Jesus had been invited to a wedding in Cana, a town in Galilee, and went there with His disciples. When the wine ran out, Jesus showed His power by turning water into a fresh supply of wine. The inspired comment which follows the account is: “This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth His glory” (Jn 2:11). His miracles were intended as demonstrations of His power as the Son of God. Thus J C Ryle expressed it: “After 30 years’ seclusion at Nazareth, He now for the first time lifted up the veil which He had thrown over His divinity in becoming flesh, and revealed something of His almighty power and Godhead”.Ryle, Expository Thoughts on John, Banner of Truth reprint, 1987, vol 1, p 102.
He who eternally was the Son of God had “made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men” (Ph 2:7), that He might suffer unto death in the place of sinners. What condescension! As a 12-year-old boy, at the temple, He had chosen to reveal something of His deep understanding of spiritual things, but now at the beginning of His public ministry, He shows His power over nature.
He was to reveal that power on two distinct occasions by stilling a storm on the Sea of Galilee. On the first such occasion, His disciples’ reaction was to exclaim, “What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him!” (Mt 8:27); they recognised, to some degree, the glory of His person. On the second, they said more explicitly: “Of a truth Thou art the Son of God” (Mt 14:33). Christ had manifested His glory to them and, as in Cana, they believed on Him – that is, their faith in their Master was strengthened; they were seeing more clearly that He was the Son of God, who had taken human nature when He came into the world as the Messiah, in fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecies and ceremonies which pointed forward to Him. Matthew Henry, in commenting on John 2:11, makes two points: “(1.) Even the faith that is true is at first but weak. The strongest men were once babes; so were the strongest Christians. (2.) The manifesting of the glory of Christ is the greatest confirmation of the faith of Christians.”
Jesus’ miracles demonstrated His unlimited power over the natural world, but He also showed His unlimited power in the spiritual realm. We may notice how the Saviour showed His power in both realms when four men brought a paralysed man to the crowded house where Jesus was. So determined were they to bring the man to the only One who could help him that they removed some of the stone slabs that formed the roof of the house and lowered the man down where Jesus was. First Jesus pronounced the man’s sins forgiven; He then commanded the man to “rise up and walk”. Jesus’ power to give the man strength was obvious: the man got up and walked. For someone to heal paralysis by his own authority, demonstrated that he was no mere man; he was divine. Accordingly, the One who had power to heal the body had also the right to forgive sin.
Possibly all who read this Magazine will readily accept that Jesus, who performed so many wonderful miracles, was indeed the Son of God. Yet it is proper for us to ask ourselves seriously: Have we felt our need as sinners? Have we realised that there is no hope for sinners like ourselves except in the salvation provided by Jesus Christ the Son of God? And do we trust in Him for the salvation of our souls from both the guilt and the power of sin?
This great and glorious Saviour showed His power to save in all the healing miracles that He performed when He was in this world. For instance, He showed His glory when He gave sight to the blind. By nature we are spiritually blind; we cannot see the way of salvation; we cannot see the Saviour Himself – in other words, we have no capacity to look to Him according to the call, “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else”. It is by the divine power of the Holy Spirit working in the soul, for the sake of Christ, that sinners become able to look to Christ; that is, to believe in Him. And believing in a soul-saving way includes, not only accepting the truth of the revelation about the Saviour, but also trusting in Him.
We might also refer to other healing miracles, such as making deaf people able to hear, the dumb to speak, and the lame to walk. And we might note the corresponding spiritual miracles the Saviour then carried out, and still does. He heals deaf ears, so that the Word of God, which sinners once rejected, now penetrates into their spiritual understanding, leading to saving faith. Through His healing power, souls that did not sincerely speak to God in prayer become able to do so; and souls that refused to come to Christ by faith become willing to do so. In performing these spiritual miracles from His throne in heaven, Christ is manifesting His glory to sinners today.
He does so, not only in changing the heart of a persecutor like Saul of Tarsus, or the heart of the woman of Samaria, who was openly immoral, but also the heart of the most moral church-attender. In some ways we might see it as a greater manifestation of the Saviour’s glory when the openly ungodly are brought by divine power to look to Christ – that is, to come to Christ by faith – but the moral church-attender needs the same divine, saving power. And sinners who come to Christ will continue to show forth Christ glory by following Him throughout the rest of their lives.
A single conversion is a manifestation of Christ glory, but what an impact is made on a community when large numbers are savingly changed! It was so in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, when 3000 were converted, and the impact was magnified because of the wide area from which people had travelled to Jerusalem to be present at that feast. This meant that, in some degree, the knowledge of the gospel was spread to various places which would not otherwise have heard these glorious truths for quite some time – until it was possible for an apostle, say, to visit these distant places.
So today, if God was to bless His Word to many people in some district, modern communications could very quickly spread the news of a revival to many other parts of the globe. However, one would expect that, to work spiritual miracles in the hearts of sinners, He would normally use the means He has particularly ordained Himself – the preaching of the gospel by His ambassadors. Yet reports of the powerful effects following the preaching of the Word in one place may prepare people elsewhere for hearing the Word preached in their own communities.
Another aspect of Christ’s healing miracles is that many of them involved people who were possessed by devils. For example, there “was brought unto Him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and He healed him, inso-much that the blind and dumb both spake and saw”. The result was: “all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the Son of David? (Mt 12:22,23). The people were recognising Jesus as the Messiah, although they may not have exercised saving faith in Him. This was, at any rate, the outward response to Christ manifesting His glory in opposition to the malicious power of Satan and other fallen angels. We have already looked at the spiritual significance of healing miracles, but here we have, in addition, Christ delivering sinners from Satan’s power. While sinners are unconverted, they are still in Satan’s kingdom and suffer from the spiritual disabilities of being blind, deaf, dumb and lame in their souls. Christ manifests His glory every time He delivers sinners from that kingdom and brings them into His own kingdom, where they exercise, through divine power, the spiritual ability to see, hear, speak and walk.
Every spiritual miracle should encourage believers to seek further manifestations of Christ’s glory in the salvation of sinners. And the unconverted should feel encouraged to seek such a work of grace in their own souls.