05.01.02 - Miracles, Probable and Necessary

(2) Miracles Probable and Necessary The question to-day is not so much the possibility or impossibility of miracle as its probability or improbability. The fact of the Divine existence carries the idea of the possibility of miracle, and Theists and even Agnostics, like Huxley, will admit the possibility, but think it highly improbable, and Unitarians like Martineau, will admit that within the spiritual sphere such as conversion and inspiration the miraculous is allowable, but within the physical it is most improbable. But once establish the possibility and even the necessity of miracle within the higher sphere, and it is no longer impossible or improbable in the lower. It is that admission of the reality of miracle within the moral and spiritual sphere that we regard as most important to our purpose, and which, in our judgment, the necessities of the case require. The moral and spiritual miracle justifies the reversal of natural law as exhibited in human experience, The presence of sin in the world, the moral disorder following upon it, is such that disorder can only be rectified and moral order restored by the intervention of a supreme moral Cause. Grant this and miracle follows of necessity. There must be the breaking in upon the moral disorder, and its working the intervention of a supreme Power that ^hall arrest its operation, check the progress of moral evil, and bring the sinful race back to its primal and proper allegiance to God, and its rightful relation of obedience to moral law and order. It is here that miracle finds its rightful place and proper function in the revelation of God and of His gracious purposes for the race. The end and aim of Divine revelation we have declared to be the manifestation and accomplishment of God’s gracious purposes in the redemption and salvation of the world by Jesus Christ.

While in nature God works in the ordinary way and by ordinary means and agencies, in the work of revelation and the redemption of the world from sin, God intervenes by special means and agencies, as manifested in the person and work of Jesus Christ, the divinely appointed Redeemer and Saviour of the world. Miracle is therefore of the nature and essence of Divine revelation, and indispensable to the redemption and salvation of the world from sin, and so an integral part of the plan for the restoration of the moral order of the world and of the race to God.