What was the purpose of Jesus' miracles?

But why were the miracles wrought? The Saviour Himself tells us — "the works that I do, bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me" (John 5:36; John 10:25). They were thus graciously granted as aids to faith in His person and mission. Hence the rebuke to Philip, "Believe Me for the very works' sake." Hence, too, the Saviour's lament in John 15:24: "If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now they have both seen and hated both Me and My Father." Because the miracles were aids to faith they were all, with one exception, acts of mercy — acts which should have appealed to the sensibilities of all concerned as showing out the divine heart towards man.

It would be as foolish to over-state the value of miracles as it is to affect contempt for them. Aids to faith must not be confounded with the ground of faith. Faith founded on miracles is of so little worth that the Saviour, when surrounded by believers of this sort, refused to commit Himself to them (John 2:23-25). True faith is founded on the Word of God (Rom. 10:17). Simon Magus was attracted by miracles, and proved a fraud; Sergius Paulus desired to hear the Word of God, and so became a true disciple (Acts 8:13; Acts 13:7, 12).

A miracle is an act of superhuman power. All the miracles of the Lord Jesus were such, and were the attestation of His person and mission. He had come forth from the Father, and come into the world, and His miracles were the proof of this. They were His Father's works, as His arresting and challenging words to the Jews declared, "If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not. But if I do, though ye believe not Me, believe the works; that ye may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him" (John 10:37-38). The Holy Ghost speaking through Simon Peter on the day of Pentecost described these works as "miracles, wonders and signs which God did by Him." They were works of power that amazed the people, and were signs to them that God had come down to them in mercy.

His miracles all declared what the feelings of God were towards His creatures in their miseries, and though they were wrought in vain as far as the nation in which they were done was concerned, they abide for us in the record of them in the Holy Scriptures that we may read of them and meditate upon them and rejoice in that great salvation, "which first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by them that heard Him; God also bearing them witness both by signs and wonders and divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to His own will" (Heb. 2).

When Jesus was here He raised dead people to life. But His business when here was not to work miracles purely for the sake of showing that He could do so; but in order to make the Father known and to reveal God. He never did any work except with the object of manifesting the willingness of God to meet men in their every need, and to carry out God's love purpose.

The connection between parables and miracles. Everything that our Lord said, had a definite, spiritual purpose. We may be sure that this was also true of everything He did. They were not desultory acts. Everything contributed to the one great testimony which He was giving, for He came down from heaven not to do His own will, but the will of Him that sent Him. This will was the salvation of sinful man, effected by His grace. This salvation consisted in bringing man into the true knowledge of God, a knowledge of such kind that it resulted in moral likeness to Him. The miracles which were wrought, therefore, were not merely supernatural acts to call attention, nor indeed mere acts of kindness. We may be sure our blessed Lord's tender heart of compassion went out toward all who were sick and oppressed by the devil. If our hearts are moved by pity for the suffering, we may be sure that His throbbed perfectly in divine compassion and yet we greatly miss the scope of the miracles if we think of them simply as therapeutic acts.

But the word of Christ casts out the demon: in one last convulsion; permitted to show the reality of his malign power, ere he leaves unwillingly his prey. The people, amazed, accredit it as the testimony of a "new teaching," a fresh interposition of God in the affairs of men, as in truth it was. "Signs" were for the confirmation of the Word, wherever this was new, or where, perhaps, as in Elijah's time, it had been practically lost, and needed recovery. Where it had been received, among disciples of Christ even; where the workers of miracles had a distinct place, and signs originally followed those that believed, (Mark 16:17), they yet were given in conformity with the divine purpose as to them. The people, therefore, rightly inferred a new teaching from the power accompanying the Lord's word. And the manifestations of that power were completely in accordance with the grace that characterized the message that was being given. They were works of power in deliverance and blessing. The New Testament Elijah "wrought no miracle" (John 10:41); grace in the One that followed John lavished its wonders to attract the needy ones it sought.

Here then the field of service opens out: God in His overflow of goodness amid the sin and sorrow of the world finds in Christ the means of manifestation. In the gospel, for the first time, He is adequately manifested; and the miracles are a visible gospel, "powers of the age to come" (Heb. 6:5, Gk.), in which the earth's salvation is anticipated and the Kingdom of God seen as redemption from all the effects of sin.

