entire army of Israel to come to their aid.

Now here is where I want to go into a human perspective of this event. I have a strong, probably correct suspicion that the army of Israel was afraid. And they are almost justified to be so. They are going against a giant force, a literal army of men. Against the Amorites who only united just to bring Israel’s downfall. Verse 7 says they were men of mighty valor. And they really were. I would just run away to be honest. But even then, it is completely understandable that they would be afraid of the coming battle.

But here is where the assurance of the Lord comes in. The Lord speaks to Joshua in verse 8, “Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands. Not a man of them shall stand before you.” Wow. He assuringly says “Hey! don’t be afraid. I am with you. You have already won because of Me.”

And as if those words of encouragement were not enough for the Israelites, the Lord performs His first miracle by throwing the enemy into confusion, and the Israelites drive them out of Gibeon. As the enemies are running away to their own cities, the Lord hurls giant hailstones at them.

Verse 11: “There were more who died because of the hailstones than the sons of Israel killed with the sword.”

These miracles alone would’ve brought the Israelites to their knees. These acts gave the Israelites the assurance, the faith that Lord their God is with them, and with Him by their side, losing was not an option.

And as if these signs were not enough, Joshua commands the sun and the moon to stay still. And they do. It says in verse 13, “And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped… The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day.” (If you guys want to talk about technicalities, technically, the Earth’s rotation came to a stop for a “day”, because the sun is already “still” in the perspective of the Earth.)

Now people can and have debated about whether this event really happened. I mean, this whole event sounds very made-up. But as Christians, we believe that these things happened. (Hopefully in the future I can study and write an article about Biblical history and apologetics of the credibility of the Bible.)

What is the main point of this story? Is it that the Israelites, the underdog team, won against all odds, or that Joshua had fabulous leadership? No. The main point, at least I think, is that the Lord Yahweh silenced the unbelief and fear of the Israelites by showing His greatness through miracles.

Psalms 77:14 says, “You are the God who performs miracles;
you display your power among the peoples.” This whole chapter is an interesting read. The author shares of how his dwindling faith in the Lord is rekindled every time he remembers the deeds (miracles) of the Lord.

So here comes one of many reasons for the existence of miracles: God reveals Himself through these miracles in order to assure and strengthen the faith of His believers and to bring the unbelievers to repentance. Makes sense, right? God showed both the Israelites and their enemies that He is indeed God Almighty, and that to whoever sides with the Lord will be victorious in the world.

Let’s talk about a different reason for the existence of miracles. Let’s now go to the New Testament. I want to especially focus on the miracles that Jesus performed. One of the most famous miracles that Jesus performed was turning water into wine. John 2 talks about how Jesus, in a wedding, turns water into wine when it ran out. Wait, how is changing water into wine a sign of showing the greatness of God? Isn’t that a gateway leading people to the sin of debauchery and drunkenness?

It indeed shows the greatness of God. The sins that can come from this miracle are human choice, a matter of free will. Giving people a gateway to sin is not the purpose of this miracle. Dr. Cliff Lewis puts this miracle into the chemistry perspective beautifully:

“The amount of energy it would take to perform this atomic deconstruction and reconstruction is staggering. This intermolecular energy being released is the source of the explosive energy from an atomic bomb… To do so without any visible energy transformation of the liquid (John does not say anything about people noticing the transformation) indicates a mastery of natural law far beyond our current comprehension.”

So, this guy with a PhD in the field of chemistry is saying that in worldly/humanly terms, this miracle is impossible to perform back then, and even impossible now. But how does that show the greatness of God? Simply speaking, it shows that God can do acts that humans cannot even fathom. I firmly believe that this act of transforming water in to wine cannot and will not happen again, unless God wills through his supernatural powers.

Validation of the Words of God

Let’s look at a more common type of miracle in the New Testament: healing. One very interesting pattern that someone mentioned to me when I was writing this article was the fact that a word of forgiveness preceded most healing done by Jesus. Let’s look at Matthew 9, when Jesus heals the paralyzed man. He doesn’t start with healing, he starts with forgiveness:

“Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.” Matthew 9:2.

As soon as he says that, the Pharisees and teachers of the law say “Blasphemy!” They say blasphemy because, back then, forgiveness of sin was an act only performable by God and only God the Yahweh. So, in their perspective, here is a crazy person who claims that he is God by saying that he can forgive sins, which goes against the very belief that they live for. However, Jesus then silences the unbelief, saying “But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” (Matthew 9:6), and heals the paralytic.

Jesus basically said, as he healed the sick, “I have the power to forgive sins, and here is a proof of that.” The crowd, as they heard and saw this interaction and miracle, are left in awe, and “praised God, who had given such authority to man.”

John 10:37-38 says this: “If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” Pretty much self explanatory, right?

So two things come from this passage: Jesus has the authority to forgive sins, and the greatness of God (Jesus) is shown through this healing. I think we pretty much established that miracles show the greatness of God. But here we come across a second point: miracles validate/confirm the words of God. In here, the healing of the paralytic confirmed Jesus’s claim that he can forgive sins. In other miracles, such as opening the eyes of a man born blind, Jesus says “Neither this man nor his parents sinned…but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him”(John 9). Jesus makes a controversial statement about sin, and claims the validity of the statement by performing an act that only God can do.

