The Miracle-Working Second Adam

If you put together all the maladies  of those whom Jesus miraculously healed during His earthly ministry (i.e. those having to do with eyes, ears, tongues, arms, hands, legs, skin and blood) you would have a perfectly deformed man or woman–both internally and externally. Isaiah used the figure of a person entirely deformed from head to toe to describe our spiritual condition of depravity by nature (Isaiah 1: 5-6). The apostle Paul likened our spiritual condition by nature to that of a physically dead man (Ephesians 2:1-5). This should come as no surprise to us if we understand that the healing miracles–historical though they were–are really spiritual parables for us. They are parables that carry our minds back to Eden and the awful effects of Adam’s sin; and, they are parables that carry our minds forward to see the glory of Jesus, the second Adam, and the King of God’s Kingdom who came to heal the souls and bodies of His people. This is most fully symbolized in the resurrection miracles of Jesus in the Gospels. Here are five observations, drawn from Herman Ridderbos’ outstanding book The Coming of the Kingdom, about what the healing miracles of Jesus teach us:   Continue at Nicholas T. Batzig