The King in His Beauty: Meditations on the Miracles of Christ

By Michael Babcock

In the fullness of time, God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, to sit on David’s throne as a conquering cosmic king. He demonstrated His kingly power and wisdom in a variety of ways, but none so spectacularly as by His many miracles. These miracles vanquished demonic forces, overcame nature, removed the curse’s sting, and crushed the serpent’s head through His resurrection from the dead. However, too often, these miracles are only appreciated as historical events or as a compilation of isolated stories. In The King in His Beauty, Michael Babcock helps readers understand the relevancy of those miracles as redemptive signs that reveal the King in all His salvific splendor. Each miracle is part of the grand message of new creation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Dec 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9781638856795

Michael Babcock

Mike Babcock, a freelance writer, has covered Cornhusker football for twenty years, including seventeen at the Lincoln Journal Star and now as a contributing editor for Huskers Illustrated. He also writes a sports column for the Omaha-based entertainment weekly The Reader. He had some hands-on experience (of a sort) in the program, helping Gib Babcock, the equipment manager and his uncle, put red stripes on Cornhusker helmets in the late 1960s while he was a sophomore English major at the university.

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Jesus’s Power

When He heard that John was arrested, He departed into Galilee, and leaving Nazareth He went and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea in the region of Zebulon and Nephtali in order to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet saying, In the land of Zabulon and the land of Naphtali by the way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who were sitting in darkness saw a great light, and those that were sitting in the place of the shadow of death, light has risen upon them. From that time, Jesus began to preach saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.

Now, as He was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter), and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the Sea, for they were fishermen. And He said to them, Come, follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men! And immediately they abandoned their nets and followed Him. And going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and He summoned them. And immediately they abandoned the boat and their father and followed Him.

And He was going all around the whole of Galilee teaching in their synagogues and preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and every sickness of the people. (Matt. 4:12–25)

Introduction

Of course, Matthew 4:12–25 follows what happened earlier as stated in 4:1–11. Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to prepare Him for His earthly ministry through fasting and prayer. After forty days of fasting, when Jesus’s body would have been weakened from hunger, Satan tempted Him. He first suggested to Jesus that He appease His hunger by turning stones into bread. This temptation of food was met by Jesus’s quotation of Deuteronomy 8:3, Man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God.

In other words, man’s true hunger cannot be satisfied by mere bread. Man was created for something far greater: to have fellowship with God. Jesus would not allow Himself to take the good over the best. He would keep His heart steady and fixed upon seeking that what really and truly is important. The body may die, but the spirit goes on and so He will feed Himself with the words of His Father so as to not cut off fellowship with Him. We must learn to trust that God’s word can not only interpret our circumstances, it has the power to make one wise for living. We can enjoy material blessings, but we must learn to see them as they are—good gifts from God that allow us to pursue the greater good, which is God Himself.

Then the devil took Him to the pinnacle of the temple to urge Jesus to jump off in an effort to prove the Father’s love for Him. Do you really think God loves You? Let Him prove it by saving You. Of course, that was the very temptation he seduced Eve by. You think God loves you? If He loved you, He would let you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because if you eat of it, you will be like Him. The devil is always trying to get us to believe that God is stingy, only reluctantly releasing good gifts. He wants you to always question God’s love by thinking of God as an uncaring and grudging observer.

But to this temptation, Jesus retorted by quoting Deuteronomy 6: You shall not put Yahweh your God to the test. In His word, God said, I have loved you (consider John 3:16, For God so loved the world). That is enough. Every day God shows His love to Israel by providing for them all that they need. However, in our unbelief we want more than God’s word or more than what God gives. But Jesus’s answer reminds us that God’s wisdom is equal to His love, and He knows best how to demonstrate His love for us. We should never test Him in this.

