Throughout His Incarnation, Jesus vigorously engages and is victorious in the supernatural battle against Satan and evil for the purpose of saving men from sin, unhappiness, death and eternal agony. To help men come to understand His identity and mission, Jesus proclaims He is the Son of God and Savior of Man and overwhelmingly demonstrates His Divine Knowledge and Power to save through His many words and deeds. Many of those who witnessed His life and works come to believe Jesus is the Savior of Man and His Church from the earliest days continues to proclaim the truth that Jesus is absolutely necessary for a man’s salvation and to enter into the Father’s Kingdom.
After evaluating the facts of the case for Jesus as the Savior of mankind, to fully accept Jesus as Savior, a man is ultimately moved by the Holy Spirit to make a full assent to faith in Christ; faith is a gift from God to those who are ready to accept faith (CCC 166-184).
Jesus proclaims He is the Son of God and the Savior of Man
Through His life, death and Resurrection, Jesus continually proclaims the reality of the life and death spiritual battle and that His is the Son of God who has come into the world to save mankind.
Jesus reveals the reality of the life and death spiritual battle
Jesus reveals that every man is in a life and death spiritual battle in which Satan brings death and destruction and that He brings salvation and life.
Satan brings death and destruction
Jesus reveals that men are constantly under attack by Satan (1 Pet 5:8, CCC 414, 1707) and that Satan brings death and destruction (Mt 4:16, 16:18, Jn 10:10, Heb 2:14, CCC 407, 636).
Jesus gives salvation and life
Jesus proclaims there is eternal life and He promises to give eternal life to men (Mt 25:46, Jn 1:4, 3:16, 5:40, 6:40, 8:12, 14:6; CCC 1030-1065).
Jesus proclaims He is the Son of God and has come to save mankind
Beginning with being named “God saves”, Jesus takes on the identity of the Savior of Man, proclaims the Father has sent Him into the world to save mankind, and that He has been endowed with the supernatural wisdom and power to save all who are willing to follow Him.
Jesus takes the identity of the Savior
The Son of God deliberately takes on the name of Jesus, which means, “God saves”, to confirm His identity as the Savior of Mankind (Mt 1:21, CCC 430, 432, 452, 2666).
Jesus proclaims He is the Son of God the Father
Jesus proclaims that He has a personal intimacy with God the Father (Mk 14:26, Lk 2:49, Jn 12:49, Jn 14:9), has hidden exclusive knowledge of the Father (Mt 11:25-27; Lk 10:21-22) and that He is returning to the Father at the Ascension (Jn 20:17).
Jesus proclaims that He is the Son of God (Mt 11:27; Mk 14:61-62; 16:61-62, Jn 5:25, 10:36) who has been sent from Heaven to do the Father’s work (Lk 2:49, Jn 3:31) and confirms He has the exclusive power to reveal the Father (Mt 11:27; Jn 1:18; 6:46; CCC 151).
Jesus proclaims His mission is to save mankind
On multiple occasions, Jesus purposefully proclaims that it is His explicit mission to saved mankind (Lk 19:10, Jn 3:17, 5:34, 10:9, 12:47, 19:10).
Jesus proclaims to have Divine Powers
Jesus proclaims that He has divine power and authority (Mt 28:18, Jn 17:2), can answer prayers (Jn 14:13), can transfer His power to the Apostles (Mt 10:1, Lk 9:2) including the supernatural ability to forgive sins (Jn 20:22-23; CCC 976), and can send the Holy Spirit of God (Lk 24:49, Jn 14:26, 15:26, 16:7-15).
Jesus proclaims to be able to save men
Jesus proclaims He has the power to forgive sins (Mk 2:5), to save those who believe in Him (Jn 11:25), to mediate between God and man (Jn14:6) and has the power to determine the eternal destiny of every man at his death (Jn 5:22; CCC 679).
Jesus proclaims He has the exclusive power to save mankind
On several occasions, Jesus explicitly proclaims that He has the sole and exclusive supernatural power to determine the eternal fate of men (Mt 11:25-27, 28:18-20, Lk 24:46-47, Jn 5:25, 14:6, 17:1-2).
Jesus demonstrates Divine Love, Wisdom, and Power
Confirming the reality that He is the Son of God and the Savior of Mankind, Jesus demonstrates His Divine Love for all of mankind by His Divine Knowledge and Divine Power, supernatural abilities that are beyond the abilities of mere human beings.
