The Purpose of Signs and Wonders in the New Testament: What Terms for Miraculous Power Denote and Their Relationship to the Gospel, Part 2, by Gary S. Greig
How the New Testament describes the supernatural can tell us a great deal about how we should see the miraculous.
Continued from Part 1 appearing in the Winter 2007 issue
III. Signs, Wonders, and Miracles Are Intended to Encourage Belief and Deepen Faith in Christ
It is true that “signs do not in themselves create faith in the hearts of observers and can even harden hearts,”41 as in the case of the Pharisees. F. F. Bruce noted this as well:
What about the signs he [Jesus] actually performed? Why were they not sufficient to convince his questioners? … If the restoration of bodily and mental health could be dismissed as a work of Satan, no number of healing acts would have established the divine authority by which they were performed…While the healing miracles did serve as signs of the kingdom of God to those who had eyes to see, they did not compel belief in those who were prejudiced in the opposite direction.42
But Scripture also shows that one function of signs, wonders, and miracles in the ministry of Jesus and the Early Church was to awaken and encourage faith in the gospel being preached. Why else would the Early Church have prayed prayers like the following, asking God for signs and wonders of healing to accompany its evangelism?
Acts 4:29-30—“Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” God obviously granted such requests in the Early Church (e.g., Acts 5:12-16; 6:8; 8:4-8, 12-13, 26-39; 9:17-18, 32-42; etc.).
Jesus more than once challenged his listeners to believe His word on the basis of His miraculous works:
John 10:37-38—“Do not believe me unless I do the miraculous works (ta erga43) of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the miraculous works (tois ergois), that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”
John 14:11—“Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miraculous works themselves (dia ta erga auta).”
Mark 2:10—“‘But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…’ He said to the paralytic, ‘I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.’” In his Gospel, John calls all of Jesus’ works of miraculous healing “signs” (sēmeia; Jn. 4:54; 6:2; 9:16: 12:17-18)—e.g., Jn. 6:2, “They saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick.”44 The miraculous healings of Jesus are also called “works” (erga) in John’s Gospel.45 Jesus provided abundant “signs” of miraculous healing to those who were open and seeking God, as every one of the Gospel accounts show. John then said of the signs, “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (Jn. 20:31).
In His condemnation of Korazin and Bethsaida’s lack of repentance and faith, Jesus indicates that His miraculous works were intended to produce repentance and faith in Him (Mat. 11:21; and Lk. 10:13):
Matthew 11:21—“Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! 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.” Paul expected to proclaim the gospel “in the power of signs and wonders through the power of the Spirit” (Rom. 15:18-19; I Cor. 1:6-7; 2:4-5; II Cor. 12:12; I Thes. 1:5), and he expected God to continue to distribute spiritual gifts and work miracles among the churches to confirm the gospel and build up and encourage the church (Rom. 12:6-8; I Cor. 1:7; 12:1-14:40; Gal. 3:5; Eph. 4:7-13; I Thes. 5:19-22; I Tim. 4:14; II Tim. 1:6-7). Paul says that the gift of prophecy is a sign “for believers” (I Cor. 14:22).46 As a sign it encourages and builds up the church in its faith (I Cor. 14:1-5). Through it God gives supernatural insight into the secrets of people’s hearts (“the secrets of his heart will be laid bare” I Cor. 14:25),47 and thus it demonstrates that “God is really among you!” (I Cor. 14:24-25).
New Testament scholars have pointed to such evidence showing signs, wonders, and miracles worked by God awakening and deepening faith in Christ:
The Old Testament repeatedly states that the Israelites were moved to believe or were strengthened in their belief by miraculous deeds (Ex. 4:30, 31; 14:31; Nu. 14:11; I Ki. 17:24; 18:39; 2 Ki. 5:15). We encounter the same idea in the New Testament. Jesus reproached those cities “wherein most of his mighty works were done” with not having “repented” (Mat. 11:20-24; cf. Mk. 5:19, 20; 10:52; Lk. 5:8-11; 17:15, 16; 18:43; Mt. 20:34). The Gospel of John in particular stresses the miraculous sign as a means of arousing faith (Jn. 2:11; 4:53; 6:14; 7:31; 9:30-39; 11:15, 42, 45; 12:11, 17-19; 20:30-31). Paul emphasizes the relation between the proclamation of the word and the might of signs and wonders (Rom. 15:18, 19).48
Overwhelmed by the deeds of Jesus, many came to believe: Mt. 14:33 (after the stilling of the storm); Jn. 7:31; 11:45, 48 (the fear of the Jewish council that through Jesus’ many miracles “all men” will believe in Him!); 12:11. Cf. also 20:30, 31.49
… that purpose [of miracles] being forcibly to startle men from the dull dream of sense-bound existence, and, however it may not be itself an appeal to the spiritual man, yet to act as a summons to him that he now open his eyes to the spiritual appeal which is now about to be addrest to him (Acts 14:8-18).50
Jesus looks for a faith that allows itself to be carried further by the sign. His opponents did not have this openness. To them the miracles were not signs. They wanted proofs. Therefore, Jesus said, “no sign shall be given to this generation” (Mk. 8:12).51
In the close relationship, always emphasized in this text, which exists between God’s Word and God’s miraculous deed, it must be assumed from the start that also the miraculous deed will have its chief purpose in awakening faith, establishing and strengthening faith.52
IIIa. Both Christ and His Power
Despite such evidence from the Bible, the claim is made that one’s confidence in faith is either a matter of trusting in Christ or experiencing Christ’s miraculous power and work. Armstrong, for example, seems to assume such a dichotomy:
Wimber insists that “power encounters authenticate conversion experiences in a way that mere intellectual assents do not…” This simply will not do. Every Christian is given confidence and a solid foundation, not because of what he or she has experienced, but because of what (or better yet, whom) he or she has believed and trusted.53
The problem with such a conclusion is that no Scripture is cited which shows that it is an “either/or” rather than a “both/and” situation—that one’s faith is strengthened only by what is believed and not by experiencing God’s power and working. Who has not seen the faith of a child strengthened when God has answered a prayer? Or whose faith has not been strengthened when in the face of unanswered prayer God demonstrates His presence and love through the comfort, encouragement, and prayer support of a Christian brother or sister?
It is Paul who affirms that faith in Christ is strengthened in a unique way by demonstrations of His Spirit’s power. I Corinthians 2:4-5 clearly shows that it is not a question of either trust or experiencing God’s power, but that both work together. Experiencing God’s work and power are an illustration of the Truth and person of Christ in whom we have put our trust. Faith, Paul says, is reinforced when, like young Henrietta Mears, we see Christ doing what His Word says He does:
I Cor. 2:4-5—“My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power (en apodeixei pneumatos kai duameōs), so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.”
