Salvation Talk in the Miracles of Jesus and Previews of God's Redemptive Future

The vision of Ozark Christian College is to glorify God by evangelizing the lost and edifying Christians worldwide. The mission of Ozark Christian College is to train men and women for Christian service as a degree-granting institution of biblical higher education.
This may be the most important lesson in this series of lessons. I want to give the thesis of my understanding of the miracles of Jesus. Here’s why: in the miracles of Jesus I think we begin to see previews of God’s redemptive future. Jesus is at war with the devil to get the world back and set the world right!
I didn’t always think this way. I used to think that the miracles of Jesus were primarily to prove that he was the Son of God. I mean he could do those thing recorded in theGospels, and we can’t. Now that is one of the purposes of the miracles. It is an important one, but it is only one. When viewed with a wider lens we see how the miracles of Jesus played into his larger salvific work.
Let me show you what began to change my view. I noticed what I call “salvation talk” in the miracle stories. Language that was typically reserved for forgiveness or eternal life was creeping into the miracle stories. Examples:
So, let’s go on a bit of a journey with this:
You see part of our problem to understand this is that we have a puny view of salvation. I rejoice that God is in the forgiveness business, but that is not his only business. One of my co-workers talks about the idolatry of salvation, where salvation is only defined in terms of personal forgiveness. It can become an idol when viewed only that way.
Salvation is huge. I would argue it has six nuances:
All of these flow into a larger definition of salvation for me. I call salvation—in it larger sense—the healing of all creation. If we don’t have a puny view of salvation, then it will be easier to see the salvific purpose behind the miracles of Jesus.
Let me close with three quotes that might help us:
difference? It was in Jesus’ nature to counteract the effects of the fallen world during his time on earth. As he strode through life, Jesus used supernatural power to set right what was wrong. Every physical healing pointed back to a time in Eden when physical bodies did not go blind, get crippled, or bleed nonstop for twelve years—and also pointed forward to a time of re-generation to come. The miracles he did perform, breaking as they did the charms or sickness and death, give me a glimpse of what the world was meant to be and instill hope that one day God will right its wrongs. To put it mildly, God is no more satisfied with this earth than we are: Jesus’ miracles offer a hint of what God intends to do about it.”
Gregory Boyd (God at War, 192), “Jesus’ miracles over nature, as well as his healings, exorcisms and especially his resurrection, were definite acts of war that accomplished and demonstrated his victory over Satan. These acts routed demonic forces and…established the kingdom of God and the restoration of a new humanity in the midst of this war zone. In doing this, Jesus set in motion forces that will eventually overthrow the whole of this already fatally-damaged Satan assault upon God’s earth and upon humanity.”
Lowery, (Humble Defense, 138), “Miracles are thus a means which God employs for directing history until the time he has established his rule over the whole universe.”
If this makes sense, next we will speak about miracles as going to war with compassion and why then attributing Jesus’ power to the devil is such a lethal sin.