Jesus demonstrates His Divine Love through supernatural knowledge
Jesus’s Divine Love motivates Him to use His supernatural knowledge for the salvation of mankind.
Jesus interacts with the supernatural
He is spoken to directly by God the Father (Mt 3:17, 17:5, Mk 1:11, Jn 12:28, 2 Pet 1:18), directly confronts Satan and is ministered to by angels (Mt 4:1-11), experiences the Holy Spirit (Mt 3:16), and summons and speaks with the deceased Moses and Elijah (Lk 9:30).
Jesus has knowledge of remote things
Jesus knows of Nathaneal’s actions (Jn 1:42-52) and that Lazarus is dead (Jn 11:14).
Jesus reveals His knowledge of people’s hidden lives
Jesus knows what is in Nathaneal’s heart (Jn 1:47-49), the Samaritan woman’s history (Jn 4:17-18), and the disciple’s arguments behind His back (Mk 9:33-35).
Jesus accurately knows the future
Describes His Passion before the fact (Mt 12:39-41), knows the timing of His hour (Jn 2:4), predicts Peter’s denial and the disciples defection (Mk 14:18-21,27-31; Lk 22:31-39), confirms His Resurrection (Mk 8:31), and accurately reveals the destruction of the Temple forty years in the future (Mt 24:2).
Jesus uses His eternal knowledge to implement God’s plan of salvation
Through the Incarnation, Jesus demonstrates countless examples of supernatural knowledge by implementing God’s plan for the salvation of mankind (CCC 473-474):
Jesus knows He is sent from the Father to save mankind (Jn 3:16); He reveals the fullness of meaning of the Old Testament (Sermon of the Mount; Mt 5-7).
He purposefully knows to establish the Catholic Church and how to choose and form the Apostles.
He demonstrates Divine Genius in His timeless and powerful parables and in every word He speaks.
He recognizes the need for Sacraments and establishes them, including the astounding ability to remain supernaturally present in the Eucharist.
He gives the Church His mother.
He recognizes the need for men to have the Holy Spirit and sends Him.
Jesus demonstrates Divine Love through His supernatural power
Jesus’s Divine Love which seeks to save mankind from suffering is the deep motivation behind every miraculous demonstration of His supernatural power.
Jesus has supernatural personal physical powers
Jesus mysteriously is able to avoid angry crowds who seek to control or kill him (Mt 12:15, Lk 4:30, Jn 6:15), can walk on water (Mt 14:22-33, Mk 6:48-53, Jn 6:16-21), emits supernatural power (Mt 9:20-22, 14:34-36, Mk 3:25-34, 6:56, Lk 6:19; 8:44), has the unexplainable power to clear large numbers of merchants and money-changers from the Temple area (Mt 21:12-16; Mk 11:15-18; Lk 19:45-48; Jn 2:13-16), and has the strange power to knock down hundreds of soldiers (Jn 18: 3-6).
Jesus can project miraculous power from afar
Jesus heals the Official’s son (Jn 4:46-54), the Centurion’s slave (Mt 8:5-13, Lk 7:1-10), and the Canaanite woman’s daughter (Mt 15:21-28, Mk 7:24-30) without being present.
Jesus has supernatural healing power over every part of the body
Jesus demonstrates His dominion by healing all maladies (Mt 4:23-25) in every part of the body including those of the mind/spirit (Mt 4:24, Mk 5:1-21, Jn 16:33), skin (Mk 1:40-45), infections (Mk 1:29-31), bones (Lk 6:6-11; 13:10-17), nervous system (Mt 4:23-25, Mk 2:1-12, Jn 5:1-9), internal organs (Mk 5:24-34), circulatory system (Lk 14:1-16), the eyes (Mt 9:27-31), the ears (Mk 7:31-37), the tongue (Mt 9:32-34, Lk 11:14-15), and has the supernatural power to instantly reattach a severed ear (Lk 22:47-53).
Jesus has supernatural power over nature/Creation
Jesus demonstrates astounding supernatural power over nature including, weather (Mt 8:26, Mk 6:51), the sea (Mt 14:22-33, Mk 6:48), light and darkness (Mt 17:2; Lk 23:44), earthquakes (Mt 27:51), creatures (Mk 5:1-11, Lk 5:1-11, Jn 21:6), plants (Mt 21:20), material objects (Mt 17:24-27, Jn 2:1-11), giving Peter the ability to walk on water (Mt 14:29), the power to move large material objects (Jn 6:21), gravity (Mk 16:19; Acts 1:6-11), and has the ability to make physical material miraculously appear (Mk 6:32-44) and disappear (Lk 14:1-4; massive fluid from the man with dropsy instantly disappears).