The use of “Spirit and power” in this passage shows that the “demonstration” referred not only to conveying spiritual gifts (explicitly referred to in I Cor. 1:6-7)54 but also to the signs, wonders, and miracles characteristic of Paul’s ministry in Corinth (II Cor. 12:12 en pasē hupomonē “with great perseverance”) and of his ministry in general (Rom. 15:18-19).55 Dr. Karl Gatzweiler, whose dissertation (Louvain, 1961) examined the Pauline concept of miracles says the following of I Cor. 2:4-5 and other related passages:
As examples … we cite I Thess. 1, 5; 2, 13; I Cor. 2, 4-5; 2 Cor. 6, 7; 13, 3; Col. 1, 29; 2 Tim. 1, 8. In all these places Paul speaks of the proclamation of the gospel which was accompanied by divine power, by the power of the Spirit. The gospel is God’s power which is displayed among men. For the reader, who already knows that the apostle worked miracles alongside the proclamation of the gospel (cf. 2 Cor. 12, 12; Rom. 15, 18-19), it suggests miraculous events also be understood as self-evident among the notions of “might” and “power” which accompany the proclamation of the gospel.56
The remarks of Dr. E. E. Ellis also suggest that I Cor. 2:4-5 cannot be adequately explained apart from other lexically and thematically related Pauline passages such as Rom. 15:18-19; II Cor. 12:12; Gal. 3:5; etc., which clearly show that manifestations of the Spirit’s power in signs, wonders, miracles, and spiritual gifts are what are referred to in all such passages:
“The concept of power is linked indissoluably with that of Spirit.” … This is most clearly expressed … in Rom. 15:18f.: … “by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit.” …
The same distinction is present in I Cor. 2:4f.: … “in demonstration of Spirit and power: that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” In this passage Origen apparently was the first to identify “Spirit” with (Old Testament) prophecy and “power” with miracles. His interpretation is supported by the literary pattern, by Paul’s comment in 2 Cor. 12:12 that his ministry to the Corinthians did include miraculous ‘powers’ [dunameis “miracles”] and by the similar contrast of “Spirit” and “power” elsewhere…
The same distinction probably is present in Gal. 3:5: “the one who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles (dunameis) among you.” In these texts God’s dunamis [“power”], manifested in the resurrection of Christ, is operative through the exalted Christ in two distinct ways: in the Spirit (inspired perception and speech) and in power (miracles).57
Thus, Paul teaches that both the object of one’s faith—Christ, the message of the Truth—and God demonstrating the truth by His power in our lives strengthen and reinforce our faith.
IIIb. Faith in the God Who Acts
Many times those who were healed by Jesus or who witnessed His healing works expressed their faith in Him in terms of not only what they were taught or told but also in terms of what they saw God do for them: seeing and hearing the gospel.
Mat. 11:5 (cf. Lk. 7:22)—John the Baptist and his disciples were to put their faith in Jesus because of what they saw and heard: “‘Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.’”
Lk. 7:16—When Jesus raised the widow’s son from the dead, the people said, “God has come to help his people!”
Lk. 8:39 (cf. Mk. 5:19)—Jesus said to the Gadarene who was delivered from the demons, “Return home and tell how much God has done for you.”
Acts 4:20—Peter and John say to the Council, “For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
Acts 22:15—Under the Spirit’s guidance, Ananias commissions Paul, “You will be his [Christ’s] witness to all men of what you have seen and heard.”
Acts 26:16—Jesus appearing on the road to Damascus says to Paul, “I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you.” These people saw the power of the proclaimed gospel and saw God’s love in Christ manifested by what God did.
Karl Barth speaks of the way in the Gospels which leads “vom Wunder zum Glauben” (from miracle to faith) and “vom Glauben zum Wunder” (from faith to miracle).58
In the final analysis, faith in signs and wonders worked by God cannot be confused with faith in Christ and the gospel, as some critics contend. Faith in Christ’s power must necessarily be faith in Christ Himself. Jesus Himself says to the Jewish leaders that to “believe the miraculous works” He does inevitably leads to believing in who He is:
Jn. 10:37-38—“Do not believe me unless I do the miraculous works [ta erga] of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the miraculous works [tois ergois], that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”
The centurion, who is praised for his “great faith” by Jesus, believed in Jesus’ power because he believed in Jesus’ divine identity and authority (Mat. 8:5-13). The two cannot be separated as scholars like van der Loos and Hendrickx have pointed out:
Faith in miracles is in the last resort not faith in this or that particular miracle, but in the Lord who reveals himself in and through all these particular events.59
The faith that Jesus asks is not only belief in His power—though He does ask that—but above all faith in who He is, in His coming and actions as the God-given Redeemer and Bringer of salvation.60
IV. Signs, Wonders, and Miracles Illustrate God’s Grace in the Gospel
Certain evangelicals claim that miraculous healing done in Christ’s name somehow detracts from focusing on Christ and His work on the Cross. Boice, for example, seems to make such an assumption:
Christ is everything… Therefore, anything that detracts from Him or His work, even so-called miracles done in His name, is misleading and potentially harmful. [italics his]61
The working of miracles detracts from faith because it focuses attention, not on Christ, but on the miracle worker…62
Such statements seem completely unable to explain all the biblical evidence related to the issue. Scripture nowhere shows that the working of miracles in Christ’s name detracts from focusing on Christ. Scripture shows quite the opposite. Romans 15:17-20 shows that both preaching and working signs and wonders were to “glory in Christ” (Rom. 15:17) for Paul. Both word and miraculous deed were to “fully proclaim [plēroō] the gospel of Christ” and to “preach the gospel where Christ was not known” (Rom. 15:20):
Rom. 15:17-20—“Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done—by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed [peplērōkenai] the gospel of Christ. It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation.”
Wasn’t Christ everything for Peter when he said to Aeneas, “Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and take care of your mat” (Acts 9:34) and then won the inhabitants of Lydda and Sharon to the Lord? Wasn’t Christ everything for Philip when he “proclaimed the Christ” in Samaria (Acts 8:5) by healing the lame and demonized along with his preaching (Acts 8:6-7)? Wasn’t Christ everything for Paul when he preached the gospel at Lystra (Acts 14:7, 9) and said to the man who had been lame from birth, “Stand up on your feet!” (Acts 14:10)? Or wasn’t Christ everything for him when in Corinth he did “the signs of an apostle”63 with great perseverance along “with signs, wonders and miracles” (II Cor. 12:12) as part of his ministry there of preaching “nothing … except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (I Cor. 2:2, 4)?
IVa. Bearing Witness to the Risen Christ and His Power to Save Sinners
Miracles worked by the Lord through His people do not detract from the gospel or a focus on Christ. Peter’s words in the temple show that ongoing works of miraculous healing in Christ’s name glorify Christ and bear witness to His resurrection (Acts 2:22; 3:13):
Acts 3:12-13, 15-16—“When Peter saw this, he said to them: ‘Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus… You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you all can see.”
