Rethinking Miracles: Recovering a Better Theology
Where Modern Iterations Fail to Show the True Beauty of Miracles
I think we need to rethink what we believe about miracles.
Now, I’m guessing you never thought you’d read that coming from someone with Baptist and Reformed leanings. It’s not a standard topic that someone from these traditions usually considers, beyond either dismissing them entirely or approaching them with cautious skepticism. Yet, I would argue that this tension reveals something deeper. In my observations, though arguably limited, it appears that our overall theology of miracles often suffers from imbalance.
As Millard Erickson notes in his discussion of God’s immanence and transcendence, we tend to swing between two extremes: either seeing God only in extraordinary, supernatural interventions or assuming He is so woven into creation that nothing can truly be called “miraculous.” Neither perspective fully captures the beauty and depth of God’s activity in the world.
Whereas the conservative sees God’s work particularly in special, extraordinary acts, the liberal sees God at work everywhere. The virgin birth is important to conservatives as an evidence of God’s special work. The liberal, on the other hand, retorts, “The virgin birth a miracle? Every birth is a miracle.” Conservatives in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries vigorously resisted the Darwinian theory of evolution, for it seemed to render theistic creation superfluous. To the liberal, however, this was not the case. Evolution does not preclude divine activity; it presupposes it. The conservative held that the universe must have a single cause: either God caused it (more or less directly) or natural forces of evolution caused it. To the liberal, however, the statements “God created the universe” and “the universe came about through development” were not in any sense incompatible. The underlying assumption was that nature and God are not as discrete as has sometimes been thought.1
A Brief History of Miracles in the Church
The Early Church: Expectation and Continuity
In the earliest centuries of Christianity, miracles were viewed as a natural extension of God’s ongoing activity through the Spirit. The book of Acts describes healings, visions, exorcisms, and prophetic words as normative expressions of God’s kingdom breaking into the world. Early church fathers like Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Justin Martyr recorded similar phenomena in their own times, often citing them as evidence of the risen Christ’s continued reign and the Spirit’s power at work among God’s people. Importantly, many of these miracles were not the result of specific prayers or formulas; they surprised both believers and skeptics, functioning as divine interruptions rather than predictable outcomes.
Irenaeus, for example, wrote in Against Heresies that “some cast out devils really and truly, so that often those same persons, who are purged of the evil spirits, become believers, and are in the Church. Others again have foreknowledge of things future, and visions, and prophetic sayings: And others heal the sick by the imposition of their hands, and restore them whole. And before now, as we have said, dead persons have been raised, and have abode with us a good number of years.”2 For the early church, miracles revealed God’s nearness and His kingdom advancing, often in ways the people weren’t anticipating.
The Reformation: Reaction and Restraint
By the sixteenth century, the Reformers approached miracles differently—not out of disbelief in God’s power, but out of concern for theological integrity and spiritual abuse. Martin Luther, while acknowledging biblical miracles, frequently criticized what he perceived as superstition surrounding relics, indulgences, and Marian apparitions, arguing that these distracted from the gospel itself. John Calvin likewise affirmed God’s ability to act miraculously but opposed Rome’s claims to institutional authority over supernatural works.
In his Institutes of the Christian Religion, Calvin warned that “Satan has his miracles, which, although they are tricks rather than true wonders, are still such as to delude the ignorant and unwary.”3 Over time, many Protestants adopted a more restrained expectation of God’s supernatural activity, favoring the sufficiency of Scripture and the ordinary means of grace. But while this safeguarded theological clarity, it unintentionally narrowed the church’s posture of openness to God’s unexpected power—even when believers weren’t explicitly seeking it.
The Enlightenment and Evangelical Skepticism
The Enlightenment introduced a different kind of challenge. Thinkers like David Hume redefined miracles as “violations of the laws of nature” and argued that human testimony could never outweigh empirical evidence.4 Liberal theologians, seeking to preserve Christianity’s relevance, often reinterpreted miracles metaphorically, portraying them as symbolic narratives rather than literal events. In response, conservative evangelicals doubled down, defending biblical miracles as historical but increasingly relegating God’s supernatural activity to the apostolic past.
