Miracles: Breaking the Rules or Master of the Rules?

Michael Fierro
Aug 7
3 min read

The word “miracle” often brings to mind the idea of breaking the laws of nature. But to think clearly about miracles, we need to define them carefully and understand how they relate to God, creation, and the natural order.

What is a Miracle?

A miracle is a striking, religiously significant intervention of God in the system of natural causes.

To even speak of miracles, we have to assume that nature is a self-contained system with regular patterns or “laws.” Without a regular order in nature, there would be no meaningful way to speak of an exception. The consistency of nature is what makes miracles recognizable.

A miracle can take two main forms:

Suspending the normal operation of natural laws — for example, Jesus walking on water.
Enhancing or elevating natural processes so they produce an effect beyond their normal capacity — for example, Jesus multiplying bread and fish.

In both cases, God is acting in a way that nature, left to itself, could not achieve.

What Miracles Are Not

A miracle is not a contradiction.

A man walking through a wall would be a miracle.
A man both walking through a wall and not walking through it at the same time and in the same respect would be a contradiction, which is meaningless.

God can perform miracles, but He cannot perform contradictions. This is not a limitation on His power. Contradictions are not “things” at all, so there is nothing there to be done.

Are Miracles Possible?

If miracles are not possible, then they cannot be actual. If they are actual, then they must be possible.

If there is a God who is omnipotent, then He would be able to perform miracles. Whether He chooses to do so depends on His free will. There is nothing in God’s nature that would prevent Him from performing a miracle, and nothing in creation that could block Him from doing so.

If God created nature, then nature itself is open to the possibility of containing miracles. The same God who created the “big bang” could just as easily create smaller, focused acts within His creation.

Objections and Replies

Miracles violate the uniformity of nature.This objection assumes what it tries to prove. It says “miracles cannot happen” and then concludes “miracles never happen.” That is not an argument, only a restatement.
Miracles must violate a law of nature, so they are maximally improbable.This assumes that what happens naturally is all that can happen. But a miracle is not nature acting on its own. It is the Creator acting directly, sometimes by suspending natural processes, other times by elevating them to do more than they could do unaided.
Accepting miracles would abandon scientific method.The natural sciences study the regular patterns of the material world. They do not have the tools to say whether God exists or acts. A scientist who believes God caused the universe to exist has not abandoned science but has recognized the limits of scientific explanation.
If God designed nature perfectly, He should not need to intervene.This assumes that God would only act again if something were broken. But miracles are not necessarily repairs. They can be signs, acts of mercy, or moments in which God draws attention to Himself for our good.

Why This Matters

If miracles are possible, then God is not a distant architect who merely set the universe in motion and stepped away. He is present and active in His creation. This means:

He can answer prayer.
He can act in history.
He can reveal Himself in ways that show His power and love.

The Takeaway

Miracles are not “magic tricks” or violations of some higher law. They are the Creator of nature acting within His creation for a specific purpose. Sometimes He does this by suspending the normal order, and sometimes by empowering it to achieve more than it ever could on its own. Both show that nature itself is ordered and sustained by God. To deny miracles outright is to deny either the existence of God or His freedom to act within the world He made.

Reflection

Think about the difference between a world where miracles are possible and one where they are not. In a closed world, every event is locked into an impersonal chain of cause and effect, and nothing from outside can ever touch it. In a world created and sustained by God, the One who made it can step in at any time, not because it is broken, but because He loves the people in it. Which world would you rather live in? And which world do you believe is the real one?