Discussing this passage, Dr. Cyril Powell points to the function of healing works to bear witness to the resurrection of Jesus:
Face to face with a man in need, Peter acts as he knows his Lord would have acted in similar circumstances… His work is clearly being continued by His men… In verse 33 [Acts 4:33] it is stated: “And with great power gave the apostles their witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.” By the “power of God manifested in mighty works” (F. F. Bruce), the Apostles went on giving this testimony.64
The claim is also made by some that healing and gift-based ministry in Christ’s name does not reflect the power of the gospel or the power of God that saves sinners. Boice articulates this view as follows:
The power of God that saves sinners is not seen [italics his] in any contemporary miracle, but only in the death of Christ on the cross.65
Such an unfortunate statement can be substantiated nowhere in Scripture. Scripture teaches just the opposite, as attested by New Testament scholars, who have studied the evidence carefully. Dr. Alan Richardson, for example, observes that the power of the gospel is seen in miracles:
The New Testament … sees in the miracles of the Lord a revelation of the power and of the saving purpose of God… The miracle-stories do not constitute a secondary stratum of the Gospel tradition which is somehow foreign to the ethos of the Gospel in its primary sense.66
Prof. Walter Grundmann stresses that the power of God which is the power of salvation, in the New Testament’s view, is expressed in miraculous healing in Christ’s name as well as in proclaiming the gospel:
In the message of Christ we thus have the power of God which is the power of salvation… The dunamis Theou [“power of God”], which is the Gospel, is not an empty word… The risen Lord associates Himself with them [the apostles] and gives them His power, in which they work… The apostles continue the activity of Jesus, both proclaiming the Christian message (… Acts 4:33) and also working miracles (… Acts 4:7 … Acts 4:10). Luke gives us a similar picture of Stephen … in Acts 6:8. This dunamis [“power”] is expressed in proclamation on the one side (6:10) and miracles on the other (6:8).”67
The fact that dunamis is polysemous in Greek—has several different but related meanings—and denotes both “power” and “miracle” in the New Testament shows, as Grundmann points out, that miracles done in Christ’s name are an illustration of God’s power to save sinners through Christ.
IVb. Proclaiming the Gospel in Word and Deed
In Romans 15:18-19, Paul uses the word plēroō “fill, fulfill, bring to full expression”68 to state that he brought the gospel to full expression:69 peplērokenai to euaggelion tou christou literally, “(I) to have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.” Paul says he proclaimed the gospel not only in word (logō) but also in deed (ergō). And what were the deeds which proclaimed the gospel? They were “signs and wonders in the power of the Spirit” (en dunamei sēmeiōn kai teratōn en dunamei pneumatos, Rom. 15:19). Thus, the gospel is also revealed and given expression through signs and wonders which act as a symbol of God’s grace and God’s power to save sinners through the gospel.
Similarly, Paul explicitly says the gospel came to the Thessalonians “not only in word” (ouk egenēthē eis humas en logō monon). But the gospel also came to them and was revealed to them “in power (en dunamei) and in the Holy Spirit (en pneumati hagiō)” (I Thes. 1:5). The association of “power” (dunamis) and “the Spirit” (pneuma) with signs, wonders, and miracles of healing and deliverance throughout the New Testament70 suggests that what is being referred to in this passage is the miraculous deeds of the Spirit’s power through which the gospel was manifested alongside Paul’s preaching.71
While some evangelicals dissent, suggesting that “there is a danger here [I Thes. 1:5-6] of equating ‘power’ with ‘miracles,’”72 mainstream New Testament scholars who have studied the evidence carefully confirm such a view.73 While the concept of God’s “power” in such passages is not restricted to miracles, it clearly includes them as a basic element of the notion of God’s “power.” As noted above, Dr. Gatzweiler points out that the concept of “power” cannot be explained in such passages without reference to the lexically related concept of “miracle”:
As examples … we cite I Thess. 1, 5; 2, 13; I Cor. 2, 4-5; 2 Cor. 6, 7; 13, 3; Col. 1, 29; 2 Tim. 1, 8. In all these places Paul speaks of the proclamation of the gospel which was accompanied by divine power, by the power of the Spirit. The gospel is God’s power which is displayed among men. For the reader, who already knows that the apostle worked miracles alongside the proclamation of the gospel (cf. 2 Cor. 12, 12; Rom. 15, 18-19), it suggests miraculous events also be understood as self-evident among the notions of “might” and “power” which accompany the proclamation of the gospel.74
IVc. Signs of God’s Forgiveness and Signs of God’s Rule in Christ
Dr. Alan Richardson similarly affirms that the Gospels show miracles of healing to be symbols of God’s forgiveness and redemption through Christ:
The connexion between healing and salvation (in the religious sense) is a characteristic feature of the Gospel tradition. Miracles of healing are, as it were, symbolic demonstrations of God’s forgiveness in action…
The verb sōzein [“save, heal”] is itself ambiguous, meaning, on the one hand, to heal to rescue from danger, to keep safe and sound, and on the other hand, to “save” in the technical biblical-religious sense. The same is true of iasthai [“heal, restore”].
The Christian picture of Jesus as the Good Physician, the Saviour of both body and soul, is derived from the miracle-story tradition, which makes use of the healing narratives to convey spiritual teaching concerning salvation. A story recorded by St. Mark culminates in a terse saying of the Lord, which doubtless illustrates the connexion which He Himself perceived between His own healing ministry and His redemptive work: “They that are whole (hoi ischuontes) have no need of a physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark ii. 17).75
In this story [of the healing of the Paralytic, Mk. 2:1-12] Jesus deliberately implies that His healing work authenticates His power to forgive sins… The importance of this story as part of the teaching material of a Church which claimed in the name of its Lord to be able to forgive sins and to heal the sick (cf. Jas. v. 14f.) is obvious.76
Many New Testament scholars such as Hunter, Powell, Richardson, and others have pointed out that in the New Testament’s view, the miraculous healings in Jesus’ ministry, which were continued by the apostles and the Early Church, show the coming of the Kingdom of God, God’s reign in Christ. They are tokens of God’s grace and illustrations of the forgiveness of sin accomplished by Christ’s Cross:
The miracles are tokens of the coming of God’s Reign in Jesus. They are the Kingdom of God in action—God’s sovereign grace and forgiveness operative in Christ.77
If we examine the utterances attributed to Jesus Himself in the Synoptic Gospels on the subject of His own miracles, we find that he regarded them as evidences of the drawing nigh of the Kingdom of God.