B.B. Warfield’s Counterfeit Miracles (1918) argued that miraculous gifts ceased after the apostolic era, entrenching cessationism within many Baptist and Reformed contexts. The unintended result was a subtle shift toward functional deism: God could act miraculously but, practically speaking, many assumed He rarely did. This history shapes where we are today—often hesitant to expect God to act outside our categories or petitions. Yet recovering a biblical vision of miracles requires embracing God’s freedom to move in ways we neither plan for nor predict.
What if our problem is not whether God performs miracles but how we define and recognize them? To move forward, we need to reclaim a robust, kingdom-shaped definition:
A miracle is an unexpected outpouring of God’s power in an event that defies ordinary explanation, which occurs for the purpose of advancing God’s kingdom.
There are three complementary components to this definition around which I believe we need to calibrate, which should form our theological understanding of the true beauty of miracles.
An Unexpected Outpouring
A true miracle is first and foremost surprising. Scripture rarely portrays miracles as the result of human formula, manipulation, or even expectation. When God parts the Red Sea (Exod. 14:21-22), raises Jairus’s daughter (Mark 5:41-42), or feeds five thousand (John 6:1-14), these events occur at His initiative, not ours. Miracles are divine interruptions—moments when God chooses to break into the ordinary with His extraordinary power. While prayer positions us to participate in God’s work, it doesn’t control Him. Many of the most breathtaking miracles in Scripture are granted without anyone asking: the burning bush, the Damascus Road, the resurrection itself. This means God’s miraculous activity is never ultimately bound to our requests; He acts out of His sovereign wisdom to accomplish His purposes.
This also reframes how we view unanswered prayer. We often think miracles are primarily tied to petitions: If I ask enough, God might do it. But consider how often God answers prayers in unexpected ways—or even acts when no one is praying at all. In Acts 12, the church prays fervently for Peter’s release, and when God actually rescues him, they’re shocked, hardly believing it (Acts 12:13-16). Similarly, the man born blind in John 9 isn’t praying for healing; Jesus initiates it as a sign of God’s glory. Sometimes God grants precisely what we ask for, but often His miracles transcend our limited vision. They remind us that His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts higher than our thoughts (Isa. 55:9).
If miracles are truly unexpected outpourings, then they demand humility. We cannot predict them, produce them, or package them. They are given, not earned; received, not orchestrated. This should reshape our posture from control to surrender, from entitlement to gratitude. Rather than viewing miracles as divine validation of our plans, we recognize them as invitations to realign ourselves with God’s purposes. And when God chooses not to act miraculously, it doesn’t diminish His goodness—it simply means His wisdom extends beyond our understanding. Miracles, when they come, remind us that God is sovereign, God is free, and God is infinitely more involved than we imagine.
Defying Explanation
A common misconception about miracles is that they must “violate” natural law to qualify as divine. But miracles are less about God breaking the rules of creation and more about God revealing the depth of His authority over creation. He is the Author of the natural order, not constrained by it. When Jesus calms the storm in Mark 4, He isn’t violating physics—He’s revealing His lordship over the wind and waves. When He multiplies bread and fish, He’s not dismantling biology—He’s demonstrating His mastery over it. Miracles aren’t God intruding into a closed system; they’re glimpses into the reality that all creation depends on Him moment by moment.
Because we misunderstand this, we often treat miracles like transactions: If I have enough faith, God will act; if I don’t, He won’t. But this isn’t how Scripture portrays God’s miraculous work. Jesus heals people with strong faith (Mark 5:34), little faith (Matt. 14:31), and even no faith (Luke 7:11-15). The widow of Nain wasn’t asking for her son’s resurrection, and yet Jesus restored him out of sheer compassion. God acts according to His purposes, not our spiritual performance. Viewing miracles as rewards for spiritual effort cheapens grace and places us at the center. The truth is better: God works for His glory, often in ways that exceed and surprise us.
This doesn’t diminish the importance of prayer—it magnifies it. Prayer invites us into partnership with God’s purposes without presuming to control His outcomes. We pray boldly because we know God is able to do “far more abundantly than all we ask or think” (Eph. 3:20). But when God acts outside of what we’ve prayed for—or chooses not to act as we hope—we learn to trust His heart more than our expectations. Miracles remind us that God’s plans are deeper than our understanding. They defy explanation not because they’re irrational but because they flow from the infinite wisdom and compassion of a God who knows what we truly need before we ask.