In these miracles we have before us the manifestation of the King. Jehovah alone could manifest Himself thus in mercy, healing and restoring. Satan may have great power to work signs, yet never could such a manifestation come from him. "If Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?" (12:26). With these words our Lord silenced the Satanic accusations of the Pharisees. What He did, furthermore, is seen in the Old Testament in connection with the kingdom. The signs manifest the King as well as the Kingdom. In Isaiah 35 we have a description of the kingdom as the King is to set it up. He came, and that He is the King and His Kingdom at hand, is proven by Him in doing the signs enumerated in the thirty-fifth chapter of Isaiah. The King and Kingdom is rejected, the Kingdom postponed, and Israel and the nations wait with a groaning creation for the glorious fulfilment of this chapter in Isaiah. The fulfilment will come, when the King comes back to the earth, then "the ransomed of Jehovah shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."

And how full is the manifestation of His divine power! Leprosy, the awful disease and defilement, altogether gone. Winds and sea calmed. Demons banished and sent to the place where they belong. Forgiveness of sins followed by the healing of the body. The blind see, the dumb speak, the dead rise! Every sickness and every disease healed. These miracles our Lord did here to show Himself as the King are certainly also typical of the spiritual cleansing, the opening of the eyes of the blind, the sinner, the speaking in praise and worship of those who never spoke to God or of God, the raising of the dead, the power and dominion of Satan broken. The application on these lines is evident. We see in them also a foreshadowing of the redemption of the body of the believer in resurrection, as well as the blessings for Israel and the nations, in the coming age. All these features, we hope to point out as we look to the different signs, separately.

In the third section we see our Lord making the whole round of Galilee , teaching in their synagogues, preaching the glad tidings of the Kingdom and healing every disease and every bodily weakness among the people. The work done was threefold -- teaching, which was exclusively done in their synagogues, and that was expounding the scriptures, the law and the prophets. The meeting in the synagogue in Nazareth referred to above was repeated in many other synagogues. Preaching the glad tidings of the Kingdom, which may have been done mostly to the large crowds of people who flocked around Him in public places, in the streets and at the side of the mountains. Closely connected with the preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom was the healing of every disease not spiritual, but every bodily disease and weakness. The healing of disease is always connected with the preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom. The healings were signs that the King is the Jehovah and that the Kingdom had drawn nigh. These signs of healing every disease are the powers of the world to come. Later in our exegesis of the eighth chapter we hope to consider the question of healing more fully in all its far-reaching importance. Here we point out simply the fact, that it is not the Gospel of Grace which is preached, but that of the Kingdom. The Gospel of Grace needs no sign outwardly by healing of disease to demonstrate that it is God-given. Nowhere in the Epistles have we the promise that Gospel preaching is to be connected with healing of every bodily weakness and disease. However, it is very significant that the question of healing of every disease by supernatural power is made so prominent in our days. It is but an indication of the nearness of the coming dispensation, when the earth shall be delivered with its groaning creation.

And here we see the importance of the scriptural fact that miracles were on the introduction of the truth and to confirm it. Their holiness of walk, truth and power, went inseparably together. It was not a record of past miracles; nor, on the other hand, when truth was there, a means to judge pretended ones by, but the truth introduced with the accompanying testimony, which none could deny. In the case of Christ, neither heathen nor Jews denied them; they might ascribe them to Beelzebub, or magic, or the shem hammaphoresh; but the facts were there.

The gospel preached by our Lord had "signs" accompanying it. This is one of the common Scripture words (though not used in this place,) for what we call "miracles." Such a word is used in Scripture also, but it emphasizes the "wonder" element only, and is of infrequent occurrence in the gospels. Important was even the power to produce wonder, as a bell to gather an audience, but the words chosen rather for these divine works speak of that in them which was to make its impress on the conscience and the heart. As "signs" they evidenced. themselves as "powers" ― acts of power ― which in their character revealed God. The Kingdom of heaven which the Old Testament prepared men to expect was, in fact, an interference of divine power on behalf of men which would free the earth from the burdens sin had imposed and the curse brought in by it. Miracles, therefore, formed an essential part in the "Kingdom and glory," and are thus called by the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews "the powers of the world to come" (Heb. 6:5). Most suitably, therefore, did they accompany the message that the Kingdom of heaven was at hand.