This is undoubtedly their significance both in the mind of Jesus and in that of the early Church; The author of Hebrews speaks of Christians as those who have “tasted … the dunameis [“powers”] of the Age to Come” (vi.5). That the mighty works of Jesus are the miracles of the Kingdom of God is plainly taught in the account of the Beelzebub Controversy, recorded both in Mark (iii. 22-30) and Q (Matt. xii. 25-37, Luke xi. 17-23).78
Jesus gave a radically new meaning to the “language” of the miracles: they are signs of the kingdom, signs of what God wants to do and is already doing for humankind in Jesus…
If this interrelationship between the miracles of Jesus and his message of the kingdom of God is disregarded, neither the miracles nor the message of the kingdom will be understood correctly. The connection between healings and the kingdom of God is particularly clear: “heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you’“ (Lk. 10:9)…
Jesus’ healing ministry was one aspect of the manifestation of the presence of the kingdom (Mt. 12:28). Since disease was understood to be part of the disobedience of creation against its creator, healing meant that God’s plan for the redress of humankind was being activated… The resurrection is the sign par excellence which gives meaning to all Jesus’ signs.79
It seems to be generally agreed that basileia means primarily kingship rather than kingdom, reign rather than realm… The working of the dunamis [“power”] of God results in the manifestation of His basileia [“kingship, reign”]…
The charge which was given by Jesus to his disciples as he sent them forth on their mission is reported four times in the Synoptic Gospels and on each occasion the commission to heal is placed alongside of the commission to preach (Mark vi. 7-13; Matt. ix. 35-x. 23; Luke ix. 1-6, x. 1-20)… From the earliest days the ministry of healing was placed side by side with that of preaching in the missionary labours of the Church.80
The working of miracles is a part of the proclamation of the Kingdom of God, not an end in itself. Similarly, the sin of Chorazin and Bethsaida [Lk. 10:13; Mat. 11:21] is spiritual blindness; they do not accept the preaching of the Kingdom of God or understand the miracles which were its inevitable concomitants… Even the heathen, it is implied, would have understood from the preaching the meaning of the mighty works, … and they would have repented…
Because the mighty works of Jesus are the miracles of the Kingdom of God, the appropriate response to them is: “Repent and believe the good news.”81
The New Testament evidence clearly shows that God desires to heal the sick as a sign of His kingdom reign and His grace toward us in Christ (Mat. 12:28; cf. Isa. 33:22, 24). Jesus healed the sick.82 The apostles and Early Church laity healed the sick (Stephen, Philip, Ananias, the Corinthians, Galatians, Jewish Christian churches, etc.).83 God gave the Church gifts of healing (I Cor. 12:9, 28, 29), and He commands the Church to pray for the sick (Jas. 5:14-16). Some scholars also point out that though God desires to heal as a sign of His Kingdom, healing, like the Kingdom, will only be experienced in part in this age:
But just as the kingdom of God has indeed begun but has not yet reached its final fulfilment, so too Christ’s healing activity has indeed started but is not yet completed.
Jesus’ works are the fully valid (in German: vollgültig) confirmation of his message; they are as valid as his word. But they are not the final definitive (in German: endgültig) act of God in the bodily realm. The totally new creation which begins with the resurrection will be definitive. The miracles are not just prefigurations of salvation but a real gift of salvation at the present time… The “already” of the salvation offered now is the presupposition and basis of the “not yet” of the definitive, total salvation.84
Thus, Scripture shows that in some cases Christians may not experience complete healing in this age.85 In I Corinthians 13 Paul says that in this age the church will only experience spiritual gifts, which include healing, “in part” (ek merous) until the second coming of Christ: “For we know in part and we prophecy in part” (I Cor. 13:9; cf. I Cor. 1:6-7; and 13:8-10, 12; I Jn. 3:2; Rev. 22:4).86 With this in mind, James 5:15, nonetheless states the general rule for healing ministry in the Church: “The prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up.”
The scholars quoted above and cited in the notes appear to be unanimous regarding the New Testament evidence. The healings accompanying the preaching of Jesus, the apostles, and the Early Church were symbols, illustrations, and demonstrations of the presence of God’s Kingdom—God’s grace and forgiveness of sin through Christ.
IVd. Cheapening or Illustrating the Gospel?
Despite such evidence, the charge has been leveled by some that miraculous healing somehow “cheapens the gospel.” Boice, for example, says the following:
Again, the signs and wonders movement shifts from the sublime to the ridiculous. It cheapens and overshadows the gospel. It cheapens it because it reduces its promises to shrinking goiters, straightening backs, and lengthening legs… Those alleged wonders are next to nothing in comparison to the message of God’s redeeming work in Jesus Christ or the true miracle of the new birth.87
Was Jesus cheapening God’s redeeming work to forgive sin when he healed the paralytic, certainly straightening his back, lengthening and strengthening his legs, by saying, “‘So that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…’ Then he said to the paralytic, ‘Get up, take your mat and go home.’“ (Mat. 9:6)? Of course not. He was illustrating God’s forgiveness through miraculous healing.
Signs and wonders do not cheapen the gospel. They illustrate it. How else could the one word dunamis be used to denote God’s power to save sinners in such passages as Rom. 1:16—“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes”—and simultaneously be used to denote “miracles” throughout the entire New Testament?88 How else could the one word sōzō denote both salvation from sin and healing of illness in the New Testament, unless healing was a symbol of God’s power to save sinners?89
V. Signs and Wonders Versus “The Sign from Heaven”
The four gospels preserve many instances where people demanded a sign from Jesus, and he roundly denounced them for it, sometimes dismissing them as ‘a wicked and adulterous generation’ (Matthew 12:38-45; cf. 16:1-4; Mk. 8:11-12; Lk. 11:16, 29). One can understand why: the frequent demands for signs was [sic] in danger of reducing Jesus to the level of clever magician… Such a demand is wicked and adulterous: it makes human beings the center of the universe and reduces God to the level of someone who exists to serve us.90
Such statements make it sound as if any expectation, desire, or request for signs and wonders or miraculous healing is wicked. But was the Early Church wicked and adulterous for seeking signs and wonders in Acts 4:29-30?
Acts 4:29-30—“Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
God did not seem to consider such requests for signs and wonders to be wicked, since He obviously granted them to the Early Church (e.g., Acts 5:12-16; 6:8; 8:5-6, 26-40; 9:17-18; etc.). Was Paul wicked for expecting to proclaim the gospel “in the power of signs and wonders” (Rom. 15:18-19; II Cor. 12:12)? Or was he sinful for expecting God to continue to work miracles among the Galatians (Gal. 3:5) and for telling the Corinthians to seek the gift of prophecy which he said is a “sign” for believers (I Cor. 14:1, 2291)?
Similarly one might ask the same about John. Was John misguided in calling all of Jesus’ works of miraculous healing “signs” (sēmeia; Jn. 4:54; 6:2; 9:16: 12:17-18)92? Or was John misguided for recording Jesus’ words suggesting that these ”signs” of miraculous healing function to encourage faith and repentance: “Even though you do not believe me, believe the miraculous works (tois ergois93), that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father” (Jn. 10:38); “At least believe on the evidence of the miraculous works themselves (dia ta erga auta)” (Jn. 14:11)? Compare Mark 2:10:
Mark 2:10—“‘But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…’ He said to the paralytic, ‘I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.’”
Was Jesus misguided in His condemnation of Korazin and Bethsaida’s lack of repentance and faith for suggesting that His miraculous works should have produced repentance (Mat. 11:21; and Lk. 10:13)? Was Peter unbelieving and wicked when he claimed that God gave testimony to Jesus by signs and wonders (Acts 2:22)? Were the apostles or laymen like Stephen, Philip, and Ananias sinful and adulterous for working signs and wonders of healing and deliverance (Acts 5:12; 6:8; 8:5-7, 13; 9:17-18; 14:3; 15:12; passim)? Or was Luke sinful for describing the miraculous healings of the Early Church as “signs and wonders” in the Book of Acts?
The critics have confused the signs of wonders of miraculous healing in the ministry of Jesus and the Early Church with the ”sign from heaven” demanded by the Pharisees which Jesus refused to give. Jesus did not denounce ordinary “people” for seeking signs and wonders (plural) in his healing ministry in Mat. 12:38-40; 16:1-4; Mk. 8:11-12; Lk. 11:16; Jn. 6:30f. He denounced stubborn, unbelieving religious leaders (Mat. 12:38; 16:1; Mk. 8:11) for demanding a “sign [singular] from heaven” (Mk. 8:11; Lk. 11:16; cf. Mat. 16:1; Jn. 6:30f.). (Even in the so-called “rebuke” of John 4:48, Jesus granted the “sign,” healing the royal official’s son, and this led to the conversion of the official and his family [Jn. 4:53-54].)
