Miracles is the ninth article in the series, The Life of Jesus Christ. To read the whole series click here.
The American author Philip Yancey wrote: “Although faith may produce miracles, miracles do not necessarily produce faith.”[1]
I was reading the book of Exodus when I came across this Yancey quote and realised how true it was. The Israelites and Egyptians saw many remarkable miracles when the Israelites left Egypt, but it didn’t produce much faith in either people group. It’s remarkable and disturbing that the Israelites experienced so many miracles in their travels but they had so little effect on their faith.
In the parable of the sower, Jesus explains, “The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word” (Matthew 13:21-22).
Miracles by themselves don’t encourage the growth of spiritual roots. Perhaps this is one of the reasons Jesus doesn’t advertise his miracles, often telling the recipients to keep quiet about them. Jesus is looking for faith, “How many will he find on the earth who have faith?” (Luke 18:8). But if miracles don’t produce faith then there’s no point publicising them.
Sometimes I’ve heard testimonies from people who have experienced or witnessed a miracle and I’m left feeling, “What happened next?” Did the person who receives a miracle go on in the Lord? Did others come to faith because of it?
Likewise, history would tell us miracles don’t produce revivals but revivals often produce miracles.
[1] Yancey, Philip. The Jesus I Never Knew. (Philippines: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995), 171.
