(The following is my response to @JohnHileman who sent me a message on Twitter earlier this evening.)

Thank you for raising those questions to me on Twitter and directing me to your article (Hileman, 2011). You asked me two questions; first, whether or not I believe in miracles, and second, what I think of your story about faith.

Do I believe in miracles? The short answer is yes. However, I do not really look at miracles in the way they are most commonly supposed, as violations of nature by an act of God. On the one hand, I tend toward a view that is most succinctly captured by Augustine who said, “Miracles do not happen in contradiction to nature, but only in contradiction to that which is known to us in nature,” such that the term ‘miracle’ is sort of shorthand for our ignorance of how God accomplished some extraordinary thing he did. On the other hand, I tend toward a view of the Creator and the cosmos that the Israelites of the ancient Near East held, in that everything is an act of God. As noted by John Walton, Professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College, there was no concept of a ‘natural’ versus ‘supernatural’ dichotomy in their world view. That is a relatively modern invention. God revealed to them—and to us through them—that everything is a product of him acting. “Every plant that grew, every baby born, every drop of rain and every climatic disaster was an act of God,” Walton observed. “There were no ‘miracles’ (in the sense of events deviating from that which was ‘natural’), there were only signs of [God’s] activity (sometimes favorable, sometimes not). The idea that deity got things running then just stood back or engaged himself elsewhere (deism) would have been laughable in the ancient world because it was not even conceivable. As suggested by Richard Bube, if God were to unplug himself in that way from the cosmos, we and everything else in the cosmos would simply cease to exist. … The categories of ‘natural’ and ‘supernatural’ had no meaning to them, let alone any interest” (2009, pp. 20-21). The universe would not exist but for the providential sustaining power of this covenant God. All of creation exists by him, through him, and for him; by his word all things were created and have their being; all things are held together in him. This is the biblical world view to which I am committed.

What do I think of your story of faith? Well it is edifying, first of all, and I thank you for sharing it. Although there were fewer players involved, I experienced something that was not too unlike your story. My wife and I along with our newborn daughter had gone for a long drive away from civilization; we were looking to enjoy a warm Sunday afternoon at a lake someone had told us about. At the end of the day, as we started to make our way back toward civilization our car got stuck, and quite badly. It was just the three of us, in the middle of nowhere and very alone as the afternoon was creeping toward evening. This was a few years before the ubiquity of cell phones, and it would have taken several hours of walking before reaching any signs of civilization. There was nothing we could do but pray, and we certainly did. About 30 minutes later a tow truck showed up. In the middle of nowhere. On a single-lane dirt road in the woods. Several miles from anything. A tow truck. Did I mention that our car was badly stuck? How perfect is a tow truck? Later that night after our daughter was asleep in her crib, my wife and I grabbed the telephone book to find the number for the towing company whose name was on the side of the truck. We wanted to get the name of the gentleman so we could send him some kind of thank you gift. There was no listing for a towing company by that name. We called a couple of listed numbers and were told they had never heard of a company by that name. It was a mystery. I am not suggesting that he was an angel who specially appeared from God in answer our prayer, but to my wife and I that man certainly was an angel, even if metaphorically. I have no idea who he was, where he was from, or what he was doing with a tow truck in the middle of nowhere, just what we needed and at just the right time, but I do give God all the glory for that answer to our prayer.

Is there a plausible and perfectly ‘natural’ explanation for our experience? Maybe. I have a very good imagination and can think of any number of perfectly ‘natural’ explanations for a tow truck being in the woods miles away from civilization as evening was drawing near. Perhaps he worked for a local towing company and had recently purchased this tow truck from another town and was just taking it for a drive to check it out. Who knows. But as I indicated earlier, I reject the notion that miracles are violations of nature by an act of God. At the most profound end of the spectrum, miracles are events which contradict what we know about nature—and when it comes to nature we have more ignorance than knowledge, a fact which our scientific pursuits keep humbling us with. We have no idea how Jesus walked on water, for example, but we cannot on that basis conclude that it therefore violated the laws of nature. Maybe there is a scientific explanation for how he did that, which we have yet to discover. We have such a long, long way to go before we truly understand the laws of nature. As I said, ‘miracle’ in this sense is shorthand for our ignorance of how God accomplished some extraordinary thing he did. He is a covenant God of promise: he will not violate the laws of nature (cf. Jeremiah 33:25-26, “But I, the LORD, make the following promise: I have made a covenant governing the coming of day and night. I have established the fixed laws governing heaven and earth. Just as surely as I have done this, so surely will I never reject the descendants of Jacob. Nor will I ever refuse to choose one of my servant David’s descendants to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”).