The religious leaders were calling demonic the signs of Jesus’ healing ministry (Mat. 12:24; Mk. 3:22; Lk. 11:15) and were asking for a prophetic sign from heaven beyond those of Jesus healing ministry like those performed by prophets such as Moses, Elijah, or Isaiah—manna from heaven (Jn. 6:30-31); plagues of the Exodus which were “signs” (Exo. 7:3; 8:23; 10:1-2; Nu. 14:23; Deut. 6:22; 11:3f., 34; 7:19; 26:8; 29:3; 34:11; Jos. 24:17); drought which was a “sign” (Deut. 28:22-24, 46; cf. I Kgs. 17:1ff.); the retreating shadow of the sun which was a “sign” (II Kgs. 20:9). F. F. Bruce points this out:
According to Mark, the refusal to give a sign was Jesus’ response to some Pharisees who, in the course of debate, asked him to supply ‘a sign from heaven.’…
First, what sort of sign would have convinced them? External signs might have been necessary to convince a heathen Egyptian or an apostate king of Israel, but why should they be necessary for custodians and teachers of the law of the true God?…
Secondly, would the kind of sign they had in mind really have validated the truth of Jesus’s words? … It may be suspected that it was some … extraordinary but essentially irrelevant sign that was being asked from Jesus…
In the third place, what about the signs he actually performed? Why were they not sufficient to convince his questioners? … If the restoration of bodily and mental health could be dismissed as a work of Satan, no number of healing acts would have established the divine authority by which they were performed…While the healing miracles did serve as signs of the kingdom of God to those who had eyes to see, they did not compel belief in those who were prejudiced in the opposite direction…
While the miracles served as signs, they were not performed in order to be signs. They were as much a part and parcel of Jesus’s ministry as was his preaching—not… seals affixed to the document to certify its genuiness but an integral element in the very text of the document.94
Thus, Scripture is clear that Jesus gave abundant signs of God’s Kingdom in his healing ministry. But He provided no sensational sign from heaven to those who were unbelieving and remained closed to His teaching and its basis in Scripture (Mat. 5:17-20; cf. Jn. 3:10-11). Such an attitude refused to ask God for guidance about Jesus and his teaching (Jn. 5:39-40; Jn. 6:45; Jn. 7:17). For such stubborn unbelief God gives no extra sign.
VI. Past Signs and Wonders versus Ongoing Signs and Wonders
Certain evangelicals suggest that Scripture encourages faith on the basis of past signs and wonders but not on the basis of ongoing signs and wonders. Carson and Boice say the following:
John’s readers are called on to reflect on the signs that he reports [Jn. 20:30-31], to think through the significance of those redemptive events, especially Jesus’ resurrection, and thereby believe. The mandate to believe here rests on John’s reports of God’s past, redemptive-historical signs, not on testimonies of present, ongoing ones.95
We do not repeat annual crossings of the Red Sea. Such miraculous events are redemptive events and are not presented as normative for Christian experience. They are to be remembered, not repeated.96
But no hint of such a dichotomy between the past and the present can be found in Scripture. First, nowhere does Scripture teach that the miraculous healing ministry and the spiritual gifts exercised by Jesus, the apostles, and the laity of the Early Church are not to be continued today. James 5:14-16 quite clearly suggests the contrary, as well as Rom. 12:6-8; I Cor. 12:7-11, 28-30; 14:22-39; Gal. 3:5; Phil. 4:9 (and I Cor. 11:1); I Thes. 5:19-21; II Tim. 1:6; and I Pet. 4:10-11. Healing and spiritual gifts accompanied the ministry of the Word as the normal New Testament pattern, as has been adequately demonstrated above. We do not repeat the healing of the lame man at Lystra (Acts 14:8ff.), but we pray for the lame and sick to be healed (James 5:14-16).
Second, the book of Acts and the epistles show that the Early Church continued to minister with spiritual gifts, healing, miracles, signs and wonders at the same time John wrote in his Gospel, “Jesus did many other miraculous signs… But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (Jn. 20:30-31). In Acts 2:22, Peter points back to the “miracles, wonders and signs” of Jesus and then is said to have performed them himself in Acts 2:43; 4:16, 22; 5:12-16; etc. Stephen, a layman, not only recalls the signs and wonders of the Exodus in Acts 7:36, but he also performed them himself in Jerusalem, according to Acts 6:8.
These facts show a link in the Early Church’s understanding between the signs God performed in the past and the ongoing signs and wonders God was performing in the Church.97 Professor Lampe, for example, remarks:
These miracles [in the book of Acts] … fulfilled the ancient prophetic hope. Joel had prophesied “wonders” in heaven and earth [Acts 2:17-21]… Joel’s prophecy is to find its fulfilment in the signs and wonders done in the name of the exalted Christ through his followers. Soon after the speech in which Peter recalls Joel’s words we are told that “many signs and wonders happened through the apostles” (Acts 2:43)… The Spirit that was upon Jesus [Lk. 4:18-19; Acts 10:38] when he was attested by mighty works, signs and wonders is now working through his disciples.98
The following passages also show that the Early Church saw the ongoing contemporary occurrence of signs and wonders confirming the proclamation of Christ and the gospel as a continuation of the signs and wonders of God worked in Jesus’ ministry: Heb. 2:3-4; Mk. 16:20; Gal. 3:5; Acts 14:3; Rom. 15:18-19; (many more passages could be added here).
According to the evidence presented above, the New Testament shows that signs, wonders, and miraculous healing worked by God in Christ’s name glorify Christ and testify to His resurrection. They demonstrate in a special way God’s rule in Christ and God’s presence among His people, the Church. They illustrate the grace and power of God which saves sinners through the Cross of Christ, and they confirm the proclamation of the gospel and the Word of God. Finally, as in Henrietta Mears’s case, they show the power of God’s Word, Scripture, and teach us the importance of simply “taking Him at His word.”99
PR
Notes
41 Boice in Horton, ed., Power Religion, p.126.
42 F. F. Bruce, The Hard Sayings of Jesus (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1983), p. 96.
43 For erga denoting “miraculous works” when referring to Jesus and God in the Gospel of John: BAGD, p. 308; Bertram, “ergon,” TDNT, vol. 2, p. 642; Rengstorf, “sēmeion,” TDNT, vol. 7, pp. 247-248; Trench, Notes on the Miracles of Our Lord, p. 6: “That his erga [‘works’] are his miracles, the following passages, v. 36; x. 25, 32, 38; xiv. 10-11; xv. 24; … decisively prove.”
44 Rengstorf, TDNT, vol. 7, p. 246.
45 For erga denoting “miraculous works” when referring to Jesus and God, see references in the previous two notes.
46 The grammatical structure of I Cor. 14:22 cannot be understood any other way: the elliptical clause hē de prophēteia ou tois apistois alla tois pisteuousin depends on the preceding clause for its full grammatical and lexical meaning; see Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, p. 682 and n. 38; Wayne Grudem, The Gift of Prophecy in I Corinthians , pp. 193-194; id., The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today, pp. 173f. and n. 68.