Jesus is supernaturally “transfigured”
“Transfigure” comes from the Latin transfigurare, meaning to “change the shape of.” Jesus is “transfigured before them, His face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light” (Mt 17:2, Mk 9:2-10, Lk 9:28-36, CCC 242).
Jesus has power to raise the dead
Jesus raises the son of the widow of Nain (Lk 7:11-17), Jairus’ daughter (Lk 8:40-56), and Lazarus (Jn 11:44) from the dead.
Jesus has power over Satan and demons
Jesus has power over Satan (Mt 4:10-11) and casts out many demons from suffering souls (Mt 8:16-17, 8:28-32, 9:32-33, 17:14-21, Mk 1:21-28, 1:39, 3:10-12, Lk 6:17-19, 8:2, 11:14, 13:10-13).
Jesus raises Himself from the dead
Jesus raises Himself (Jn 10:17-18; CCC 649) from the dead in the Resurrection (Mt 28:1-10, Mk 16:1-20, Lk 24:1-53, Jn 20:1-31).
Jesus has mysterious powers in His Glorified Body
After the Resurrection, Jesus is able to change His appearance (Lk 24:16, Jn 20:14, 21:4), can vanish (Lk 24:31), enter closed rooms (Jn 20:19, 20:26), and confirms He is not a ghost (Lk 24:39). Despite the horrific wounds that killed Him, the desecration of being stabbed in the heart after death (Jn 20;20), and being buried for three days, Jesus’s resurrected body is uncorrupted (Acts 2:27, CCC 627) and functions, despite still bearing some of the key wounds (Lk 24:39, Jn 20:27).
Jesus can ascend to Heaven
Jesus ascends to Heaven forty days after the Resurrection (Mk 16:19; Acts 1:6-11; CCC 1023).
Jesus has the power to send the Holy Spirit
Jesus grants the Holy Spirit to the Apostles (Jn 20:22) and sends the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4).
Eyewitness reactions to Jesus confirm His Divinity
Jesus Christ’s presence, words and acts lead many people throughout the Gospels to react in very strong ways, including being afraid and intimidated, awed or confused, and being moved to worship Him; the frequency, number and strength of reactions exceed how people respond to a simple human being and support the reality of the Divinity of Jesus Christ.
Some react in fear to Jesus Christ
Herod the Great is troubled (Mt 2:3), Peter is afraid because of his sinfulness (Lk 5:8-10), those who witness His miracles are afraid (Mt 8:28-34, 9:1-8, Mk 5:33, 6:50, 10:32, Lk 7:11, 8:37), His disciples are intimidated by Him (Mt 8:18, 23-27; Mk 4:35-41, 9:32; Lk 13:18-19), the Apostles are exceedingly afraid at the Transfiguration (Mk 9:6, Lk 9:34), a stoning mob is intimidated by Him (Lk 8:1-11), the merchants and moneychangers are terrified of Him and flee (Mt 21:12-16, Mk 11:15-18, Lk 19:45-48, Jn 18:3-6), Jewish leaders feared Him and were afraid to question Him (Mt 22:46, Mk 11:18, 12:18, Lk 20:27, 40), the soldiers who come to arrest Him fall down in fear (Jn18:3-6), and Pilate and his wife are afraid of Jesus (Mt 27:14,19, Jn 19:8).
Many are confused by Jesus Christ
Many are amazed (“overwhelming wonder”, “mental stupefaction”), astonished (“thunderstruck”), and astounded (“to stun”) including: those who witness Jesus’ healings (Mt 9:33, 15:31, 12:23, 17:22-23, Mk 1:23-28, 7:37, Lk 4:33-37, 5:26, 9:43, 11:14 ), those who witness Jesus’ miracles (Mk 5:42, Lk 5:9, 8:56 ), those who witness His Presence (Mk 5:42), and those who hear His teachings (Mt 7:29, Jn 4:39, 7:15, 13:54).
