If the reports of Jesus’ miracles are only myth and tradition, their significance is minimal and easily dismissed. But the writers of the New Testament were convinced that His miracles had a time, a place, credible witnesses, and, most important, a role in fulfilling the Jewish prophecies.

If the Gospel writers are right, then Jesus’ ability to heal diseased bodies, deliver from demons, and raise loved ones from the dead demonstrates His timeless significance to all of us.

Have you ever thought about what it would be like to be one of the blind or the lepers whom Jesus healed or the dead to whom He gave life? If so, your heart may resonate with the Bible passages that tell us we have all been born spiritually blind and diseased with a fallen human nature inherited from Adam.

If your experience is consistent with what the Bible says about human nature, then you may be ready to see that Jesus’ death and resurrection are the miracles that offer forgiveness and everlasting life to anyone who believes.

But salvation is just the beginning of what God is planning. Beyond personal salvation is His promise to renew all of heaven and earth.

In the last book of the Bible we find a vision of the future that brings fulfillment to everything that began in the book of Genesis. In his Revelation, John wrote, “Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away” (revelation 21:1). This passage provides us with God’s intention to recreate our world: “Behold, I make all things new” (v. 5). The universe we now know will be replaced with something wonderfully new.

But this promise of everlasting life in the presence of God requires a positive response from you. You can accept or reject God’s payment for your sin.

The significance of this decision is beyond measure. How each of us responds to Christ’s payment for the debt of our sin will determine where we will spend the future—in God’s presence, or separated from Him for eternity (20:11-15).

If you have not yet received Christ’s offer of forgiveness, you must first admit that you have sinned (romans 3:23) and that your sin has separated you from God. Then you can go to God in prayer to receive His pardon and the gift of eternal life. Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life” (john 5:24).