Jared C. Wilson. The Wonder-Working God: Seeing the Glory of Jesus in His Miracles. Wheaton: Crossway, 2014. 192 pp. $13.20.
The gospels are full of miracles. Bible readers are familiar with those accounts. But, what should we really learn from them? Are Miracles there to impress us? Are they there to identify Jesus as Messiah? Is something more going on?
Jared Wilson’s new book, The Wonder-Working God, takes a close look at the miracle accounts of the New Testament with an eye toward going deeper than we often do. As Wilson dives in, he shows us how the miracles of Jesus do more than remind us that Jesus is God or that Jesus is powerful; they also display for us the message of the gospel and the glory of God in great and life-changing ways.
One of the beauties of this book is Jared Wilson’s ability to write in a very relatable style. While he does a good job of digging deep into the theological implications of Jesus’ miracles, the author does not bog his readers down in the process. I have always found Wilson to be pleasant to read, and this book does nothing to change that view.
One thing that readers of this book might find interesting is that Wilson groups miracles together. Rather than study each individual miracle in its own separate chapter, Wilson has chosen to put similar miracles or miracles with a similar message together. This is helpful, as readers are then able to see the consistent message of the gospel writers. It can also be a little difficult, as at times I wanted to stick with one miracle account a little longer.
I would happily recommend The Wonder-Working God to anyone who wants to have a deeper grasp of the miracles of Jesus. I could picture this book being a great red for any individual. It would also make a solid source of material for a Bible study group or a helpful resource for a pastor wanting to do a topical series on Jesus’ miracles.
I received a free audio copy of this book from ChristianAudio.com as part of their reviewers program. The recording of this work is of the highest quality, as are all of the work sold by this company. Jared Wilson reads his own book in this audio recording. Were I to choose, I believe that I would prefer to have one of ChristianAudio’s other narrators. This is not to say that Wilson narrates poorly—far from it—however, I find that I generally do not enjoy listening to authors read their own works. Something in the intonation seems to lack when an author works through his own material. However, this would not at all prevent me from recommending the audio version of this work as well.
Pastor Travis Peterson 