Advancing God’s Kingdom
Miracles in Scripture always point beyond themselves. They are never random fireworks displays of divine power; they are signs—kingdom previews. In Exodus, God’s plagues don’t just free Israel; they demonstrate His supremacy over Egypt’s false gods (Exod. 12:12). In the Gospels, Jesus’ healings signal that “the kingdom of God has come near” (Luke 10:9). In Acts, miraculous events often open doors for the gospel to advance among new peoples and cultures (Acts 8:5-8). Every true miracle is God’s way of declaring: This is who I am, this is what I’m doing, and this is where history is headed.
Recognizing this kingdom dimension reshapes how we think about our own prayers for miracles. Too often, we measure the miraculous by how it benefits us personally—restored health, unexpected provision, or answered requests. While God cares deeply for our needs, miracles in Scripture consistently serve a bigger story than personal comfort. They reveal God’s glory, confirm His Word, and advance His mission in the world. That means God may perform a miracle we didn’task for because it accomplishes His purposes—or He may withhold the miracle we are praying for because His plan is better. Either way, miracles are never disconnected from God’s redemptive agenda.
This kingdom focus also guards us against idolizing the miraculous itself. When we seek miracles more than the God who works them, we lose sight of their purpose. As John Piper writes, “Jesus knew what he was doing with his miracles. He was giving signs. And the signs were pointing to his glory.“5 A healthy theology of miracles frees us from chasing sensational experiences and instead calls us to deeper worship, trust, and obedience. The greatest miracle is not simply that God occasionally intervenes but that He has already accomplished the ultimate miracle—the resurrection of Jesus—which secures our hope and guarantees God’s final renewal of all things.
The Result: A Better Theology
Bringing these elements together—unexpected outpouring, defying explanation, and advancing God’s kingdom—offers a balanced theology of miracles that avoids two extremes: skepticism that assumes God rarely acts and sensationalism that seeks miracles more than God Himself. This framework calls us to hold mystery and discernment together, embracing both God’s transcendence and His immanence.
Erickson captures this beautifully when he writes:
While it is obviously a work of God when his people pray and a miraculous healing occurs, it is also God’s work when through the application of medical knowledge and skill a physician is successful in preventing illness or bringing a patient back to health. Medicine is part of God’s general revelation, and the work of the doctor is a channel of God’s activity. It is a dramatic answer to prayer when a Christian in financial need receives an anonymous gift of money in the mail, but it is just as much God’s doing when such a person receives an opportunity to work for the needed money.6
In other words, miracles are not exceptions to God’s activity—they are manifestations of His reign breaking into our world, whether we’ve asked for them or not. Some miracles meet our deepest petitions; others exceed them entirely. Either way, they invite us to see God’s glory, trust His purposes, and participate in His advancing kingdom. And in the end, every miracle—seen and unseen—points us to the greatest reality of all: the God who still draws near.
Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013), 276.
S. Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons, Five Books of S. Irenaeus against Heresies, trans. John Keble, A Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church (Oxford; London; Cambridge: James Parker and Co.; Rivingtons, 1872), 195.
John Calvin and Henry Beveridge, Institutes of the Christian Religion, vol. 1 (Edinburgh: The Calvin Translation Society, 1845), 11.
David Hume, “Of Miracles,” in An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1977), p. 77n.
John Piper, A Peculiar Glory: How the Christian Scriptures Reveal Their Complete Truthfulness (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016), 240.
Erickson, Christian Theology, 281.
Dear Jacob, this is one of the best pieces regarding miracles that I have read. Thank you for all your work. Especially the historical view. I'm seeing how our current mental models, within our current times shapes our understanding -- a challenge to exegesis and hermeneutics. It's so helpful then that you help us see the times we are in. To even muddy the waters, we are in rapidly changing times, where it seems like a decade and a half ago, miracles in the Reformed, Baptist circles were seen as you described, an invasion into a closed system of creation.
It seems like lately, this mental model is shifting and the unseen realm is being considered anew. I like how you put it that seen and unseen worlds are the whole of reality. Not dichotomised.