Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?
The verse is the silent, inward charge of the scribes and Pharisees when Jesus told the helpless paralytic at Capernaum that his sins were forgiven. Their premise was true, that to forgive sins is God's own prerogative alone. What they failed to see was that Jesus as the Son of man holds that very authority on earth to forgive sins. He proved the unseen pardon by the seen cure, commanding the man to rise and walk in immediate, complete restoration before them all. Forgiveness came first because the burden of sin was the man's deepest need, and in lifting it Christ healed the diseased mind to bring peace and then health to the body.
Scene and Sufferer
The question belongs to the healing of the paralytic at Capernaum in a crowded house where Jesus was teaching as guest at Peter's house. Men, women, and children flocked from every direction to hear Him as a wonderful Teacher. His disciples stayed close by Him there so they could learn truths they would later proclaim.
The sufferer had been reduced to utter helplessness by incurable palsy and had given up all hope of recovery. His palsy was the penalty of his own sinful life, caused mainly by dissipation, by loving the pleasures of sin, and by a life transgressing God's law. His illness followed that life of sin, and this setting bears on the question of who has authority to forgive sins.
The Pharisees, priests, and doctors treated sickness and distress as proof of God's anger and as just retribution and punishment for wrongdoing. They coldly pronounced him incurable, declared him under God's curse and abandoned and cast off to the wrath of God for his sins. They regarded affliction as evidence of divine displeasure, held themselves aloof from the sick and needy while exalting themselves as holy, though often more guilty than the sufferers they condemned, and refused him hope and sympathy.
The man himself believed his bodily affliction had come from his sinful life. He feared he would not be tolerated or welcomed in the presence of the pure Physician, and he was tortured by the priestly claim that God had cast him off for his sins. Yet hope revived in him when he heard of Jesus' gracious instruction, wonderful miracles, words of mercy to the despairing, miraculous power to cure every malady, and sublime authority to set free by a word those held by the power of Satan. He took hope because Jesus turned none away, and even loathsome lepers found access to His presence and were healed.
His friends and relatives encouraged him with the assurance that Jesus had healed and helped others who were in every respect as sinful and helpless as himself. Thus encouraged, he longed to be brought under Jesus' notice, to come into His presence, to see Jesus and place himself in His hands. He was let down through the roof and laid at Jesus' feet.
What he most longed for was not bodily cure alone but relief from the burden of sin. He hoped Jesus would relieve his mind by pardoning his sins, seeking assurance of forgiveness and peace with Heaven as well as relief from affliction. He desired pardon for relief of mind more than physical restoration, content to live or die according to God's righteous will if forgiven.
Blasphemy Charge Explained
The charge was never spoken aloud but reasoned inwardly in the hearts of the scribes, Pharisees and doctors of the law the moment Jesus told the paralytic let down through the roof and laid at His feet that his sins were forgiven. They murmured within themselves, looked into one another's faces, and looked at one another with the same thought. Their silent inward accusation took His declaration of pardon as blasphemy on the ground that forgiving sins belongs to God alone.
That premise was held as God's divine and incommunicable prerogative, an infinite power belonging to God alone, so they judged His words to be an assumption of divine power and condemned Him in their minds as a blasphemer. His authority to forgive was in fact in harmony with His divine nature, but they treated His claim as blasphemy because they believed only God could forgive sins. They seized those words of divine pardon as grounds to accuse Him of a crime worthy of death.
They were already watching His words with hostile scrutiny, hoping to find contradiction or heresy they could use to discredit Him and use against Him before the people. Their intent was to arrest the tide of popular sympathy and popular feeling for Jesus and to save their own influence over the multitude. The charge grew from rejecting His divine authority, from terrible fear of losing their own influence over the people, and from desire to stop the people's feeling for Him.
It was sharpened because they remembered, and the people knew, that they themselves had refused the sufferer hope and sympathy and help, had turned from his shriveled form, and had declared him suffering God's curse for his sins. Jesus perceived their inward reasoning and read their hidden unspoken thoughts, and opened their unspoken thoughts before them to their astonishment. He fixed His glance upon them and cowed them, met them with a reproving look, and openly answered their inward evil thinking before proving His on-earth power as Son of man to forgive by commanding the paralytic to rise and walk.
Christ's Authority to Forgive
The scribes' question was right in its premise, for to forgive sins belongs to God alone as His own prerogative, yet they failed to see that Jesus as the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins. They judged His declaration of pardon to the paralytic to be blasphemy and an assumption of divine power, and seized His words as grounds to accuse Him, but He proved His authority by healing the man so that the power became visible. When the man rose and went home before them all, the crowd glorified God for giving such power to men.
