Almost everything Jesus taught was an amplification of an important scripture somewhere, in particular Messianic prophecies. (Note, he also had scriptures most churches no longer recognise today, which he included in his teachings, so there are some teachings he gave for which most churches today would not recognise the scripture. Many examples of this are in his allusions to the Book of Enoch, as we know from the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Ethiopian Orthodox greater canon of scriptures, and which he spoke of at least twice as scripture.) For example, his teaching that said “I am”. This alluded to scriptures foretelling the Messiah having a greatly abiding, long lasting reign, even eternal, due to his justice, faithfulness, and unending favour from God. One example scripture is Micah 5:2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” (Another is Isaiah 9:7. See also Luke 1:33.) It is a mistake to think he was alluding to divine identity. He never did this, only to Messianic identity.
In addition to Jesus’ use of scriptures to teach righteousness and show himself to be the Messiah, he also taught that his miracles were independent testimonies about him from the Father, who was the One giving him these miraculous things to do. If we look at a miracle in this light, we learn important truths about him from the Father’s point of view. They show him as a human but as caring, powerful Lord, appointed by the Father to watch over his disciples, to tend them like a good shepherd tending his own sheep. He can fend off disasters, feed when hungry, give real aid even over huge numbers of people and over vast periods of time. All this points to him being the Messiah, appointed by the Father as topmost human representative of the Father, and ultimate eternal saviour plus judge: truly the Father’s own Son. This is a testimony independent of the testimony of Jesus himself about himself. The Father is independent of the Son, providing the second witness needed for fully legal validity. We can rest our faith in Jesus on both his teachings and his miracles, as two corroborating testimonies, giving strength to the faith which results.
