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

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.

Tags: denote, gary, gospel, greig, miraculous, part, power, purpose, relationship, signs, terms, testament, wonders

Category: Biblical Studies, Spring 2007