So then, failing these two attempts to bring Jesus down, Satan then showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and promised them to Jesus if only He would bow and worship him. Now, the Father had already promised these kingdoms to Jesus in Psalm 2, but in order to receive the promise, He had to suffer and die first. Satan was trying to circumvent the plan. You don’t have to suffer to get these things. I’ll give them to you if you just follow me. But Jesus knew what was at stake and answered Satan with Deuteronomy 6:13, You shall worship Yahweh your God and serve Him only. The devil always tries to make his plan and his way look easier and better than God’s, but there are consequences. There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death (Prov. 14:12). God’s way may take us through hard and rough places, but God’s wisdom and love is involved in that choice. He has nothing but good intentions to perfect and sanctify us, and so though the way is not easy, it is best. We need to always trust God in this.

Now, as Jesus overcame those temptations and defeated Satan in the wilderness, He proved Himself to be the faithful and true Israelite. What Adam failed to do in the Garden, and what Israel failed to do in the wilderness, and what we fail to do in our own attempts at trusting and obeying God, Jesus accomplished. He is now prepared to show us the way by being the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). So from the wilderness and the temptations there, Matthew tells us that Jesus went up to Galilee proclaiming, Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.

As Matthew related Satan’s attempts to tempt Jesus immediately before Jesus proclaims the kingdom of God in order to illustrate how Satan’s kingdom and the Kingdom of God are in deadly conflict. Of course, this shouldn’t surprise us because back in Genesis 3:15, God said, I will put enmity between you (Satan) and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. The kingdom of rebellion and darkness will always fight against the kingdom of righteousness and light. Jesus defeated Satan in the wilderness and armed with that victory, Jesus was going throughout all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the Gospel of the kingdom and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.

Indeed, Colossians 1:13 says Jesus rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son. His preaching and miracles are the ways He brought the kingdom of heaven to earth and rescued men from darkness. And so again, in our study of Jesus’s miracles we learn something about His kingdom and His power.

Jesus’s Words and Deeds

First, we are told that Jesus went to the synagogues to teach. During the Babylonian exile, the Jews could not sacrifice to God as He proscribed, so they turned more to the Scriptures. Synagogues became the center of Jewish communities because it was there the Scriptures were opened and God’s ways and promises declared. So it isn’t surprising that Matthew states Jesus went to the synagogues to teach. This rather routine incident is actually important to demonstrate that Jesus’s message was rooted deeply in the Old Testament Scriptures. He was no innovator, but He taught what those Scriptures truly meant. Through the Torah, Prophets, and Writings, He pointed the people to the salvation God promised and that He had come to accomplished. Indeed, in John 5:39, Jesus declared, You examine the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me. One of Jesus’s ministries was to authoritatively explain how the Scriptures taught the good news of the kingdom as it comes through Him. There is no kingdom apart from its king!

But the good news of the kingdom was not simply taught, it was proclaimed. The Greek word Matthew employs there is kerusso, which the New American Standard correctly translates as proclaiming. The word means to make an official, public announcement, and so it is more than just giving oratorical addresses. Teaching is primarily concerned with imparting information and explaining the Scriptural text while preaching’s purpose is to drive that message home and move the heart. Proclaiming is a powerful event through which God’s purposes are actually accomplished because God works through this official proclamation to bring His kingdom to bear.

Though Jesus proclaimed, Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand, He was no preacher of the Law calling men to simply amend their lives. No, He was inviting all who were weary and heavy-laden to come to Him and take His yoke and learn from Him to find rest for your souls. His proclamation announced how all the ancient prophecies were fulfilled in Him, and so their deepest longings, their greatest hopes for the remission of sin, their spiritual expectations are now realized because He stands there with the royal power of God.

In Luke 4:17–19, as He began His ministry He went to the synagogue, opened up the scroll of Isaiah and read, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Because Jesus’s preaching was a divine Word, there is a creative force that actually produces what it proclaims. Through Him the poor do have good news, the captives do receive liberty, the blind do see, and the oppressed are set free. He proclaims Himself as the King of glory coming with healing in His wings, and all who come in faith have all that He proclaims.

