It seems to me that the production of miracles is similar in some ways to the case of physical things. Cultivation is not sufficient to produce a harvest of fruits unless the soil, or rather the atmosphere, cooperates to this end. And the atmosphere of itself is not sufficient to produce a harvest without cultivation. The one who providentially orders creation did not design things to spring up from the earth without cultivation. Only in the first instance did he do so when he said, “Let the earth bring forth vegetation, with the seed sowing according to its kind and according to its likeness.”19
It is just this way in regard to the production of miracles. The complete work resulting in a healing is not displayed without those being healed exercising faith. Faith, of whatever quality it might be, does not produce a healing without divine power.3
Footnotes
- ON MATTHEW 14.2. Simonetti, M. (Ed.). (2001). Matthew 1–13 (p. 293). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
- THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 48.1. Simonetti, M. (Ed.). (2001). Matthew 1–13 (p. 293). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
- COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 10.19. Simonetti, M. (Ed.). (2001). Matthew 1–13 (p. 294). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.