That authority to forgive was in harmony with His divine nature and confirmed His Messiahship. He is divine, exercising His own might and pleasure among all classes with no caste or nationality, as compassionate Redeemer and sin-pardoning Saviour. His gentle dignity joined to miraculous works stood in marked contrast to proud self-righteous bearing, displaying Divinity stooping in wondrous love and compassion to heal the guilty and afflicted, to sorrow over and soothe suffering humanity, leaving the message of salvation and the mercies of a compassionate Redeemer beyond doubt.
He knows the sickness of the soul perfectly, for as Saviour He came to forgive sins and has God's right to forgive. He is the only one who can pardon the sinner, the one Mediator between people and God, worthy of honor and glory and majesty, whose pardon is certain and brings the warmth of His love. His forgiveness first cures the diseased mind by taking guilt from the inmost soul and changing the sinner's relation toward God. It lifts the heaviest burden with peace and joy, changing despair to hope and gloom to rejoicing, giving purity and peace, hope to the hopeless, strength to the stricken, light to the darkened home, and full restoration to vigor of life.
The authority to forgive sins belongs to God alone, so for popes or friars to claim they can grant pardon usurps that authority. Forgiveness is to be sought from God, not bought through money or gifts to religious orders. That God alone has power to forgive sins through a Saviour's love is a blessed, soul-saving Bible truth to be spoken from warm hearts and published to the unconverted, and failure to deliver it may prove their ruin, so all are called to seek to save perishing souls.
Healing Proves Forgiveness
To answer the silent charge, He commanded the paralytic to arise, take up his bed and walk. The man immediately arose in obedience before them all and went out and walked home, carrying with ease the couch on which he had been slowly borne. Lifeless, bloodless arms were quickened, blood flowed, color returned, and limbs that for long years had refused to obey were quickened to life. Shrunken, leaden-hued flesh was made fresh and ruddy with health, and he walked with a firm, free step in the full vigor of manhood.
That immediate and complete bodily restoration was visible evidence of the power that had renewed the heart. It confirmed that the Son of man has power on earth both to forgive sins and to heal the sick. The healing brought the man peace of mind, strength, and hope, with full restoration to vigor.
All except the faultfinders were amazed and glorified God for giving such power to men, and God was glorified through His Son Jesus. The man and his family gathered with tears of joy and glad thanksgiving, and light came into the darkened home. Their faith and fealty were so complete that no doubt dimmed it and no unbelief marred it.
The miracle left the scribes and Pharisees dumb with amazement and overwhelmed with defeat, disconcerted and abashed. They had no opportunity to inflame the multitude by prejudice and jealousy, because the people were so impressed that their influence was for the time forgotten. His gentle dignity united with miraculous works stood in marked contrast to their proud and self-righteous bearing. They recognized but would not confess the presence of a Superior Being, and instead hardened themselves in hatred and unbelief.
Soul Healed Before Body
Forgiveness had to come first because the man's deepest need was relief from the burden of sin, which he had borne for months with no relief and which was more distressing and aggravating than bodily suffering, while dissolution was already doing its work upon the body and wasted flesh showed decay. What he most longed for was not bodily cure alone but assurance of forgiveness and peace with Heaven, and Christ answered that need before healing him, acting with divine authority to address spiritual disease as well as physical illness. With the most precious words of pardon the heaviest burden was lifted, changing pallid despair to hope and distressing doubt and gloom to peace and joy. The restored mind was then followed by bodily healing, showing that care for the sick may need to address spiritual and mental suffering as well as physical disease.
With the mind restored to peace and happiness the suffering body could then be reached, for peace of mind prepares the way for faith that Christ will do as He promised. Sin hinders recovery, so forgiveness must come first, and the sick and suffering must put trust in Christ as the sin-pardoning Saviour who heals both body and soul. Christ gave the tortured man peace of mind, filling his heart with peace and joy, and then healed his body to prove that the Son of man has power to forgive sins. Lifeless bloodless arms were quickened, blood flowed, color returned, and limbs that for long years refused to obey were quickened to life so the healed man walked home glorifying God.
The paralytic needed healing of the soul before he could benefit from healing of the body, because the burden of sin with its unrest and unsatisfied desires is the foundation of many physical illnesses. Christ's forgiveness brings peace that restores vigor to the mind and health to the body. Healing of the soul is more important than bodily healing, and patients are to be led to repent and receive forgiveness, peace, and a call to stop sinning.