47 See the remarks of Grudem, The Gift of Prophecy, pp. 136-137; Oepke, TDNT, vol. 3, p. 976 and n. 42.
48 H. van der Loos, The Miracles of Jesus (Supplements to Novum Testamentum, vol. 8. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1965), p. 245 and nn. 1-4.
49 Ibid., p. 265 and n. 2.
50 Trench, Notes on the Miracles of Our Lord, p. 2.
51 Hendrickx, The Miracle Stories of the Synoptic Gospels, p. 17.
52 J. Ruprecht, Das Wunder in der Bibel. Eine Einführung in die Welt der göttlichen Offenbarung und der biblischen Weltanschauung (Berlin, 1936), p. 173: “Bei dem engen, in dieser Schrift immer wieder betonten Zusammenhang, der zwischen Gottes Wort und Gottes Wundertat besteht, wird man von vornherein annehmen müssen, dass auch das Tatwunder seinen Hauptzweck darin haben wird, Glauben zu wecken, den Glauben zu befestigen und zu stärken”; cited by van der Loos, The Miracles of Jesus, p. 245, n. 7; Similarly, Lépicier, Le Miracle. Sa nature, ses lois, ses rapports avec l’ordre surnaturel (Paris, 1936), p. 484; cited by van der Loos, The Miracles of Jesus, p. 245-246, n. 7.
53 Armstrong, in Horton, ed., Power Religion, p. 83.
54 So Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, p. 95, n. 2. The context of “weakness” in I Cor. 1-2 which Fee mentions does not make it less likely that I Cor. 2:4b refers to the “signs, wonders, and miracles” of II Cor. 12:12 than the spiritual gifts mentioned in I Cor. 1:6-7, since it is in the very context of mentioning his own weakness that Paul alludes to the signs and wonders of his ministry in II Cor. 12:12 (compare II Cor. 12:7-10, 21; 13:4b, 8 and II Cor. 12:12).
55 Several facts indicate that the “demonstration of the Spirit’s power” in I Cor. 2:4-5 refers to signs, wonders, miracles, and spiritual gifts, as many scholars have interpreted it (Gatzweiler, “Der Paulinische Wunderbegriff,” pp. 403-405, n. 52; Ellis, Prophecy and Hermeneutic in Early Christianity: New Testament Essays, pp. 64-65; Schweizer, TDNT, vol. 6, p. 423 and n. 600; O. Hofius, in C. Brown, ed., NIDNTT, vol. II, pp. 632-633; E. Preuschen, Greichisch-deutsches Wörterbuch zu den Schriften des Neuen Testaments und der übrigen urchristlichen Literatur [rev. by W. Bauer, Giessen, 1928], sub apodeixis; Powell, The Biblical Concept of Power, pp. 139-140; J. Ruef, Paul’s First Letter to Corinth [Hammondsworth: Penguin, 1971], pp. 16-17):
- Elsewhere where Paul couples pneuma “Spirit” with dunamis “power,” dunamis denotes “miracle” (e.g., Gal. 3:5) or is explicitly associated with “signs and wonders” (Rom. 15:19).
- Paul explicitly states that not only were signs, wonders, and miracles a regular part of his ministry in general, according to Rom. 15:18-19, but that they were a regular part of his ministry to the Corinthians according II Cor. 12:12.
- Wherever Acts describes the deeds accompanying Paul’s preaching, they are clearly signs and wonders of healing and deliverance as well as manifestations of spiritual gifts (Acts 13:7, 10-11; 14:3, 9-10; 16:14, 16-18, 26, 32; 19: 3-6, 8-12; 20:7, 9-10).
- The noun apodeixis “demonstration” is paralleled in Acts 2:22 by the related verb from the same root apodeiknumi, “attest, show forth, display,” which is used of the God’s attesting to Jesus through the signs, wonders, and miracles of Jesus’ healing ministry.
- The same noun, apodeixis “demonstration,” is used of proof through signs and wonders in contrast to the spoken word (cf. BAGD, p. 89) in Philo’s Life of Moses, 1, 95, dating from the first half of the first century A.D., just prior to the date of I Corinthians: apodeixesi tais dia sēmeiōn kai teratōn “by the demonstrations with signs and wonders” in contrast to ta dia tōn logōn prostattomena “the orders (given) with words” in Moses and Aaron’s confrontations with the Egyptian Pharaoh (F. H. Colson, Philo, vol 6 [Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1935], p. 324).
56 Gatzweiler, “Der Paulinische Wunderbegriff,” pp. 403-405, n. 52: “Als Belege … zitieren wir 1 Thess. 1, 5; 2, 13; I Kor. 2, 4-5; 2 Kor 6, 7; 13, 3; Kol. 1, 29; 2 Tim. 1, 8. An all diesen Stellen spricht Paulus von der Verkündigung des Evangeliums, die von göttlicher Kraft, von der Macht des Geistes begleitet war. Das Evangelium ist Gottes Macht, die sich unter den Menschen entfaltet. Für den Leser, der schon weiss, dass der Apostel bei der Verkündigung des Evangeliums Wunder gewirkt hat (vgl. 2 Kor. 12, 12; Röm. 15, 18-19), liegt es nahe, wie selbstverständlich unter den begriffen ‘Macht’ und ‘Kraft,’ die die Verkündigung des Evangeliums begleiten, auch Wunderereignisse zu verstehen.”
57 Ellis, Prophecy and Hermeneutic in Early Christianity: New Testament Essays, pp. 64-65. Similarly, Schweizer, TDNT, vol. 6, p. 423 and n. 600: “In I Cor. 2:4f. the ‘demonstration of the Spirit and of power’ is differentiated from the ‘words of wisdom’ and ‘the wisdom of men’ and indeed from the ‘word’ generally in I Thes. 1:5… In Rom. 15:19 ‘the power of the Spirit’ is parallel to ‘the power of signs and wonders’, … and ‘Spirit’ to ‘miracles’ in Gal. 3:5. The ‘Spirit’ is thus everywhere understood as something whose reception may be verified. Paul, e.g., can list glossolalia, gifts of healing and miraculous powers among the works of the Spirit, I Cor. 12:9f., 28-30; 14:18-26…”
58 K. Barth, Die Kirchliche Dogmatik (Zollikon-Zurich, 1947-1959), vol 4.2, pp. 263ff.; cited by van der Loos, The Miracles of Jesus, p. 270, n. 1.
59 Hendrickx, The Miracle Stories of the Synoptic Gospels, p. 18.
60 Van der Loos, The Miracles of Jesus, p. 270. Similarly, Oepke, “iaomai,” TDNT, vol. 3, pp. 213-214: “The essential thing for the community [the Early Church in Acts] is never healing alone. The acts of power (dunamis) are signs. If they confer benefits on individuals, in this very quality they awaken faith and further the progress of preaching (sēmeion, teras, Rom. 15:18f.; [I Cor. 2:4f.; I Thes. 1:5?]; 2 Cor. 12:12; also Acts 2:43; 5:12; 6:8; 14:3; 15:12: with iasis [“healing”] 4:22, 30). The gift of healing is an operation of the name of the exalted Christ (Acts 13:6)… It is an operation of the ascended Lord through the Spirit (Acts 9:34; Rom. 15:18f.).”
