PHYSICAL SIGNS VS SPIRITUAL SIGNS
For most people, miraculous signs and wonders are attributed to God and/or Jesus. Even people who are marginally religious can be moved to recognize the possibility that God is real when they observe events that appear to be miraculous deviations from the laws of physics that otherwise govern the natural world. They may not be religious, but most people know enough about God to accept that he is the only one who is able to alter those natural laws. Thus, miraculous signs and wonders attract the attention of both religious and nonreligious people. Even atheists have their ways of looking at miracles, but they do not include God.
Given the frequent presence of signs in the Bible and the universal appeal of physical miracles, we might wonder why God warns about looking for signs. In man’s way of thinking, it seems reasonable and appropriate that any god with supernatural powers would occasionally use those powers in miraculous ways to alert an unbelieving world to the reality that he/she exists. With respect to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God who is commonly believed to have created the physical heavens and the physical earth, and all of the various natural laws that keep creation running in an orderly manner, this reasoning has one serious flaw: It anticipates and even expects that the God who designed these laws would purposely break them from time to time just to make himself known to people. This thinking shows how little people really know about the invisible, unchanging God that they claim to worship.
According to this natural way of thinking, miracles and signs are useful to God because they provide evidence that he exists and is at work in the world. Again this is faulty thinking. If this was the way that God wanted to become known, he would not cloak himself in a cloud of mystery, and Jesus would not have rebuked the Pharisees for looking for signs.
In effect, signs and wonders are imagined to be evangelical tools that draw unbelievers to God. But man’s ways of thinking are not God’s ways. Miracles might have some advantage to religions that exploit them, but they are of no real benefit to God because God is interested in tearing down religion, not in building it up.
We find clues about God’s way of thinking about signs and wonders when we look at the differences between faith and religion. We see it in the story of Jesus’ encounter with Thomas after the resurrection. There we find the principle of people being blessed even though they have not seen a miracle. This is the basic principle of faith in things not seen. Therefore, looking for physical signs that God exists is a matter of religion — not faith.
New Covenant disciples put no stock in miracles, signs and wonders because they deal with faith — not physical things or events that can be observed with natural senses. Old/First Covenant religionists, on the other hand, see benefit in physical signs, wonders and miracles because they appear so often in the Bible. The WebBible Encyclopedia reports that one hundred and twenty-three miracles are documented in the Bible. How is it, then, that New Covenant disciples disregard physical miracles while Old/First Covenant religionists find them relevant and even inspiring?
For the answer we must recognize that New Covenant disciples understand the FIRST THE NATURAL, THEN THE SPIRITUAL, PRINCIPLE from which they learn that God always introduces spiritual truths through the symbolism of natural objects, events, people or places of one kind or another. This is consistent with God’s practice of always speaking in parables — even when the Bible narrative does not clearly indicate that the story is a parable. Thus, natural things, persons or events always represent a spiritual truth or a spiritual process. They are not there to excite readers about God’s ability to change natural laws, or to create expectations that God still performs natural signs and wonders. They are there, however, to symbolically represent spiritual events that cannot be seen with natural senses.
When we stop to think about it, this makes sense as a way for a spiritual God to communicate with people who are by nature oriented to natural things and who do not easily accept spiritual things. In the Bible, God uses the language of things natural people know and understand to lead them to spiritual truth that they do not well understand. This is the process by which God uses scripture to train us in righteousness. Those disciples who are willing to study and have their minds transformed about Bible interpretations will graduate to become New Covenant disciples. But, Old/First Covenant religionists who insist on the natural, human way of reading and interpreting the Bible literally, and not symbolically, cannot and do not understand the spiritual meanings of scripture.
In life, just like in the Bible, the only value of natural things or events is to point people to spiritual truth. That is why the Bible is full of mysteries and Symbols, Signs, Types, Copies, Shadows and Patterns. New Covenant disciples know this to be true because God has opened their spiritual eyes and ears to understanding the Bible’s deep spiritual truths found in stories of natural events. Their perspective on time is very different from the natural way Old/First Covenant religionists see time.
The problem with seeking signs, wonders and miracles is that people fixate on the miracle but do not move on to listen to God’s voice. Thinking that they are somehow honoring God when they observe a miracle, they actually dishonor him while elevating themselves as religious observers of physical signs. They wrongly believe that they are dealing with faith, but they are only dabbling in religion which always desires to excite and titillate the flesh.
Instead of using spiritual eyes and ears to observe spiritual events (i.e. changes of heart), religious people use their natural eyes and ears to observe physical events which appear to be abnormal, or contrary to natural laws. And when they observe these abnormal natural events, they attribute them to God with the belief that he has somehow suspended his natural laws to create a miracle for them to see. And when this happens, religious people interpret these events as evidence that God exists and that he has supernatural power to change the way the natural world works.
When we stop to consider the invisible nature of God’s kingdom, and the fact that God is invisible and unchanging, we can see that this is totally silly, wrong thinking. Why would God who is very comfortable being invisible want to reveal himself in natural ways? Why would God who focuses on matters of the heart that cannot be observed direct people to matters of nature that can be observed? Natural things and natural events totally miss who God is and how he works, and for that reason anything natural that presumes to represent God dishonors him by ignoring his true character.
And if that is not reason enough to discount signs, wonders and miracles, we can also mention that it is silly to think that God would suspend his natural laws for any reason — even to prove to people with weak faith that he can do such things. We must always remember that faith is the substance of things not seen and that the kingdom of God does not come with events that can be seen with natural eyes and ears.
In religion, seeking for signs and wonders is considered to be a evidence of spirituality. But, the truth is that watching for signs is only religion. Looking for signs is walking by sight — not faith. Signs and wonders have an important place in religion, but are unimportant to New Covenant disciples. Signs and wonders are manifestations of the tangible, physical world, not of the spiritual world. This is the exact opposite of the nature of the spirit world which cannot be seen or touched.