Revivalist Vance Havner (1901-1986) explains, “We often hear it said that the day of miracles is past. But every true Christian is a miracle, born again by the Holy Spirit. Of course I mean real Christians, not just church members. If you are what you have always been you are not a Christian. The Christian life is a miracle, Jesus living within the true believer. He is not just our Saviour and Lord but also our Life.”
Salvation is a notable miracle. John records the remarkable account of a man named Nicodemus (
Salvation is a needed miracle. Jesus explained to Nicodemus, “You must be born again” (John 3:7b). The only way for a sinner to become a saint is by “a miracle of love and grace,” to borrow a phrase from the well-know song by John W. Peterson (1921-2006) titled “It Took a Miracle”. Of all miracles the miracle of miracles occurs when a person is born again.
Dr. John Phillips, former assistant director of the Moody Correspondence School as well as director of the Emmaus Correspondence School, reminds us in I’ll Take the High Road, “The Lord Jesus did not say to Nicodemus, ‘You should be born again.’ Nor did He say, ‘Would you like to be born again?’ He said, ‘You must be born again.’ It is one of the great imperatives of the Christian faith. This, no doubt, is why the great preacher of a past generation, George Whitfield, when asked by a woman why he always preached ‘You must be born again,’ replied, ‘Madam, because you MUST be born again!'”
Salvation is a narrow miracle. Jesus exhorts, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (
Salvation is a numinous miracle. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, numinous means “supernatural, mysterious, filled with a sense of the presence of divinity, holy.”
“Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition. . . . The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved” (
Salvation is a nigh miracle. We find the word “nigh” in
Margaret Dennis attended a church service as a child and walked the aisle with her cousin, but they did not properly counsel her related to the nature of her decision. She was baptized and became a member of the church. Some time later she admitted that she did not have an understanding of salvation and wrestled with these feelings for many years. On February 15, 2007, I preached a message titled “What Kind of Assurance Do You Have?” based on
Jesus performed many miracles on earth attesting to His deity. He sent out the seventy under His authority to spread the gospel of His death, burial and resurrection. He gave them the ability to perform miracles. Two of these, Peter and John, performed a miracle involving the healing of a lame man over forty years of age (
If you have never experienced the miracle of salvation by repenting of your sin and trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation, don’t miss your miracle.
By Dr. Franklin L. Kirksey, pastor First Baptist Church of Spanish Fort, Alabama; author of Sound Biblical Preaching: Giving the Bible a Voice Available on Amazon.com and WORDsearchbible.com. © August 25, 2009 All Rights Reserved