61 Boice in Horton, ed., Power Religion, p. 133.
62 Ibid., p. 134.
63 On the “signs of an apostle” in II Cor. 12:12 including more than miraculous signs and wonders, see Wayne Grudem’s Wayne Grudem’s chapter in this book, objection no. 7.
64 Powell, The Biblical Concept of Power, p. 136; Justin Martyr similarly argued in the second century A.D. that Jesus’ healings are a witness of how Jesus would restore the whole body at the resurrection of all those who are in Christ (van der Loos, The Miracles of Jesus, p. 248, n. 1).
65 Boice in Horton, ed., Power Religion, p. 126.
66 Richardson, The Miracle-Stories of the Gospels, p. 17.
67 Grundmann, “dunamai/dunamis,” TDNT, vol. 2, pp. 309-311.
68 BAGD, pp. 670ff.
69 The use of pleroō “bring (the gospel) to full expression” in Rom. 15:19 cannot mean that Paul finished preaching the gospel, because he was still planning to visit Rome and preach the gospel further in Spain (Rom. 1:13, 15; 15:23f.). Nor can it mean that he said everything there was to say about the gospel, as Murray points out: “He says he ‘fully preached’ the gospel. This means that he had ‘fulfilled’ the gospel (cf. Col. 1:25) and does not reflect on the fulness with which he set forth the gospel (cf. Acts 20:20, 27)… Neither does ‘fully preached’ imply that he had preached the gospel in every locality and to every person in these territories” (J. Murray, The Epistle to the Romans [NICNT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1968], vol. 2, p. 214).
But, as G. Friedrich points out, it means that Paul proclaimed the gospel in the way he described in Rom. 15:18-19, “in word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit”: “Again, Rom. 15:19 … does not mean that Paul has concluded his missionary work, but that the Gospel is fulfilled when it has taken full effect. In the preaching of Paul Christ has shown Himself effective in word and sign and miracle (v. 18). Hence the Gospel has been brought to fulfilment from Jerusalem to Illyricum and Christ is named in the communities (v. 20)” (Friedrich, TDNT, vol. 2, p. 732).
70 E.g., Mat. 12:28; Mk. 5:30; Lk. 5:17; 6:18-19; 8:46; Acts 3:12; 10:38; Rom. 15:19; I Cor. 12:4, 9-10; Gal. 3:5; Heb. 2:4; etc.; See Grundmann, “dunamai/dunamis,” TDNT, vol. 2, p. 311 and n. 91: “Paul fits the same pattern [of Jesus and the disciples]. His work is done ‘in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit’ (Rom. 15:19)… This power is expressed on the one side in miracles: ‘in the power of signs and wonders’. There are many references to these in the epistles: ‘the signs of an apostle … signs, wonders, and miracles’, II Cor. 12:12; God ‘working miracles among you’, Gal. 3:5; his activity in Thessalonica did not take place ‘in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit’, I Thes. 1:5… Alongside the power of miracles is the power of proclamation and edification… Here we see the connexion between Spirit and power, which we have already seen everywhere in Luke. The Spirit is the One who dispenses and mediates power.”
See also Schweizer, TDNT, vol. 6, p. 398: “The distinctiveness of the saying [Mat. 12:28] lies in the fact that the presence of the Spirit … is interpreted as the presence of the basileia [“kingdom”]. Similarly, the promise that God will lay His Spirit on the Servant is seen to be fulfilled in the healings [italics his] of Jesus according to Mat. 12:18 [cf. 12:15]. This is in keeping with the view of the [early Christian] community, which perceives the dawn of the last time in the coming of the miracle-working Spirit [italics his].”
On the “Spirit” and “power” associated with healing signs, wonders, and miracles in the New Testament, see also Hofius, NIDNTT, vol. II, pp. 632-633; Ellis, “Christ and Spirit in I Corinthians,” Prophecy and Hermeneutic in Early Christianity: New Testament Essays, pp. 63ff.; Oepke, “iaomai,” TDNT, vol. 3, pp. 213-214; Lampe, in Moule, ed., Miracles. Cambridge Studies, p. 171; Gatzweiler, “Der Paulinische Wunderbegriff,” p. 401; Powell, The Biblical Concept of Power, p. 139; O. Schmitz, Der Begriff dunamis bei Paulus (1927), p. 145; E. Sokolewski, Die Begriffe Geist und Leben bei Paulus (1903), pp. 1ff.
71 So Gatzweiler, “Der Paulinische Wunderbegriff,” p. 403 and n. 52; Grundmann, TDNT, vol. 2, p. 311; Ellis, Prophecy and Hermeneutic in Early Christianity: New Testament Essays, p. 65; Hofius, NIDNTT, vol. II, p. 632.
72 Hiebert, Wonders and the Word, p. 126.
73 See references in note 71.
74 Gatzweiler, “Der Paulinische Wunderbegriff,” pp. 403-405, n. 52: “Als Belege … zitieren wir 1 Thess. 1, 5; 2, 13; I Kor. 2, 4-5; 2 Kor 6, 7; 13, 3; Kol. 1, 29; 2 Tim. 1, 8. An all diesen Stellen spricht Paulus von der Verkündigung des Evangeliums, die von göttlicher Kraft, von der Macht des Geistes begleitet war. Das Evangelium ist Gottes Macht, die sich unter den Menschen entfaltet. Für den Leser, der schon weiss, dass der Apostel bei der Verkündigung des Evangeliums Wunder gewirkt hat (vgl. 2 Kor. 12, 12; Röm. 15, 18-19), liegt es nahe, wie selbstverständlich unter den begriffen ‘Macht’ und ‘Kraft,’ die die Verkündigung des Evangeliums begleiten, auch Wunderereignisse zu verstehen.”
75 Richardson, The Miracle-Stories of the Gospels, pp. 61-62. For similar remarks about Jesus’ healing ministry illustrating the gospel and His victory over Satan, sin, sickness and death, see E. Thurneysen, Die Lehre von der Seelsorge (Zürich, 1946), p. 230: “[Die heilungen] sind … Zeichen, die den Sieg des Christus über Sünde und Tod anzeigen” ([The healings] are … signs which show the victory of Christ over sin and death”); Grundmann, TDNT, vol. II, p.303; van der Loos, The Miracles of Jesus, p. 252: “As evidential power it identifies Jesus as the Messiah-King and reveals His divine mission. As militant power it reveals Jesus as the adversary of all the forces of ruin. For Jesus has come to smash the forces of disease, sin and death, to dethrone Satan. This dual nature of the power function finds striking expression in Jesus’ important pronouncement: “But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God is come unto you,” Mt. 12:28, and cf. Lk. 11:20.”