When He says the kingdom of God is at hand, judgment is coming. The message of the kingdom is always a preaching of repentance, and all repentance is a seeking of the kingdom of God. Repentance is often only seen as a sorrow for sin and a change of mind toward rebellion. But repentance is also an act of faith in coming to Him to be set free from the oppressive dark forces of the devil; it is pressing into the righteous kingdom of God to participate in its liberty and light. Therefore, as the kingdom is proclaimed, there is always judgment: Sinners are called sinful. If the sinner comes in faith, admitting his sins and expressing true heart-felt sorrow and a desire to be united to Christ, they are remitted. God is a gracious and merciful God and is never stingy but always lavish in pouring out His grace. However, if the sinner stands aloof and mocks, his sins are retained, and he will come under the crushing power of God’s wrath. And so, as Jesus proclaims the kingdom of God, He is not merely bringing dogma. He is declaring the mighty works of God that accomplish deliverance and peace for those who believe and judgment and death for those who will not believe. So preaching is not a dialogue, it is not a discussion, or debate; it is invitation. Jesus authoritatively announces God’s saving plan as it centers on Him, and says, Come to Me that you may have life. Preaching brings you face-to-face with the power of the kingdom, so it moves the heart to embrace the gospel. This encounter not only causes a person to believe it cognitively but it impacts their life.

With this, though, Matthew also tells us that Jesus went about doing the work of healing, touching hurts and ailments with God’s power. Jesus’s proclamation of the kingdom has a power that works in the lives of those who hear Him, but His power reaches out and touches the ailing bodies of those who draw near. The power of the kingdom is the power of creation to bring restoration. Indeed, His presence is the inauguration of God’s eschatological purpose to bring a new heaven and a new earth as Isaiah foretold, For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things will not be remembered or come to mind…and there will no longer be heard in her the voice of weeping and the sound of crying (65:17–19). Obviously, the fullness of that prophecy is yet to come as it awaits His glorious return, but there—in the Judean wilderness—Jesus was showing a wee bit of what that new earth would look like.

God’s purpose in redemption is to bring a new heaven and a new earth where there will be no more sickness, no more sorrow, or no more death (cf. Rev. 21:4), but it would be a mistake to conclude from these miracles that Jesus simply came to give people good health. Remember, the subject of His preaching was the kingdom of heaven, and while these healings showed forth the kingdom’s power of recreation, they anticipate something greater than mere physical restoration.

Jesus’s Miracles Foretell of New Creation

These miracles demonstrate how He came to restore the cosmos that was ruined by sin and frustration. The Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes describes the frustration of living under the sun while he repeats the refrain: Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. In 1:14–15, the preacher declares, I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind. What is crooked cannot be straightened and what is lacking cannot be counted. He explains how wisdom, work, wealth, justice, and pleasure are spoiled by futility and frustration, and all this is because of man’s rebellion against his Creator. But the prophets spoke of a day when the frustrations of this cursed world will give way to order, where wounds will be healed, where inequities will be corrected, where enmities will be removed—where the wolf and the lamb will dwell together and the leopard will lie down with the young goat (Isa. 11:6). In fact, the coming restoration will be so great that Isaiah says, For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear, nor has the eye seen a God besides You, Who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him (64:3)—we can’t even begin to imagine what this new heaven and new earth will be like. But as Jesus brings the power of the kingdom into the lives of these people suffering with diseases and pains, demons, epileptics, and paralytics by healing them, He gives a foretaste of that new creation.

About seven hundred years before Christ began His ministry, Isaiah 35:5–6 announced, Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will shout for joy. In fact, Jesus cites that very prophecy in Matthew 11:2–6 when He responds to John the Baptist’s question. While John was in prison, he asked Jesus if He really was the Expected One. John had certainly seen something of Jesus’s glory when he baptized Jesus, but life didn’t go the way he expected and now he doubted. You can only imagine how the dungeon had a depressing effect on him as he suffered and languished in Herod’s cell. You can also imagine how he was longing for the absolute justice Messiah would bring, especially since he was persecuted. Jesus has come, but how are we to believe in Him when the world teeters in darkness and the ungodly prevail? Don’t the Scriptures foretell how righteousness and peace will prevail when Messiah comes? Why then are God’s people persecuted and oppressed? Jesus is present but the world is as dark and depressing and as crooked as ever.

