Miracles of Jesus: What They Reveal About God
- Jack Selcher
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
Summary
Jesus performed miracles through divine authority as the Son of God, revealing God’s power, compassion, and kingdom. His miracles over nature, sickness, demons, and death demonstrated His identity as the Messiah and pointed toward His resurrection, the greatest miracle of all. Through these signs, Jesus invited people to believe in Him and receive eternal life.
Skepticism About Jesus’ Miracles
Bart D. Ehrman, a biblical scholar, rejects the Bible’s miracle stories, believing they can’t be proven as historical facts. 1 Richard Dawkins, an atheist, rejects miracles as violations of natural laws. 2
Many others are skeptical that Jesus performed miracles, assuming that natural laws are inviolable unless a Mount Everest of evidence proves otherwise. Underlying their unbelief in miracles is their assumption that there is no God who can suspend the operation of natural laws at will. In short, they believe that miracles don’t happen because they can’t happen.
Natural Laws and God’s Authority
Natural laws describe what usually happens, not what must happen. Nothing is too hard for God (Genesis 18:14; Matthew 19:26), who can do whatever He wants.
Jesus’ Power Over Creation
Only God has authority over creation, sickness, death, and demons. Jesus walked on water (John 6:19), calmed storms (Matthew 8:23-27), turned water into wine (John 2:9), and multiplied a boy’s lunch of bread and fish into enough to feed thousands (Matthew 14:13-21).
Jesus’ Divine Identity
Jesus’ identity explains how he could perform miracles. He was fully God (John 1:1) and fully human (John 1:14). God’s divine power and authority worked through Him as the Son of God.
The Work of the Trinity in Miracles
His actions were both in harmony with the Father’s will (John 5:19) and Holy Spirit empowered (Matthew 12:28).
Together, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit provided a foretaste of future reality when God’s control becomes visible and total. The miracles signaled an in-breaking of God’s kingdom on earth. They foreshadowed the abundance and blessing of Jesus’s future reign when pain, death, and scarcity will disappear.
The Power of God’s Words
God’s words enable the reality they command. In the beginning, God spoke the universe into existence without flexing a muscle. When Jesus said, “Lazarus, come out,” (John 11:43), His words were life-restoring.
Jesus’ Authority Over Nature
When He commanded the wind to become calm and quiet during a fierce storm, the power and authority of His words made it obey in an eyeblink (Mark 4:39). When Jesus commanded, nature complied. Unlike the prophets, He didn’t have to pray to the Father and wait for a response. Unlike most politicians, He used His power to benefit others rather than Himself.
Why Jesus Performed Miracles
Let’s consider what and why of Jesus’ miracles. The Apostle John explains why he included seven miracles of Jesus in his gospel. “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31). Jesus performed miracles so that people might believe and have life in His name.
The Importance of Faith
Jesus performed miracles when people trusted Him to supply what they needed, and withheld them when unbelief reigned (Mark 6:5). Faith unlocked the door to Dr. Jesus’ healing ministry and revealed what trust in Him could do.
Miracles Demonstrate God’s Compassion
Jesus’ compassion and love for people motivated Him to remove their physical, emotional, and spiritual pain. His miracles reveal the depths of God’s love for us. Jesus had compassion for the crowd that was like sheep without a shepherd (Mark 6:5), for the sick (Matthew 14:14), for the hungry (Matthew 15:32), and for the blind (Matthew 20:34).
Miracles Reveal God’s Kingdom Is Here
Jesus’s miracles demonstrated that God’s kingdom has arrived. After John the Baptist, through his disciples, asked Jesus whether He was the one who was to come, Jesus replied, “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor” (Matthew 11:5).
Miracles Were the Prelude to Jesus’s Resurrection
Jesus identified Himself as the Messianic figure Isaiah prophesied (Isaiah 61:1). His miracles showed mastery over disease (Matthew 4:23), death (Luke 7:14), and demons (Matthew 8:16). They were the prelude for the main event, His death, burial, and resurrection to bring eternal life to those for whom He had compassion.
The Resurrection Was Jesus’s Greatest Miracle
That resurrection was Jesus’ greatest miracle, conquering sin and death and enabling humanity to be justly reconciled to God through the death of their substitute. His resurrection showed that His death was acceptable and revealed Jesus as God’s Son (Romans 1:4).
2. Dawkins, Richard. The God Delusion. Houghton Mifflin, 2006.
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