76 Ibid., p. 66.
77 A. M. Hunter, The Work and the Words of Jesus (London, 1950), p. 55; cited by Powell, The Biblical Concept of Power, p. 114, n. 35. Similarly, Powell, The Biblical Concept of Power, p. 82: “The Kingdom comes chiefly, not as claim and decision, but as saving dynamis, as redeeming power, to set free a world lying in the clutches of Satan…”
78 Richardson, The Miracle-Stories of the Gospels, p. 38. Similarly, van der Loos, The Miracles of Jesus, pp. 223-224; Hendrickx, The Miracle Stories of the Synoptic Gospels, p. 12.
79 Hendrickx, The Miracle Stories of the Synoptic Gospels, pp. 11-12.
80 Richardson, The Miracle-Stories of the Gospels, pp. 41-42.
81 Ibid., pp. 44-45.
82 E.g., Mat. 4:23; 9:35-36; 10:1, 7-8; 11:5; 12:15, 18; 15:30; 19:2 (cf. Mk. 10:1); 21:14 (cf. Lk. 21:37) Mk. 1: 38-39; 2:2, 11; 3:14-15; 6:12-13; 10:1 (cf. Mat. 19:2) Lk. 4:18; 5:17, 24; 6:6-11, 17-18; 7:22; 9:1-2; 10:9, 13; 13:10-13, 22, 32; 14:4, 7ff.; 21:37 (cf. Mat. 21:14); 16:15-18, 20 Jn. 3:2; 7:14-15, 21-23, 31, 38; 10:25, 32, 38; 12:37, 49; 14:10, 12; Acts 1:1; 2:22; 10:38.
83 E.g., Acts 3:6, 12; 4:29-30; 5:12-16, 20-21, 28, 42; 6:8, 10; 8:4-7, 12; 9:17-18 (cf. 22:13), 34-35; 14:3, 8-10, 15ff.; 15:12, 36; 18:5, 11 (cf. II Cor. 12:12; I Cor. 2:4-5); 19:8-12. Rom. 15:18-19; I Cor. 2:4-5; 11:1; 12:1-11, 28-31; II Cor. 12:12; Gal. 3:5; Phil. 4:9; I Thes. 1:5-6; Heb. 2:3-4; 6:1-2; Jas. 5:13-16.
84 Hendrickx, The Miracle Stories of the Synoptic Gospels, pp. 14-15.
85 In Eph. 5:18 Paul commands us to “pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests” (cf. I Thes. 5:17; Col. 4:2). Yet, Paul was ill in Galatia for a long enough period that it “was a trial” to the Galatians (Gal. 4:14); Epaphroditus did not experience immediate healing from illness and almost died according to Phil. 2:27; Timothy had chronic illnesses involving his stomach which were not completely healed according to I Tim. 5:23; and Paul had to leave Trophimus sick in Miletus, apparently seeing no healing in response to prayer (II Tim. 4:20).
86 On experiencing healing of illness as a “gift of grace” (I Cor. 12:9, 28, 29) experienced only in part in the Early Church according to the New Testament, see Oepke, “iaomai,” TDNT, vol. 3, p. 214; on experiencing spiritual gifts in this age only “in part (ek merous I Cor. 13:9),” see Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, p. 644 and n. 21; Schneider, TDNT, vol. 4, p. 596.
87 Boice, Power Religion, p. 129.
88 BAGD, pp. 207-208; Grundmann, “dunamai/dunamis,” TDNT, vol. 2, pp. 309-311; Trench, Synonyms, p. 343: “But the miracles are also ‘powers’ (dunameis … ), outcomings of that mighty power of God, which was inherent in Christ …; these powers being by Him lent to those who were his witnesses and ambassadors”; id., Notes on the Miracles of Our Lord (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1953), p. 5; cf. McCasland’s rendering of dunamis, “manifestation of divine power,” JBL 76 (1957): 149.
89 BAGD, pp. 798ff.: sōzō “save, heal” denoting salvation from sin (Lk. 7:48, 50); healing of the woman with hemorraging (Mat. 9:21, 22; Mk. 5:28, 34; Lk. 8:48); resuscitation of Jairus’ daughter from death (Mk. 5:23; Lk. 8:50); healing of the sick in market places (Mk. 6:56); healing the blind (Mk. 10:52; Lk. 18:42); healing the demonized Gadarene (Lk. 8:36); healing leprosy (Lk. 17:19); of Lazarus being restored to health (Jn. 11:12).
Richardson, The Miracle-Stories of the Gospels, pp. 61-62: “The connexion between healing and salvation (in the religious sense) is a characteristic feature of the Gospel tradition. Miracles of healing are, as it were, symbolic demonstrations of God’s forgiveness in action… The verb sōzein [“save, heal”] is itself ambiguous, meaning, on the one hand, to heal to rescue from danger, to keep safe and sound, and on the other hand, to “save” in the technical biblical-religious sense. The same is true of iasthai [“heal, restore”] .”
90 Carson in Horton, ed., Power Religion, p. 97. Similarly, Boice in Horton, ed., Power Religion, pp. 125-126, quoting John Woodhouse; Horton, Power Religion, p. 332.
91 The grammatical structure of I Cor. 14:22 cannot be understood any other way: the elliptical clause hē de prophēteia ou tois apistois alla tois pisteuousin depends on the preceding clause for its full grammatical and lexical meaning; see Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, p. 682 and n. 38; Wayne Grudem, The Gift of Prophecy in I Corinthians, pp. 193-194; id., The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today, pp. 173f. and n. 68.
92 Rengstorf, TDNT, vol. 7, p. 246.
93 For erga denoting “miraculous works” when referring to Jesus and God in the Gospel of John: BAGD, p. 308; Bertram, “ergon,” TDNT, vol. 2, p. 642; Rengstorf, “sēmeion,” TDNT, vol. 7, pp. 247-248; Trench, Notes on the Miracles of Our Lord, p. 6: “That his erga [‘works’] are his miracles, the following passages, v. 36; x. 25, 32, 38; xiv. 10-11; xv. 24; … decisively prove.”
94 Bruce, The Hard Sayings of Jesus, pp. 94-97. Similarly, Hendrickx, The Miracle Stories of the Synoptic Gospels, p. 17: “Jesus looks for a faith that allows itself to be carried further by the sign. His opponents did not have this openness. To them the miracles were not signs. They wanted proofs. Therefore, Jesus said, ‘No sign shall be given to this generation’ (Mk. 8:12)”; Richardson, The Miracle-Stories of the Gospels, p. 47: “St. Mark leaves us in no doubt that, although He refused to show a sign to the Pharisees, Jesus nevertheless regarded His miracles as ‘signs.’”
95 Carson in Horton, ed., Power Religion, p. 93.
96 Boice in Horton, ed., Power Religion, p. 128; similarly, Ibid., p. 125.
97 A point made by Rengstorf, TDNT, vol. 7, p. 241.
98 Lampe, in Moule, ed., Miracles. Cambridge Studies, pp. 173-174.
99 Roe, ed., Dream Big, p. 68.
Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the NIV®. 
This chapter is from Gary S. Greig and Kevin N. Springer, eds., The Kingdom and the Power: Are Healing and the Spiritual Gifts Used by Jesus and the Early Church Meant for the Church Today? A Biblical Look at How to Bring the Gospel to the World with Power (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1993). Used with permission.
