John 5:19-21 “Then Jesus answered and said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. (20) For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel. (21) For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.”
And so we come to the third of the power gifts listed, which is the gift called the working of miracles. In order for us to have a clearer understanding of this particular gift we need to look at the ministry of the Lord Jesus. Many of the Old Testament prophets operated in the gift of the working of miracles, some examples of which were recorded for us in the Old Testament. And so when the Lord Jesus ministered on the earth He used their recorded miracles to perform similar miracles in His ministry, which is why Jesus said in the above quoted passage of scripture that He did in like manner that which the Father showed Him. There are a number of examples in scripture that we can look at to confirm this particular truth. For example Jesus walked on water, just as Elisha had caused an iron axe head to float on water (2 Kings 6:5-7). Another example would be Jesus feeding the multitudes with a few loaves and having some left over, just as Elisha had fed one hundred men with a small quantity of food and having some left over (2 Kings 4:42-44). Another example is Jesus raising the dead, just as Elijah had raised a young boy from the dead (1 Kings 17:17-23). Another example is Jesus turning water into wine, just as Moses had turned water into blood in one of the judgements he pronounced on Egypt (Exodus 7:19). And so these are just some examples to show us that Jesus looked at the miracles that His Father had performed through the prophets in the Old Testament, and in a similar manner He then performed those same miracles in His ministry.
Luke 11:20-22 “But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. (21) When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. (22) But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils.”
We have seen thus far that in similar manner, Jesus performed all of the miracles recorded under the Old Covenant. Nevertheless there is one miracle that Jesus performed which is not recorded in the Old Testament, which is the miracle of casting out demons. So the question is asked, if the Old Testament prophets performed every miracle that Jesus did, why didn’t they cast out demons? The Lord Jesus answers that question for us in the above quoted passage of scripture. The context of this passage is that Jesus had just finished casting a mute demon out of someone, thus enabling the person to speak. In trying to explain the miracle that our Lord performed, some of His religious critics accused Him of casting out demons through the use of satanic power. Jesus responded to their accusation by explaining that Satan cannot cast out Satan, but that rather it is the power of God that casts Satan’s demons out of people. Jesus then went on in this passage to explain why He was able to cast out demons, by giving us the analogy of a strong man being overcome by one who is stronger than him, thus allowing the stronger man to divide the spoils of his weaker enemy. In this analogy the strong man is Satan and the stronger man is Jesus. Therefore we see that because Jesus has overcome Satan, He is able to plunder Satan’s kingdom, which would include casting Satan’s demons out of people. Under the New Covenant Jesus has given His saints the authority to cast out demons in His name (Mark 16:17). And so we see that because the Old Testament prophets never had access to the name of Jesus, they were unable to perform the miracle of casting out demons.
Michael E.B. Maher
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