“But the testimony I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish—the very works that I do—testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me.”
~ John 5:36
We live in a fairly skeptical age. The twenty-first century is the great grandchild of the Enlightenment, and its rejection of the miraculous for the sake of the rational. And while at first glance this may seem terrible, it really isn’t. We should be skeptical of the miraculous, since miracles are only possible with God.
The greatest miracle worker of all was Jesus. No one ever did or has ever done the kinds of works that He did. A quick scan of the Gospel accounts will reveal healing of every form of sickness, raising the dead, power over natural elements, creation of matter, knowledge of the thoughts of men, and much more.
But all of these miracles, according to John 5:36, had a very specific purpose in mind. Jesus wasn’t simply showing off, or trying to garner attention. In fact, many of His miracles had the opposite effect—people quit following Him after He exposed their hearts.
Instead, Jesus tells us that each work that the Father gave Him to accomplish had the singular purpose of proving that He truly was the Son of God. Every miracle, every healing, every resurrection from the dead was testifying loudly that God truly had become man in the person of this simple Jewish carpenter.
And of course, this was the greatest miracle of all. This was the one great miracle that, if believed, meant that all the other miracles were obviously possible. If God had truly become man, then He would have the ability to do all these things.
But the Pharisees and Scribes and chief priests simply would not believe. They saw the miracles, and they understood the profundity of them. They couldn’t help but believe what their eyes saw.
What they refused to believe was the deeper miracle—the one great miracle of Christmas. They called Him a son of the devil, and said that He did His miracles by the power of Satan. They mocked Him, rejected Him, and ultimately crucified Him. But make no mistake—they saw the works. They believed the miracles. They just refused to believe that He was the Son of God.
Do the testimony of His works in the Gospel convince you that God has come in flesh this Christmas?