We can see miracles being used to validate statements from God many times in the Old Testament as well. For example, when Moses strikes the rock to give water to Israelites, this act of miracle only further validated his position as a prophet of God’s words[Numbers 20](but later suffered a huge consequence as acting in a way that did not show God’s character).

The Kingdom of God

We also notice something else in the miracles of Jesus. They are not destructive miracles like the Joshua 6 one was. Reading the Gospels will reveal to us clearly that the almost all the works of Jesus were for the restoration of the broken relationship humanity had/has with God the Father. Through these healings, the participants and the bystanders saw and experienced something so bright and wonderful, something that they only were supposed to be able to experience after their departure from this world: the Kingdom of God and his Son.

That was a very long sentence. But breaking it down, I mean that the people from the times of Jesus saw pieces and parts of the kingdom of God that were revealed to them through the miracles. We see healing of physical bodies and healing of mental conditions and casting out of demons. We see hearts healed and identities restored. We see that the Son of God, in a final act of his miraculous love, died painfully on the cross in the valley of Golgotha, to be resurrected again to show us that He is the living hope. And now, we live within the everlasting effect of the greatest miracle of all time, and we are living in the reign of Jesus Christ.

We see, although we don’t deserve it, the Kingdom of God manifested on this world, and we can hope in the future as we live for the Lord.

So we see that miracles are used for these reasons. I might not have went over all the reasons why miracles exist, but I picked the ones that I believe are the most important for the Christian faith.

Where are the Miracles Now?

So here comes the last and the most important question: “where are the miracles now?” I propose a different wording to this question: “are miracles necessary anymore?”

The answer is yes and no. Personally, I believe that they still exist and can occur. But why don’t we see them as often as the Bible describes them to be?

I didn’t have an answer to this question until I approached the end of writing this piece. But after meditating and reasoning and praying, I came up with two reasons why miracles do not happen as often or as impactful as biblical times.

First, we have the Bible. We have the living Word of God available to us everywhere and anywhere we go (my Bible app streak ended couple days ago so I am very sad). As I have mentioned before, one of the reasons of the existence of miracles was to validate the acts and words of the people who were sent by God. This is the same reason why we do not see major prophets in this world. In the times of the disciples, they did not have a set “book” of Christianity. But thanks to God for using the forefathers, now we do have that luxury, called the Bible. Why would we need miracles to validate the word of the Lord when we have the living word of God available to us?

But here is a counterpoint: there are areas in this world where the Word of God has not been translated or made available. In those places, I believe that God allows miracles through the missionaries and pastors. In the places where the name of Jesus is first preached, there are miracles and exposures of light for the first time.

For the second reason, I want to start off with two verses:

Matthew 12:39
“He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.”
John 20:29
“Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Can you see a pattern here? These two are addressed to individuals who would not believe Jesus or his acts without signs and miracles. The Pharisees called Jesus a heretic; even though he showed countless wondrous miracles, they would not believe. It was, and still is, a matter of faith.

Let’s look at the John verse; Jesus tells Thomas to have faith, to believe without seeing. Are we living a life that exudes faith in Jesus? Or is the foundation of our faith on the miraculous things that we have seen or He has done in our lives? Do we have a faith that can last through dry seasons, hardships, and testings, or will we always require a miracle from God to go before him in faith?

Sometimes we feel that God is silent, that He doesn’t care for us, and we think that the lack of miracles in our lives are a proof of that. But Jesus, in these two instances, tells us this, that we do not need miracles in order for us to have faith in him. Miracles are merely a tool for God to start or increase our faiths in the past, but it is not the only way God can do such a thing. We don’t need to go to altars or chapels or churches, or visit priests and pastors in order to communicate with God. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we can now have a personal relationship with God the Father. The Gospel is a miracle enough for us to experience the Kingdom of God and have faith in Jesus.

We don’t need miracles in order for us to have faith in God, because now we can have a personal relationship with God the Father. But that doesn’t mean miraculous acts have ceased; they are still happening in other parts of the world where the name of Jesus has not reached yet, in places where miracles are used to expose the name of Jesus and bring people to their knees in awe. Miracles will still occur until every man and woman has heard the name of Jesus.

Christian Life in Remembrance of Miracles

We have to know that the purpose of miracles is not for our own personal, worldly gain, but for the gain for the Kingdom of God. We have to stop thinking for ourselves when we look for miracles, but to consider if the Kingdom of God is expanded and revealed through the miracles we ask for. We have to stop thinking that miracles are the only way our faith can be grounded or grown.

God still cares and loves us immeasurably more than we can imagine. Us remembering the deeds and the names of God in the morning, us breathing in the air of grace each day, and us seeing the image of God in every brother and sister we meet are just a small part of innumerable proofs that God cares and sees us. He is with us and always for us, for our good. So let us remember that, although they exist, miracles are not necessary for us as believers to have faith and to have a healthy and fulfilling relationship with God.

The thoughts that I gave in this article are a reflection of my own personal revelations and thoughts, so take it with caution and communicate with the Holy Spirit in your heart. But I hope that this encourages you to look further into the terms and facts that we learned from the Bible studies and to investigate and research what they really mean and how it relates to living the Christian life in this world.

References:

Miracles

Defining “Miracle”

The Greatness of God

Validation of the Words of God

The Kingdom of God

Where are the Miracles Now?

Christian Life in Remembrance of Miracles

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Written by David Kwon

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