I have enjoyed this study on miracles, and I hope you have too. If I were to rank the three greatest miracles of all time, they would be these three: Creation, the resurrection of Christ, and the born again Christian. The Creation is something I’ve talked about many times. God, using only His spoken voice, created the entire universe and everything within it out of nothing. Nothing existed prior to Him and nothing that was made exists apart from Him. But the other two miracles are closely related so I will focus on them.
While we don’t have a specific date for the resurrection, most scholars believe it to be around 30 A.D. This means in just over ten years, we might be able to celebrate the 2000th anniversary of the resurrection. This was no ordinary event, even for miracles’ standards. In all the miracles I have addressed so far, they were intercessions upon the natural order of things. They were completely impossible by natural, physical laws by themselves, but they did not change how the natural, physical laws operated. In the previous miracles where someone was raised from the dead, that person eventually died again. The resurrection of Jesus was vastly different.
The only time in history that the world’s entire mode of operation was changed prior to this was at the Garden of Eden when God cursed the ground for Adam’s sin. Sin was a foreign entity to the universe, as was death until man brought it in. With the curse came death, decay, disease, thorns, weeds, and the overall descent into chaos. Things break down and it always takes more energy to put something to use than it produces. There is no such thing as a 100% efficient machine in this sin-cursed world. Yet, the resurrection changed the nature of the world.
When Jesus rose, He acquired His glorified physical body. It’s a body that does not operate as it did in the sin-cursed world that could be hurt and age. His body is everlasting. It is a new entity. It will not wear down, get old, nor have to fight disease or sickness. It will live forever. But this was no mere exception to the general rule. This is a promise made to every believer. We have not received our glorified bodies yet, but we have something else which is a “down-payment,” a guarantee that we shall receive them: the Holy Spirit.
The Christian is also something that is brand new. Prior to Christ, a “Christian” did not exist. A Christian is not merely someone who is a believer and follower of Christ, but a born again creature. A new entity. The Christian is someone who is born, not with a nature of sin with an inclination to rebel against God and do as we ought, but someone who is born of God, with a longing and desiring to please and honor Him. But there is more to this.
The Christian does not operate by the “laws of man.” I am not merely talking about the society we live in but by the very means of how we think, operate, and act. A man of this world thinks about his physical needs: food, shelter, water, resources, and even his family and country. But a Christian thinks about something entirely different: the Kingdom of God. The Christian, operating as a Christian should, does think about physical needs but only in context of a greater purpose.
The Christian also has something that no one ever had before: the equipment and ability to overcome sin and temptation. This is completely impossible without the Holy Spirit in action, however the Christian is not subject the law of sin and death, not just legally but naturally. Satan no longer has dominion over the Christian, and neither does death. Hell has no victory and death has no sting. With Christ and the resurrection, along with born again Christians, the universe now operates on a new set of laws.
Christians know that death with come, but death does not scare them because they know what is on the other side of it. The Christian is the only one who receives persecution and trouble and grows from it. No other group ever actually grows when governments try to crack down on them. The Christian does not operate by the natural laws that the rest of mankind does. We are in this world, which means our bodies are still subject to the physical laws, however we are not to be of this world, which means we are not to operate as the others do. We are to be unique and separate. The Christian’s very existence is a miracle.
How did God make this happen? Jesus’ physical body was comprised of atoms and cells that were under the curse of sin. He aged. He could bleed. He could (and did) die. The food He ate was under the curse as was the very air He breathed. Yet He was without sin. Some may argue that Jesus cheated because of this, however due to this sin-cursed body, Jesus had temptations which in many cases were strong. It was Jesus’ spirit and mind that had no curse, so He could think and act purely with God’s heart and mind. But Jesus’ glorified body was not made of sin-cursed atoms and cells but of an entirely different substance that no science of ours can comprehend.
Yet when the Christian is born again, it is an even bigger miracle. While God created the heavens and the earth out of nothing, and while Jesus who was without sin rose from the dead, God took sin-cursed man and made him new in spiritual birth. This too only happens through death, which is part of why we physically will still die. However, when we become attached to Christ, and position ourselves in Him, then His death becomes our death and His resurrection becomes our resurrection. It is the greatest miracle. God took a sinful, selfish, God-hating Charlie Wolcott and turned me into something I cannot describe accurately: someone who knows God, seeks Him, seeks His truth, and longs for His name to be glorified. I’m far from a finished product and the miracle God started in me is not finished, but when He is done, I will be a sight to see, as will every born again believer. As the bride is a sight to see as she walks down the aisle for the wedding, so will we as we approach our Groom, Jesus Christ.
The greatest miracle was not overcoming a physical law God established, but taking sinful man and making him new all the while maintaining His integrity and His righteous standards. I cannot give this miracle its proper due, but every one of us should simply sit back and glory in our Savior giving Him the praise and honor and worship He deserves. I pray this series gave you a new perspective on God and that you might worship Him has you have not worshiped before. He is the Miracle Maker and all so that we might know Him. Let us know Him deeper and deeper.
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