But as I also indicated earlier, everything is an act of God. As such I glorify him for the entire experience—for our getting stuck, for the tow truck appearing, for the lessons of faith that we learned, for however it edifies those I share the story with and so forth. And the same should apply to the story that you shared. You are a writer so you also have a very good imagination and could probably think of any number of perfectly ‘natural’ explanations that would account for the various elements in the story. But even supposing one of those explanations being the case, would that mean that it was not an act of God in answer to your wife’s prayer? According to the biblical world view to which I am committed, it certainly was an act of God in answer to her prayer; as such I would say her attitude (and yours) and what she said to your daughter was right and entirely consistent with what God reveals about himself and his creation. Like I said to you over Twitter earlier, “I think you and your wife glorified God for his providential care.” I appreciate your story, particularly the way it made me reflect upon my own similar experience and motivated me to thank him all over again.

References:

John Hileman, “Is it really God?” John Michael Hileman [blog] (2011, August 2).

John Walton, The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate (InterVarsity Press, 2009).

Not because of who I am, but because of what you’ve done
Not because of what I’ve done but because of who you are

(lyrics from “Who Am I?” by Casting Crowns)

In the comments area to a previous article I had written last year about Christianity being singularly unique in its salvation by grace (and not of works), a visitor left the following question (emphasis mine):

This does not help. I need to believe in Christ in order to receive what he did for me. Okay. But if I don’t believe and repent, then I can’t be saved. Correct? So when it comes down to it, I have to do a work in order to be saved. Please don’t change and switch words around in order to fit a point of view. This is a very serious matter. So, how am I to truly receive salvation?

I need to believe in Christ in order to receive what he did for me.

This is not quite right, for that very belief—if it is a saving faith—is itself something that one receives by what Christ did. That is to say, the very act of believing in Jesus Christ savingly means that you are already in receipt of what he did for you; for God removing your heart of stone (that hated God and loved sin) and replacing it with a heart of flesh (that loves God and hates sin) is a product of the redeeming work that Christ did. It is called regeneration and is a work of God, not of one’s self, by virtue of the fact that it is a change wrought in us and not an act performed by us. If a person believes in Jesus as the Christ for the salvation of his soul, then we can know that such a person has been born of God (1 John 5:1, literally “out of God has been born”). The 1689 London Baptist Confession states that “the grace of faith by which the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls is the work of the Spirit in their hearts” (14.1), and that “the principal acts of saving faith relate in the first instance to Christ, as the believer accepts, receives and rests upon him alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life; and all by virtue of the covenant of grace” (14.2). Repentance and faith are gifts of grace from the Father in heaven bestowed upon all those who he gives to the Son for his sake and glory. No one can come to Christ unless it is granted him by the Father and everyone whom the Father gives the Son is certain to come to him. So the very act of believing in Christ savingly means that you are in receipt of what he did for you already.

(And do not get too hung up on that clause, “if it is a saving faith,” for it is meant to simply distinguish between true belief and false belief, the latter signifying a bare intellectual assent that is not a product of regeneration by the Spirit, and thus that person neither properly apprehends his sinful condition before an holy God nor fully surrenders himself to Jesus as Christ and his sovereign Lord.)

If I don’t believe and repent, then I can’t be saved. Correct?

That is not so. The question of whether or not you can be saved is answered by what Christ did, not by what you do. Because of Christ and his perfect atoning sacrifice you can be saved. So if you do not believe and repent, then you are not saved; but from the fact that you aren’t saved it does not follow that you can’t be saved. You can be, and what Christ did is the reason—not what you do. In Christ alone by grace through faith alone for the glory of God alone.

