Those of us who are convinced charismatics, who believe in the present reality of gifts of the Spirit, like miracles! But sometimes miracles can be second best. We see this in the temptation of Jesus recorded in Matthew 4. For Jesus to have worked a miracle in response to the devil’s tempting would have been second best – actually, it would have been a long way short even of second best; it would have been a disaster. Jesus could have conjured bread from the stones, but that very miracle would have been a denial of his trust in the Father.

In this demonic encounter there is a replaying of the scene in Israel’s story when the people grumbled for lack of water. In this case, God works a miracle, but it is not a miracle born of faith. Instead, it is a response to the people’s testing of and grumbling against God (Ex 17:2). In this sense, the miracle actually stands as evidence against them, not as a sign of blessing to them.

We see something similar in Jesus’ calming of the storm. When Christ rebukes the wind and the waves there is also an implicit rebuke of the disciples in their lack of faith. They seek a miracle, but the miracle demands God’s action in order for them to have faith, rather than their faith seeking a miracle.

The ultimate example of this disbelieving appeal for a miracle is at the cross, when the abuse hurled at Jesus was, “Save yourself – come down – work a miracle!” For Jesus to have worked such a miracle would have been impressive, amazing even, but it would also have been defeat, not rescue.

The desire for a miracle can be a sign of unbelief rather than of faith: “Do this God, and then I’ll really believe in you!” By contrast, true faith believes even if it never witnesses a miracle.

I have often mused on the account of Paul and Barnabas at Lystra (Acts 14). Here they perform a mighty miracle, healing a man who had never walked. We might expect this miracle to lead to the mass conversion of the town, but instead what we see is that at first the crowd tries to worship Paul and Barnabas as gods, before growing disenchanted (perhaps there had been no more miracles?) and stoning Paul. The miracle in this case doesn’t do the town of Lystra much good – instead it stands in judgment against them.

Should we all become cessationists then and give up on any pursuit of spiritual gifts? Of course not! But in our desire for the miraculous we must be clear that we are responding in faith to the completed work of Christ at the cross, not making our faith conditional on the miracle. We also need to avoid the naïve assumption that when miracles happen it will always result in people responding positively to the gospel. Sometimes it simply hardens them. And that must mean that we do all we do from “faith, hope and love” and not seek miracles simply for the sake of the miracle - because that kind of miracle is not the kind we need. Our salvation is far too miraculous for that.