“When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, ‘Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?’ Jesus replied, ‘Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.’”
It is one thing to say that the child born in Bethlehem was God incarnate, it is quite another to establish it beyond a reasonable doubt. To do so, we must demonstrate Jesus to be the sinless, supernatural Savior of humanity.
First, Christ is the only human who ever demonstrated the credential of sinlessness. While the Qur’an exhorts Muhammad to seek forgiveness for his sins, the Bible exonerates Messiah, saying Jesus “had no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21). And this is no singular statement. John declares, “and in him is not sin” (1 John 3:5), and Peter says Jesus “committed not sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22-23). Jesus Himself went so far as to challenge His antagonists asking, “Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?” (John 8:46).
Furthermore, Jesus demonstrated supernatural authority over sickness, the forces of nature, fallen angels, and even death itself. Matthew 4 records that Jesus went throughout Galilee teaching, preaching, “and healing every disease and sickness among the people” (v. 23). Mark 4 documents Jesus rebuking the winds and the waves saying, “Quiet! Be still!” (v. 39). In Luke 4 Jesus encounters a man possessed by an evil spirit and commands the demon to “Come out of him!” (v. 35). And in John 4, Jesus tells the royal official whose son was close to death, “Your son will live” (v. 50). In fact, the four Gospel writers all record that Jesus demonstrated ultimate power over death through the immutable fact of His resurrection.
See more about Hank Hanegraaff's 25-day Christmas devotional here: The Heart of Christmas (Thomas Nelson, 2009)
