The miracle-working God

Across the ages Christians have taken for granted the accounts of Jesus’ life and his numerous miracles. The miraculous certainly lies close to the heart of Christianity. The Gospels begin and end with miracles. Almost every page includes examples of the exercise of God’s power through Jesus, and through those who believe in Him.

Let us meditate on the miracles of Jesus as they are brilliantly illustrated by selected authors known for their rich spiritual insights revealing how God moved through His creation, altering lives wherever He went. HE REMAINS THE MIRACLE-WORKING GOD.

Jesus’ miraculous birth

Pat Robertson states, “The miracles surrounding the birth of Jesus combine the telltale fingerprints of God and all the awkward actions that mortals bring to any situation. Angels announced, and humans questioned, doubted, cowered, and reacted. Stars moved across the sky and people wondered and wandered.”

It is said that God accomplished so much even with reluctant participants. But here and there God found men and women who stepped out in faith and discovered that He does what He promises.

Pat Robertson continues, “The Incarnation may now be a matter of public record, but the event itself had all the marks of a sneak attack. Creation was printed for God’s visit, yet the mode and method of His coming caught everyone by surprise. The powers of evil were primed for a battle — they never expected God to slip into their stronghold as a baby.

“God entered into humanity to bring a second Adam, God the Son. The Holy Spirit brought about conception through the Virgin without the intervention of the normal reproductive cycle of man. That is why Jesus is called the Son of God.”

He was not the son of Joseph, nor was He the son of a Roman soldier. He was not the son of any human father. Instead, He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, who brought about a second creation — a second man without the original sin of the male line of Adam.

Bringing Jesus into the family of Mary, made Him a descendant of Abraham and David, which fulfilled the various promises that God had made to them. Through Mary His mother the Lord received His human nature. “So, Jesus Christ was unique, conceived by the Holy Spirit, but of the house and lineage of David.”

A life of miracles

Michael Green argues, “You simply cannot disentangle Jesus from miracles. Scholars in the last century tried very hard to discover a non-miraculous Jesus. They utterly failed.”

Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, a bestseller in 2003, speaks of a very human Jesus and distracts many from the true divinity of Our Lord.

Every single strand of material in the Gospels shows Jesus as someone who was different in His powers from other people. Through Him, God acted in a way impossible to understand if we think of Him simply as a good man.

The miracles begin at His birth —without a human father. They continue in His ministry: miracles of healing and of exorcism; nature miracles, such as His feeding of multitude or His walking on the sea in a storm; and ultimately His raising from the dead of Lazarus, of the widow of Nain’s son, and of Jairus’ daughter. Then, THE GREATEST OF MIRACLES IS HIS OWN RESURRECTION FROM THE GRAVE.

That is Jesus, a remarkable Being, who exercised unheard-of powers in His 33 years on earth. HE EXHIBITED MIRACULOUS POWERS, NOT ONCE OR TWICE, BUT CONTINUALLY.

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son

The miraculous conception and birth of Jesus by a virgin was a thing unheard of before, and unparalleled since. The first promise concerned the seed of the woman, not the offspring of the man.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon reminded, “Since venturous woman led the way in the sin which brought forth Paradise lost, she, and she alone, ushers in the Regainer of Paradise.”

The mother of Jesus Christ “has been described simply as ‘the virgin,’ not a princess or prophetess, nor a woman of influence. True, the blood of kings ran in her veins; nor was her mind a weak and untaught one, for she could sweetly sing most sweetly a song of praise; but yet how humble her position, how poor the man to whom she stood affianced, and how miserable the accommodation afforded to the new-born King!”

When the mighty angel entered that humble home in Nazareth, unannounced and called Mary by name, the teenage girl must have looked like she had seen a ghost. Gabriel recognized Mary’s fear and told her not to be afraid. Then, he told her something that would have seemingly frightened her even more. Even though she was not married and was still sexually innocent, she was about to have a baby. Not just any baby, this child “will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High” (Luke 1:32).

The angel instructed Mary to give her child an Aramaic name: JESUS. Like its Hebrew equivalent, JOSHUA, the name meant “the Lord saves.”

Is Christ’s birth merely a fabricated or trumped-up legend?

As the lowly maiden was honored to be the mother of God, she was moved to respond with the inspiring psalm of the Magnificat: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior. For He has looked upon His handmaid’s lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed. The Mighty One has done great things for me… He has shown might with His arm, dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart. He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly. The hungry He has filled with good things; the rich He has sent away empty” (Luke 1:46-53).

The virgin birth is an underlying tenet in everything the Bible says about Jesus. To throw out the virgin birth is to reject Christ’s deity, the accuracy and authority of the Scripture, and a host of other related doctrines that are at the heart of the Christian faith.

No issue is more important than the virgin birth to our understanding of who Jesus is. If we deny that Jesus is God, we have denied the very essence of Christianity. Everything else the Bible teaches about Christ hinges on the truth we celebrate at Christmas — that Jesus is God in human flesh.

John MacArthur explains, “If the story of His birth is merely a fabricated or trumped-up legend so is the rest of what Scripture tells us about Him. The virgin birth is as crucial as the resurrection in substantiating His deity. It is not an optional truth. Anyone who rejects Christ’s deity rejects Christ absolutely —even if he pretends otherwise.”

Our life is meant to be a miracle of divine power

Your everyday life is to be a proof that God works impossibilities. It is a series of impossibilities made possible by God’s almighty power. That is what the Christian needs. He has an almighty God that he worships, and he must learn to understand that he does not need a little of GOD’s power — HE NEEDS THE WHOLE OF GOD’S SUPREMACY TO KEEP HIM RIGHT, AND TO LIVE LIKE A CHRISTIAN.

The whole of Christianity is a work of God’s omnipotence. The birth of Christ Jesus is a manifestation of divine power. It is a fulfilment of the word given to Mary: “With God nothing shall be impossible.” We are also taught that it is according to the exceeding greatness of His mighty power that God raised Christ from the dead.

Andrew Murray asks, “Why is it that this miracle is so difficult for many of us to believe? That the Lord God, who formed mankind from the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, could impregnate one of His creation to form a human person in which His Spirit would reside, does not seem at all unreasonable to me.

“What would be far more difficult to believe would be that any ordinary man, conceived and born as we all are in sin, could possibly be divine in any sense. A virgin birth seems a most appropriate and creative way for God to enter His world.”

God with us, Immanuel

One of the most unbearable emotions is loneliness. That is why one of the most comforting names given to our Savior is Immanuel — GOD WITH US. He is present in our nature, in our sorrow, in our daily work, in our punishment, in our death, and now with us, or rather we with Him, in His resurrection, ascension, triumph, and in the splendor of the Second Advent.

Because of the indwelling Christ, believers are never separated from His permanent presence. We are in Christ and He is in us. What an encouragement! What comfort! What an assurance! We always have a shoulder to lean on —the broad shoulders of Immanuel. We always have someone to listen to our heartache — our constant companion and friend, Jesus.

Charles Stanley reminds, “Do not let the adversary rob you of the peace and joy that come from experiencing and enjoying the sweet presence of our God.”

Constant surprises

The second greatest miracle, next to Christ is what happens to a person who comes to know Christ personally. When we commit our lives to Him and invite Him to live in us, our days are filled with a constant succession of surprises.

Where do you need a miracle — what to you seems impossible? Persist! Don’t give up. At all costs make your way to the Master. Tell Him your need, and then leave it with Him. Even greater than the miracle you seek will be the miracle you become by seeking Him, touching Him and experiencing His matchless love.

(Reference: His Miracles — Devotions for everyday of the year)

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