The Greatest Miracle of All

“Then Jesus began to denounce the towns in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades. For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.” Matthew 11:20-24 NKJV

Do you think that if Jesus Christ performed miracles now just as he had done in the first century, then people would believe in Him? The answer is no. How the people respond to the miracle of raising the dead man Lazarus? They tried to kill not only Jesus Christ but Lazarus. The miracles are not designed for changing the heart of people but for manifesting who the Lord Jesus Christ is. The knowledge of the Lord may lead people to repentance and salvation. The miracles accredited that Jesus Christ came from God (Acts 2:22). Jesus Christ performed many miracles because they were necessary to demonstrate the fact that He was the promised Messiah written in the Law and the Prophets.

However, the miracles were not for amazement and admiration but for repentance and salvation. In due time according to God’s plan and program, God sent His begotten Son Jesus Christ to fulfill the promise of salvation and redemption for humanity and the earth. “But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer. Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.” (Acts 3:18-20 NKJV) Repentance means changing the heart and mind to the way God thinks. The miracles of Jesus Christ are shouting the facts that He is the life, the way, and the truth. Jesus Christ is the visible exhibition of the invisible God in heaven. That is what the miracles are telling us eternally.

The greatest miracle of all is the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. This undeniable and incontestable fact of resurrection from the dead has been working powerfully and sturdily for bringing a great multitude of people from all tribes, nations, peoples, and tongues out of the darkness and blackness into the marvelous light and salvation of Jesus Christ. The resurrection life is the one that God has been longing to give everyone who believes in the Son Jesus Christ. It is eternal life. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16 NKJV)

The resurrection life is given to anyone who believes in the death of the Son Jesus Christ on the cross in Calvary. Death comes first and resurrection follows. The death of the Son Jesus Christ reveals the fact that God has punished the sin of the world. “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV) The death of Jesus Christ is the substitutionary death of all who believes in Him. Christ Jesus didn’t have to die for Himself. He died for those who believe in Him. The resurrection life manifests in the lives of ordinary people through the faith in Jesus Christ. What faith? The faith in the blood of Jesus Christ! It means the death of us in the experience of life going on every day. Living by faith means that we accept that there is nothing in us to contribute or add to earn the gift of God. So, in effect, we live the exchanged life of Jesus Christ who indwells within us forever.

“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:1-10 NKJV)