To answer John, Jesus pointed back to Isaiah 35 saying that His miracles prove that in fact He is the Messiah. You may question why darkness and injustice prevails in the world, but the fact is, God has a purpose for that. So evil will not be completely overthrown at this stage in history. Or as Jesus put it to Mary when she asked Him to do something about the wine situation at the wedding in Cana, My time has not yet come.

The time that Jesus was waiting for is the resurrection from the dead. When Jesus died, He died to the old age and to the world’s powers that He contended with, but when He rose, He made a public display of them as He triumphed over them in the cross (Col. 2:15). When He rose from the grave, a new creation rose with Him—so that Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:22–24, For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power.

Christ’s resurrection from the dead was the first resurrection of the new creation, the first fruits. When He returns at the end of the age, then all who are in Him, those who are of the new creation, will rise with Him and be glorified as He is. The point of all these miracles and healings that Christ did in His earthly ministry is to prefigure the power of His resurrection. They show that He truly is the Expected One who will accomplish all the prophets foretold to bring about the great cosmic transformation of the new heavens and new earth where the pain, suffering, and frustrations of the curse are overturned, and glory is established! Indeed, all His miracles anticipate Jesus’s resurrection and therefore they call men to repentance. As the resurrection is a sign of new creation and therefore of judgment, so Jesus’s miracles also signify the same. So in the words of the apostle Paul, Therefore indeed, God overlooked the times of ignorance, now He is commanding men that all everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having provided a guarantee of this to all by raising Him from the dead (Acts 17:30–31).

Jesus’s Miracles Tell of His Power

As Jesus was going around Galilee teaching, proclaiming, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness, we are informed that all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics came and He healed them. Diseases, pains, afflictions, and demonic maladies were met with, attacked, and overpowered. Of course, these illness and afflictions and demonic activity are all a result of the Fall. Every misery of this life is the result of sin and rebellion against God, and as the fruit of sin, these diseases and afflictions are the enemies of the Kingdom of God, which is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17). By the Fall, mankind came under the dominion of Satan who subjects them under the fear of death, so that he is called the god of this world who has blinded the minds of the unbelieving (2 Cor. 4:4), he is the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the children of disobedience (Eph. 2:2).

And Matthew deliberately points out that Jesus healed demoniacs to emphasize the spiritual dimension of Jesus’s work, Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:12). Again, Satan is the one who opposes the kingdom of God, and in Matthew 12:29, Jesus announces that He is attacking Satan’s kingdom, and He has come to bind the strong man and plunder his house.

Matthew presents Jesus as being locked in mortal combat with Satan and that His miracles are mini-battles in which He overthrows the forces of evil and cleanses the land. Sometimes we think that miracles were fairly common in biblical days, but the truth is, apart from Moses, Joshua, Elijah, and Elisha, no else performed miracles. Of course, Moses’s miracles were associated with Israel’s great deliverance from Egypt as he contended with Pharaoh. By a mighty miracle Joshua led Israel into the Promised Land victoriously battling the enemies of God in Canaan. And while Israel was oppressed by Ahab and Jezebel, Elijah and Elisha were the great prophets who combated apostasy and the prophets of Baal. When Jesus arrives in Galilee performing abundant and glorious miracles, one cannot but think of those historically redemptive crusades that brought God’s kingdom into conflict with the kingdom of Satan. And with that background and with these miracles, we are cued that Jesus will be taking Israel out of slavery, out of the wilderness, out of spiritual drought and apostasy, and into the eschatological blessing of God’s glorious kingdom.

But again, if all you see is people getting healed, then you’ve missed the point—for the miracles were meant to be pictures of the spiritual freedom Jesus came to accomplish. Jesus was proclaiming the good news that He has come to rescue people from Satan’s dominion and to reverse the curse. As was the case in Moses, Joshua, Elijah, and Elisha, Jesus’s preaching and miracles are the demonstration of God’s power in the revelation of His kingdom that brings both joy and salvation to God’s people and judgment and destruction to His enemies. And they are given to call you to look to the reality of Jesus’s great and cosmic victory as He contended against the forces of evil on the cross but overcame them in His resurrection.