The healing is full of hope and encouragement for the sinful and helpless, while connection with the caviling Pharisees gives a lesson of warning. His forgiveness takes away sin and suffering and gives purity and peace, hope to the hopeless, strength to the stricken, light to the darkened home, and full restoration to vigor of life. Such a work calls for undoubting faith and undivided loyalty to Him, even to laying down life for Him.
Ministry for Body and Soul
The account holds a precious lesson from the healing work, pointing to the great Restorer, the great Physician, the sin-pardoning Saviour who heals both soul and body. He met people where they were, where their deepest trouble was the need for forgiveness, forgave their sins, and pointed them to the home above. His work joins saving souls and healing bodies, and that same joined work is to be done for those afflicted in soul and body, including caring for the sick.
Preaching the truth and healing the sick are bound together as one work that must never be divorced, forming the pattern for work. Medical missionary work serves the third angel's message as the right arm serves the body. Forgiveness came first because the paralytic had been tortured by the teaching that God had cast him off for his sins, and Christ gave him peace of mind, filling his heart with peace and joy, then healed his body to prove that the Son of man has power to forgive sins.
The case is for instruction that physicians to be successful must minister to the diseased mind and make God their trust. Suffering people sick in mind and body need double healing, and physicians are to point their patients to Christ to receive it. Bodily pain is often to be relieved so that conscience and heart become susceptible to truth. Patients are to be led to repent and receive forgiveness, peace, and a call to stop sinning. As Saviour He came to forgive sins and knows the sickness of the soul perfectly, first lifting the heaviest burden of sin borne for months with no relief, changing pallid despair to hope and distressing doubt and gloom to peace and joy, so that with the mind restored to peace and happiness the suffering body could then be reached. The burden of sin with its unrest and unsatisfied desires is the foundation of many physical illnesses, and His forgiveness brings peace that restores vigor to the mind and health to the body, for the paralytic needed healing of the soul before he could benefit from healing of the body.
God alone has power to forgive sins through a Saviour's love, a blessed, soul-saving Bible truth. It is to be spoken from warm hearts and published to the unconverted. Neglecting to share it may prove their ruin, so all are called to seek to save perishing souls.
The verse is the silent, inward charge of the scribes and Pharisees when Jesus told the helpless paralytic at Capernaum that his sins were forgiven. Their premise was true, that to forgive sins is God's own prerogative alone. What they failed to see was that Jesus as the Son of man holds that very authority on earth to forgive sins. He proved the unseen pardon by the seen cure, commanding the man to rise and walk in immediate, complete restoration before them all. Forgiveness came first because the burden of sin was the man's deepest need, and in lifting it Christ healed the diseased mind to bring peace and then health to the body.
Scene and Sufferer
The question belongs to the healing of the paralytic at Capernaum in a crowded house where Jesus was teaching as guest at Peter's house. Men, women, and children flocked from every direction to hear Him as a wonderful Teacher. His disciples stayed close by Him there so they could learn truths they would later proclaim.
The sufferer had been reduced to utter helplessness by incurable palsy and had given up all hope of recovery. His palsy was the penalty of his own sinful life, caused mainly by dissipation, by loving the pleasures of sin, and by a life transgressing God's law. His illness followed that life of sin, and this setting bears on the question of who has authority to forgive sins.
The Pharisees, priests, and doctors treated sickness and distress as proof of God's anger and as just retribution and punishment for wrongdoing. They coldly pronounced him incurable, declared him under God's curse and abandoned and cast off to the wrath of God for his sins. They regarded affliction as evidence of divine displeasure, held themselves aloof from the sick and needy while exalting themselves as holy, though often more guilty than the sufferers they condemned, and refused him hope and sympathy.
The man himself believed his bodily affliction had come from his sinful life. He feared he would not be tolerated or welcomed in the presence of the pure Physician, and he was tortured by the priestly claim that God had cast him off for his sins. Yet hope revived in him when he heard of Jesus' gracious instruction, wonderful miracles, words of mercy to the despairing, miraculous power to cure every malady, and sublime authority to set free by a word those held by the power of Satan. He took hope because Jesus turned none away, and even loathsome lepers found access to His presence and were healed.
His friends and relatives encouraged him with the assurance that Jesus had healed and helped others who were in every respect as sinful and helpless as himself. Thus encouraged, he longed to be brought under Jesus' notice, to come into His presence, to see Jesus and place himself in His hands. He was let down through the roof and laid at Jesus' feet.
