The Miracle of Life

In France, recently, a 45-year-old man suffered a massive heart attack and rescuers using cardiac massage failed to revive him, but they kept it up for longer than usual. After his heart had stopped for 1 ½ hours the doctors started preparing to remove his organs for transplants. They were astonished as, unaided, the man began breathing and his heart started beating. Several weeks later, the man can walk and talk.* “Miracles” Such as this seldom happen. But there was a time when miracles were plentiful.

1.  What miracle took place in the birth of Jesus? Matthew 1:21-23

“’The virgin [Mary] will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ — which means, ‘God with us.’”

2. What miracles happened in the towns and villages Jesus visited? Matthew 9:35

“Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.”

Filled with compassion Jesus made the blind to see, the mute to speak, the deaf to hear and the lame to walk (Matthew 9:27-31; 11:22-23; 15:30-31; 20:29-34). He broke up every funeral he attended by raising the dead to life. (Matthew 9:18-26;  Luke 7:11-17; John 11:1-44).

Miracles there were aplenty. They showed that “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31).  The physical miracles show that Jesus is able to heal our spiritual maladies as well.

3. What is the good news of the kingdom? John 3:16

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

All of us deserve to die, but Jesus came to give us eternal life (Romans 6:23).

4. As the miracle-working God, why did Jesus become a man and allowed Himself to be killed? Hebrews 2:14-15

“He too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”

It was the innocent dying for the guilty, to pay for our sins (Romans 5:6-10).

5. How severe was Roman execution? Mark 15:15-20

“He [Pilate] had Jesus flogged … They … twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him… Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him… And when they had mocked him … they led him out to crucify him.”

A Roman whip consisted of several lashes barbed with pieces of lead and bone. Often victims never survived the flogging. “A death by crucifixion seems to include all that pain and death can have of the horrible and ghastly — dizziness, cramp, thirst, starvation, sleeplessness, traumatic fever, tetanus, … all intensified just up to the point at which they can be endured at all, but all stopping just short of the point which would give to the sufferer the relief of unconsciousness” (Smith’s Bible Dictionary).

Yet it was Jesus’ sense of separation from His Father that caused His greatest pain (Matthew 27:46).

6. What did Paul say was of first importance? 1 Corinthians 15:1-4

“I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you … [by which] you are saved.… [which is] of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”

Anyone who has stood by the graveside of a loved one understands the pain death brings to the human heart. God understands that pain. The resurrection of Jesus is the cornerstone of Christianity. His resurrection is the guarantee of the resurrection to the miracle of life eternal of all those who trust in Him.

*“Man comes back to life as doctors prepare to remove his organs.” (Reuters - June 11, 2008)

Bible Discovery by Errol Webster. Reprinted with permission by SIGNS. Biblebay © 2001-14, Westlake Village, CA.

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