Many react with awe to Jesus Christ
Many are awed (“profoundly referential”) and full of marvel (reaction to “strange and wonderful things”), including: those at the Temple when Jesus is twelve (Lk 2;47), John the Baptist (Mt 3:11, 14), the Roman Centurion (Lk 2:6-10), Nicodemus (Jn 3:7), the Pharisees (Mt 22:22, Mk 12:17), the disciples when the fig tree withers (Mt 21:20), the Roman soldiers and those who witness His death (Mt 27:52, Lk 23:39. 42, 23:45-48), those who meet Him after the Resurrection (Lk 24:36-41).
Many are moved to glorify God and to worship Jesus Christ
Through the Holy Spirit, many who witness Jesus worship and give Him glory, acting in ways which confirm His divine identity, personal acts which put them at risk for blasphemy because they have worshiped Jesus; Jesus will be condemned to death by the Jews for blasphemy (Mt 26:65-66).
Many are moved to glorify God after encountering Jesus
Many give glory (“to praise and honor”) to God including, the Shepherds (Lk 2:8-20), Simeon and Anna (Lk 2:25-38), those who witness His healings (Mt 9:1-8, Mk 1:23, 2:1-12, Lk 5:25, 7:11, 18:43).
Many are moved to worship Jesus Christ as God
Many worship (the “adoration and honor given to God”; CCC 2096, 2097) Jesus, including the Magi (Mt 2:11), the demoniac (Mk 5:6), the sinful woman (Lk 7:36-50), the man born blind (Jn 9:38), and the Apostles (Mt 14:22-33, 15:33, 16:16, 28:1-10, 28:16-17, Mk 6:45-52, 8:29, Lk 9:20, Jn 6:15-21).
The Church Confirms Jesus is the Son of God and Savior of Man
From the earliest eyewitnesses, through the entire two thousand year history of the Church, the central proclamation of the Catholic Church is that Jesus is the Son of God and the exclusive Savior of Mankind.
The Church proclaims that Jesus is the Son of God
Many during the life of Christ proclaim that Jesus is the Son of God: the Archangel Gabriel (Lk 1:35), John the Baptist (Jn 1:34), Nathaniel (Jn 1:49), Peter (Mt 16:15-16, 1 Pet 1:1); John (Jn 20:31); Paul (Rom 1:3, 2 For 1:19, Gal 2:20, Eph 4:13, Heb 4:14, CCC 242), Mark (Mk 1:1), Martha (Jn 11:27); The Church has always proclaimed that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God (CCC 1; 441-445), a Divine Person (CCC 262).
The Church proclaims Jesus is the only Savior of mankind
From the earliest days, Christ’s Holy Catholic Church has always proclaimed that Jesus is the only Savior of Man with the exclusive supernatural power to offer salvation to every repentant and willing man.
The Church proclaims that Jesus is the Savior
The Apostles and personal witnesses proclaim Jesus is the Savior (Lk 1:47, Lk 2:11, Jn 3:16, 4:42, 10:16, Acts 4:12, 13:23, 16:31, Rom 5:10, 10:9, Eph 5:23, Phil 3:20, I Tim 1:1, 2 Tim 1:10, 2 Pet 1:11, 2:20, 1 Jn 4:14).
The Church confirms that the Father desires all men be saved by Jesus Christ (CCC 74), Jesus chose to be Crucified to save mankind (1380), proclaims Jesus as Savior in the Creed (CCC 456), and affirms Jesus came down from Heaven (CCC 456), took on human nature to save men (CCC 457, 461), and died to save mankind from sin (CCC 457, 1380).
The Church confirms that Jesus’s whole life (CCC 1) was focused on saving mankind and that He made many acts (CCC 594) to offer salvation to men including, leaving a written record of His Word in the Gospels (CCC 125), establishing the Sacraments (CCC 1323, 1330), suffering the Passion (CCC 609, 1380, 1521, 2804), descending into Hell to free the captives (CCC 632), being raised from death in His Resurrection (CCC 434, 2174), and ascending into Heaven in the Ascension (CCC 1067); all of His acts are for the salvation of man.
The Church proclaims only Jesus can save mankind
The reality that Jesus Himself proclaimed He is the one and only Savior of Mankind (Jn 14:6, 17:1-2) is affirmed by St. Peter (Acts 4:12, 1 Pt 1:1, 2 Pt 1:11, 2:20), St. John (1 Jn 4:14), St. Paul (Rom 3:21-26, 5:17-19, 1 Cor 3:11, 1 Tim 2:5-6), and by the emphatic ongoing teaching of Christ’s Holy Catholic Church (CCC 161, 389, 402, 432, 480, 1257, 1949).