Conclusion

And so, as we will look at His various miracles, it is my hope that you will grow in your love for Christ and cling to Him as your strong Savior, the Captain of your salvation. These miracles say to us that if Jesus healed the temporary diseases of those people, if He overpowered demonic forces, if He could control the natural world, then He can deal with my sin; He can free me from the judgment I deserve and bring me into His heavenly kingdom.

Sometimes we think that Jesus is only interested in my spiritual condition, but there is nothing even in your physical experiences that is out of Jesus’s reign. These miracles of Christ teach us both His power and His intent, and they declare He is a spiritual physician who knows how to heal us of all our troubles. With that, then, let me gladly tell you there is no pit so deep that it is out of Jesus’s reach, and there is no power so strong that He cannot conquer. The Christian always has hope. Perhaps your career has taken a plunge and your finances are in the balance. Maybe your marriage is on the rocks and every day feels torturous. Maybe your health is declining. Even when despair is a giant ogre that has thrown you into a dungeon, Christ has a power to sustain you and change you even if He doesn’t change the circumstance. C. H. Spurgeon once said, If you are sitting here this morning in the midst of a despair that you think that Christ cannot reach, captive to a sin that you do not think that He can take dominion over, I tell you today, that the one who casts out demons, healed epileptics, and paralytics instantaneously is here for the healing of your soul. Jesus may not take you out of the prison, but He will give you the power you need to endure the prison with joy and peace.

Yes, we may still suffer in this world. Our bodies are broken and need healing because the fulness of the kingdom is not yet here, but Christ’s miracles assure you that He is powerful enough to save you to the uttermost, and thus as your souls have already been cleansed, your bodies also will one day be renewed. He came into the world to inaugurate the kingdom, and through His miracles He brought a foretaste of the kingdom’s power and blessings that was promised in Isaiah 53:5, He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. Jesus took upon Himself the curse that Adam’s Fall brought us into, and as He endured God’s wrath for it, we have been freed from condemnation and made members of God’s heavenly kingdom. In this regard, then, the miracles of Jesus pictures what He does for us inwardly through the gospel.

Therefore, whenever the miracles are mentioned, pay attention to how Jesus’s teaching either preceded them, followed them, or was given in conjunction with the miracle. Miracles in themselves do nothing for your sinful condition. They are historical accounts that might point to an attribute Jesus has, but how does that necessarily help? The news that God is omnipotent is valuable and can be comforting, but it is not a saving news. It is only when Jesus wields His omnipotence to rescue a sinner from sin that the news of God’s omnipotence becomes good news. His omniscience, also, only becomes a gospel comfort when He turns His knowledge to that sinner’s plight and delivers Him. The miracles only demonstrate what the gospel proclaimed, and therefore, since the gospel is the real power of God for salvation to all who believe (see Rom. 1:16), we today are not any less blessed than those who experienced His healing touch two thousand years ago. In fact, the most glorious miracles are not miracles of healing that we read about; the more glorious miracles are sitting next to you in church—sinners who have been redeemed by Christ’s blood and given new life by the power of His resurrection. Therefore, look up in hope and know that your salvation is secured by the power and wisdom of God in Christ.

Isaiah Fulfilled

Now, when He came down from the mountain, a large crowd followed Him. And behold, a leper came and fell down before Him saying, Lord, if You are willing, you can cleanse me. And He stretched out the hand and touched him saying, I am willing. Be cleansed. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, See you tell no one, but go show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifice Moses commanded as a testimony to them."

When He came into Capernaum, a centurion came to Him beseeching Him, and saying, Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, terribly tormented. And He said to him, I will come and heal him. But the centurion replied, saying, Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but only say a word and my servant will be healed. For I am a man under authority. I have soldiers under me, when I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it. Now Jesus heard this, marveled, and said to those who were following, Truly I say to you, I found no one with so great a faith in Israel! I say to you that many from east and west will come and sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness. And Jesus said to the centurion, Go, as you have believed, so it shall be done for you. And He healed his servant in that