Greatest Miracle?

 

If you have been a Christian for a long time who has read their Bible and/or gone to church, then you know lots of miracle stories. Christians believe that at times God has supernaturally broken into the natural order and changed things for His purposes. You might remember Noah's flood, or the Red Sea dividing for Israelites to walk through on dry land, or the manna and quail to feed them in the wilderness, or perhaps you think of the miracles of Elijah and Elisha. And then we think of the miracles of Jesus from turning water into wine, to healing illnesses, to casting out demons, to raising others from the dead, to the fact that He was also raised from the dead.

Certainly each of the miracles is astounding in itself and beyond our comprehension, but have you ever considered which is the greatest miracle of all? Which miracle best displays God's mastery of time and space? Certainly the miracle of creation itself is bigger than all of those other miracles and if God can create the universe by speaking it into existence, then the other miracles that involve manipulating, restoring, or creating parts of the universe, seem small in comparison. But to me the most amazing miracle of all is actually what we celebrate at Christmas. Namely that the creator of the universe, the one who is before, after, above, and beyond the universe, came into the universe and became a human like you and me. 

Colossians 1:15–18 says this about Jesus "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent."

Jesus, the Son of God, God the Son, an equal and eternal member of the triune God, creator and upholder of the universe, the Alpha and Omega, became a human. This does not mean He gave up His divine nature, but instead He added to it human nature. Therefore He became truly human just as He was truly divine. The creator of a universe that is 93 billion light years across, entered into His creation and took on a form that is just a speck on a planet that is just a speck in a solar system that is just a speck in a galaxy that is just one of billions of galaxies. The difference between His divine nature and human nature is so vast as to be uncountable and unimaginable. That is why this miracle seems to be the greatest to me. God came down. God with us. Immanuel!

Why did Jesus do it? To redeem His creation that He loved. To redeem those who see His love and love Him back. So maybe the biggest miracle of all for me personally is that God came down to rescue and redeem me. Have you experienced the miracle of Christmas, namely that God came to love you and be with you?

Jesus, the Son of God, God the Son, an equal and eternal member of the triune God, creator and upholder of the universe, the Alpha and Omega, became a human. This does not mean He gave up His divine nature, but instead He added to it human nature. Therefore He became truly human just as He was truly divine. The creator of a universe that is 93 billion light years across, entered into His creation and took on a form that is just a speck on a planet that is just a speck in a solar system that is just a speck in a galaxy that is just one of billions of galaxies. The difference between His divine nature and human nature is so vast as to be uncountable and unimaginable. 

Origin of Life: A Proof of God's Existence

I originally wrote this to a friend who does not believe there is any good evidence for the existence of God. He has many times also questioned various aspects of my faith and stories from the Bible I think it is legitimate for him to send me stories that question biblical stories like the exodus or the flood. I think it is perfectly fine to deal with objections to our understanding of the world, but I think it needs to go both ways. Often those people who think matter and energy are all there is do not honestly face the problems with their own understanding of the world. 

The origin of life is one area where I think the explanation of a creator is so much more reasonable than a natural explanation. The astronomical numbers involved in trying to think how material could organize on its own into such incredible complexity are mind-blowing and they simply defy belief. And it is not just one type of organization, there are many different chemical reactions, compounds, and then interactions between those compounds to get the simplest cell and at each step of the way, the "chance" of it happening naturally is virtually impossible. So impossible in fact that no one can even propose a possible realistic way for many of these steps. It seems impossible for chance or nature alone to "create" the organization needed for even the simplest of cells, and the only other option is that an intelligence was involved. Cells have many compounds and processes that look like engineered machines, and in any other field, we would simply say that intelligence must have been involved to get to this level of complexity. 

For me, the primary reason to deny the possibility of a creator being involved is philosophical and not scientific. The science clearly points to the fact that nature alone cannot and could not create such complexity. 

 Here is a video by Jim Tours, a world-class chemist who makes nanomachines, that explains the incredible/impossible odds of this happening naturally. 

 If you watch through it, you will notice that he never refers to his Christian faith or the Bible, rather he is a hard scientist who knows the field and numbers inside and out. As I listen to these types of numbers and odds the impossibility of a random/ chance/ exclusively natural explanation is evident, his words about needing faith (as you define faith, which is belief without or in spite of the evidence) that somehow science will discover how to overcome these odds through some supposed law, ring true to me. For me, this is one of the many areas where a much more reasonable and rational explanation of the data points to a creator.