What he most longed for was not bodily cure alone but relief from the burden of sin. He hoped Jesus would relieve his mind by pardoning his sins, seeking assurance of forgiveness and peace with Heaven as well as relief from affliction. He desired pardon for relief of mind more than physical restoration, content to live or die according to God's righteous will if forgiven.
Blasphemy Charge Explained
The charge was never spoken aloud but reasoned inwardly in the hearts of the scribes, Pharisees and doctors of the law the moment Jesus told the paralytic let down through the roof and laid at His feet that his sins were forgiven. They murmured within themselves, looked into one another's faces, and looked at one another with the same thought. Their silent inward accusation took His declaration of pardon as blasphemy on the ground that forgiving sins belongs to God alone.
That premise was held as God's divine and incommunicable prerogative, an infinite power belonging to God alone, so they judged His words to be an assumption of divine power and condemned Him in their minds as a blasphemer. His authority to forgive was in fact in harmony with His divine nature, but they treated His claim as blasphemy because they believed only God could forgive sins. They seized those words of divine pardon as grounds to accuse Him of a crime worthy of death.
They were already watching His words with hostile scrutiny, hoping to find contradiction or heresy they could use to discredit Him and use against Him before the people. Their intent was to arrest the tide of popular sympathy and popular feeling for Jesus and to save their own influence over the multitude. The charge grew from rejecting His divine authority, from terrible fear of losing their own influence over the people, and from desire to stop the people's feeling for Him.
It was sharpened because they remembered, and the people knew, that they themselves had refused the sufferer hope and sympathy and help, had turned from his shriveled form, and had declared him suffering God's curse for his sins. Jesus perceived their inward reasoning and read their hidden unspoken thoughts, and opened their unspoken thoughts before them to their astonishment. He fixed His glance upon them and cowed them, met them with a reproving look, and openly answered their inward evil thinking before proving His on-earth power as Son of man to forgive by commanding the paralytic to rise and walk.
Christ's Authority to Forgive
The scribes' question was right in its premise, for to forgive sins belongs to God alone as His own prerogative, yet they failed to see that Jesus as the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins. They judged His declaration of pardon to the paralytic to be blasphemy and an assumption of divine power, and seized His words as grounds to accuse Him, but He proved His authority by healing the man so that the power became visible. When the man rose and went home before them all, the crowd glorified God for giving such power to men.
That authority to forgive was in harmony with His divine nature and confirmed His Messiahship. He is divine, exercising His own might and pleasure among all classes with no caste or nationality, as compassionate Redeemer and sin-pardoning Saviour. His gentle dignity joined to miraculous works stood in marked contrast to proud self-righteous bearing, displaying Divinity stooping in wondrous love and compassion to heal the guilty and afflicted, to sorrow over and soothe suffering humanity, leaving the message of salvation and the mercies of a compassionate Redeemer beyond doubt.
He knows the sickness of the soul perfectly, for as Saviour He came to forgive sins and has God's right to forgive. He is the only one who can pardon the sinner, the one Mediator between people and God, worthy of honor and glory and majesty, whose pardon is certain and brings the warmth of His love. His forgiveness first cures the diseased mind by taking guilt from the inmost soul and changing the sinner's relation toward God. It lifts the heaviest burden with peace and joy, changing despair to hope and gloom to rejoicing, giving purity and peace, hope to the hopeless, strength to the stricken, light to the darkened home, and full restoration to vigor of life.
The authority to forgive sins belongs to God alone, so for popes or friars to claim they can grant pardon usurps that authority. Forgiveness is to be sought from God, not bought through money or gifts to religious orders. That God alone has power to forgive sins through a Saviour's love is a blessed, soul-saving Bible truth to be spoken from warm hearts and published to the unconverted, and failure to deliver it may prove their ruin, so all are called to seek to save perishing souls.
Healing Proves Forgiveness
To answer the silent charge, He commanded the paralytic to arise, take up his bed and walk. The man immediately arose in obedience before them all and went out and walked home, carrying with ease the couch on which he had been slowly borne. Lifeless, bloodless arms were quickened, blood flowed, color returned, and limbs that for long years had refused to obey were quickened to life. Shrunken, leaden-hued flesh was made fresh and ruddy with health, and he walked with a firm, free step in the full vigor of manhood.
That immediate and complete bodily restoration was visible evidence of the power that had renewed the heart. It confirmed that the Son of man has power on earth both to forgive sins and to heal the sick. The healing brought the man peace of mind, strength, and hope, with full restoration to vigor.
