The incarnation teaches that God became a man, without ever ceasing to be God, revealing the character and essence of God in ways we could never know apart from his living among us.
Over the next three years the disciples of Christ spent time in his presence every day. They listened to him preach. They witnessed his miracles. They saw how he answered those opposed to him. They experienced his love. They came to believe Jesus was more than just a man. He was the God-man. He was (as John had said) the Lamb of God.
“And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people" (Matthew 9:35).
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord" (Luke 4:18-19).
No one has ever demonstrated the kind and degree of authority that Christ did in his earthly ministry. His power to heal is without parallel. It didn't matter what the cause was for the physical distress; whether it was from disease, accident, congenital, or demonic, Jesus healed everyone who came to him. While he didn't heal every sick person in every city he visited, there is no record of anyone who was sick or diseased (and who approached Jesus for healing) who later walked away without having been made whole. None were ever sent away having been told their faith was insufficient to receive a healing. It was enough for them to have come and asked Jesus; his enabling grace was sufficient for the need of each one.
"And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals. But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes. He said, Bring them hither to me. And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full. And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children" (Matthew 14:15-21).
Earlier at a wedding in Cana, Jesus transformed water into wine. Here on a mountainside, Jesus takes fish and bread from a boy's lunch and multiplies it to feed five thousand men, in addition to the women and children present. The first miracle required a chemical transformation of water into wine; the second required the physics involved with the multiplication of matter. In either case, we are talking about the building blocks of creation. Paul writes that all things were created by Christ and have their continued existence in him (Colossians 1:16-17). The raw display of creative energy must have been incredible because this is the only miracle of Jesus recorded by all four Gospels! We have a loving God concerned with providing physical bread for our bodies and the Bread of Life for our souls (John 6:47-51).
Jesus has authority over nature because he spoke the cosmos into existence. John writes of Christ, "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." (John 1:3) Jesus demonstrated his authority on one occasion by speaking "Peace, be still" in the midst of a raging storm which resulted in an immediate calming of both wind and sea (Mark 4:39).
On this night the sea itself served as a pathway for Jesus to walk on in meeting the disciples in their boat. When Jesus finally joined them in the boat, the disciples worshipped him saying "Of a truth thou art the Son of God." (Matthew 14:33) Jesus really is God. He isn't just interviewing for the position.
"And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs. . . And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep. And there was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them. Then went the devils out of the man, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked. When they that fed them saw what was done, they fled, and went and told it in the city and in the country. Then they went out to see what was done; and came to Jesus, and found the man, out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid" (Luke 8:27, 31-35).
Jesus is Lord over the seen and unseen world. He has authority over men and angels. Even demons acknowledge the authority of Jesus and obey his commands. Whether it is one or many, Jesus dismisses them with a word.
The scribes asked, "Who can forgive sins but God only?" That is exactly the point! Jesus Christ has authority not only to heal the bodies of men from sickness enabling them to walk again, but he also has the authority to heal their souls from sin enabling them to walk with holiness in fellowship with God.
Four days after Lazarus had died and was placed in a tomb, Jesus' words of command brought him back into the land of the living. In the presence of the Son's light, the darkness of death was shattered. The authority of Jesus is such that he commands both living and dead to do his bidding. The Psalmist reminds us, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." (Psalm 23:4) Jesus Christ is Lord of this world, but also Lord of the next.