So when it comes down to it, I have to do a work in order to be saved.

Incorrect. To repent and believe is a fruit of salvation, not the cause thereof. It is not faith that saves, but Christ who saves through faith. There is no work you can do in order to be saved; that is the very reason for and necessity of the faithfulness of Christ and his perfect atoning sacrifice, apart from whom no one would be reconciled. It is by grace that we are saved through faith—which is the glorious gift of God, so that no one can boast. As Paul writes in Titus 3:4–6, “But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us not by works of righteousness that we have done but on the basis of his mercy, through the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us in full measure through Jesus Christ our Savior” (see also Rom 9:16; cf. v. 11).

So how am I to truly receive salvation?

Through the faithfulness of Christ and his perfect atoning sacrifice; “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). If anyone thinks there is even a shred of anything they can do in order to be saved, then that person understands neither the unmitigated holiness of God nor the depth of their own sin and their desperate condition apart from the faithfulness of Christ Jesus. The gospel is not a slogan or a simple decision or a formulaic rite that will only take a minute of your time; it is the consuming fire and everlasting power of God under which we recognize with contempt and loathing the black filthiness of our sinful condition and with unquenchable joy and love the inexpressible beauty and glory of Christ, who he is and what he does. An eternity spent at his feet will not be enough to comprehend the depth and scope of the gospel of our Savior King.

“When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come with superior eloquence or wisdom as I proclaimed the testimony of God. For I decided to be concerned about nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and with much trembling. My conversation and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not be based on human wisdom but on the power of God. … God has revealed these to us by the Spirit. … so that we may know the things that are freely given to us by God. And we speak about these things, not with words taught us by human wisdom, but with those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people” (1 Cor 2:1–13; emphasis mine).

“For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit” (1Thess 1:4–6; emphasis mine).

It may be said that a man who loaned $5000 to an old friend did so in “good faith” or that he ventured into business with his younger brother in whom “he had faith.” Both occurrences imply one thing: that the man had reason to place his faith in his brother or his friend. Sure, the reasons may or may not be sound, but one thing you could not readily say – at least, not just on the bare outlines that I’ve given here – is that the man acted purely on “blind faith.” Why is it, then, that when that man’s faith is in his belief in God that the world goes stir-crazy? Suddenly, the man is held to have no rationale for his belief; his faith in a deity borders on the absurd. Therefore, in the common vernacular, such a man’s faith is his folly, not the act of a thinking mind.

Hence, faith is the new f-bomb.

Culturally, faith is broadly understood as something to be ridiculed, to be discounted and pushed aside merely as one’s personal belief (such is a common usage amongst Christians in today’s churches) or one’s personal delusion (such is the charge of most skeptics). But both the Christian and the skeptic, should they hold that faith is nothing more than fanciful thinking or a clinging to something without sound reason, overlook not only the historical founding of Christianity but also the texts of the Bible itself. Both should take a closer look – the skeptic in order to be more intellectually honest in his objections to Christianity; the Christian in order that he may more fully appreciate and affirm the strengths of what he believes in.

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I am self-conscious about how my own prayers sound. Sometimes I mess up and stutter in prayer, and I start over because I feel bad. I want to know if it is something that just comes to you naturally, or… what? Like, I listen to the prayers that my pastor gives and mine just pale in comparison. Every night I usually have my husband lead us in grace before dinner, because I feel I’d sound dumb or say something dumb and have to start over.

First of all, there is the issue of how long a person has been a Christian, as compared to how long you have been one. The relevance here is the extent of their experience with the language of the faith. Obviously the Christian community has a unique language for expressing the faith, and the longer that a person is a Christian the more familiar, knowledgeable, and comfortable he or she becomes with that language. That lends to an appearance of eloquence that is difficult to imitate for someone who is perhaps not quite as familiar with the breadth of the language; e.g., it is not difficult to imagine how grandiose and eloquent the prayer of a career pastor must seem to someone who has been a Christian for only a month.

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