All except the faultfinders were amazed and glorified God for giving such power to men, and God was glorified through His Son Jesus. The man and his family gathered with tears of joy and glad thanksgiving, and light came into the darkened home. Their faith and fealty were so complete that no doubt dimmed it and no unbelief marred it.
The miracle left the scribes and Pharisees dumb with amazement and overwhelmed with defeat, disconcerted and abashed. They had no opportunity to inflame the multitude by prejudice and jealousy, because the people were so impressed that their influence was for the time forgotten. His gentle dignity united with miraculous works stood in marked contrast to their proud and self-righteous bearing. They recognized but would not confess the presence of a Superior Being, and instead hardened themselves in hatred and unbelief.
Soul Healed Before Body
Forgiveness had to come first because the man's deepest need was relief from the burden of sin, which he had borne for months with no relief and which was more distressing and aggravating than bodily suffering, while dissolution was already doing its work upon the body and wasted flesh showed decay. What he most longed for was not bodily cure alone but assurance of forgiveness and peace with Heaven, and Christ answered that need before healing him, acting with divine authority to address spiritual disease as well as physical illness. With the most precious words of pardon the heaviest burden was lifted, changing pallid despair to hope and distressing doubt and gloom to peace and joy. The restored mind was then followed by bodily healing, showing that care for the sick may need to address spiritual and mental suffering as well as physical disease.
With the mind restored to peace and happiness the suffering body could then be reached, for peace of mind prepares the way for faith that Christ will do as He promised. Sin hinders recovery, so forgiveness must come first, and the sick and suffering must put trust in Christ as the sin-pardoning Saviour who heals both body and soul. Christ gave the tortured man peace of mind, filling his heart with peace and joy, and then healed his body to prove that the Son of man has power to forgive sins. Lifeless bloodless arms were quickened, blood flowed, color returned, and limbs that for long years refused to obey were quickened to life so the healed man walked home glorifying God.
The paralytic needed healing of the soul before he could benefit from healing of the body, because the burden of sin with its unrest and unsatisfied desires is the foundation of many physical illnesses. Christ's forgiveness brings peace that restores vigor to the mind and health to the body. Healing of the soul is more important than bodily healing, and patients are to be led to repent and receive forgiveness, peace, and a call to stop sinning.
The healing is full of hope and encouragement for the sinful and helpless, while connection with the caviling Pharisees gives a lesson of warning. His forgiveness takes away sin and suffering and gives purity and peace, hope to the hopeless, strength to the stricken, light to the darkened home, and full restoration to vigor of life. Such a work calls for undoubting faith and undivided loyalty to Him, even to laying down life for Him.
Ministry for Body and Soul
The account holds a precious lesson from the healing work, pointing to the great Restorer, the great Physician, the sin-pardoning Saviour who heals both soul and body. He met people where they were, where their deepest trouble was the need for forgiveness, forgave their sins, and pointed them to the home above. His work joins saving souls and healing bodies, and that same joined work is to be done for those afflicted in soul and body, including caring for the sick.
Preaching the truth and healing the sick are bound together as one work that must never be divorced, forming the pattern for work. Medical missionary work serves the third angel's message as the right arm serves the body. Forgiveness came first because the paralytic had been tortured by the teaching that God had cast him off for his sins, and Christ gave him peace of mind, filling his heart with peace and joy, then healed his body to prove that the Son of man has power to forgive sins.
The case is for instruction that physicians to be successful must minister to the diseased mind and make God their trust. Suffering people sick in mind and body need double healing, and physicians are to point their patients to Christ to receive it. Bodily pain is often to be relieved so that conscience and heart become susceptible to truth. Patients are to be led to repent and receive forgiveness, peace, and a call to stop sinning. As Saviour He came to forgive sins and knows the sickness of the soul perfectly, first lifting the heaviest burden of sin borne for months with no relief, changing pallid despair to hope and distressing doubt and gloom to peace and joy, so that with the mind restored to peace and happiness the suffering body could then be reached. The burden of sin with its unrest and unsatisfied desires is the foundation of many physical illnesses, and His forgiveness brings peace that restores vigor to the mind and health to the body, for the paralytic needed healing of the soul before he could benefit from healing of the body.
God alone has power to forgive sins through a Saviour's love, a blessed, soul-saving Bible truth. It is to be spoken from warm hearts and published to the unconverted. Neglecting to share it may prove their ruin, so all are called to seek to save perishing souls.