Are Miraculous Gifts for Today? (Counterpoints: Bible and Theology) by Wayne A. Grudem & Richard B. Gaffin & Sam Storms

Author:Wayne A. Grudem & Richard B. Gaffin & Sam Storms [Grudem, Wayne A. & Gaffin, Richard B. & Storms, Sam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780310201557
Amazon: 0310201551
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 1996-10-09T21:00:00+00:00

This text is important for at least two reasons: It shows that it is good to pray for signs and wonders and that it is not evil or a sign of emotional and mental imbalance to petition God for demonstrations of his power; it also shows that there is no necessary or inherent conflict between miracles and the message, between wonders and the word of the cross. Let me take each of these points in turn.

(a) It is good, helpful, and honoring to the Lord Jesus Christ to seek and pray for the demonstration of his power in healing, signs, and wonders. But what about Matthew 12:39 and 16:4? Did not Jesus denounce as wicked and adulterous those who “ask[ed] for” and “look[ed] for” signs (cf. 1 Cor. 1:22)? Yes, but note whom he was addressing and why he denounced them. These were unbelieving scribes and Pharisees, not children of God. Those who made such demands of Christ had no intention of following him. “Seeking signs from God is ‘wicked and adulterous’ when the demand for more and more evidence comes from a resistant heart and simply covers up an unwillingness to believe.”26 Seeking signs as a pretext for criticizing Jesus or from a hankering to see the sensational is rightly rebuked. But that certainly was not the motivation of the early church, nor need it be ours. Perhaps an illustration will help:

If we are carrying on a love affair with the world, and our husband, Jesus, after a long separation comes to us and says, “I love you and I want you back,” one of the best ways to protect our adulterous relationship with the world is to say, “You’re not really my husband; you don’t really love me. Prove it. Give me some sign.” If that’s the way we demand a sign, we are a wicked and adulterous generation. But if we come to God with a heart aching with longing for vindication of his glory and the salvation of sinners, then we are not wicked and adulterous. We are a faithful wife, only wanting to honor our husband.27

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