Authority Over Sin
by Paul George
Matthew has been focusing on various
miracles of our Lord in chapters 8 and 9 that are intended
to present the deity of Jesus Christ, and His role as the
Messiah of Israel. In other words, Matthew records a series
of miracles not only to prove that Jesus is God, but also to
show Jesus is fulfilling Messianic prophecies and
expectations, so that Israel would know that He was the
Messiah and would introduce the Kingdom of God to the world.
The stilling of the storm, (see Authority over Nature,
posted on this site) fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies
that predicted the Messiah would set up a Kingdom and
overpower the curse in the physical world. In Isaiah 30:23-
24 there is the prediction about how there will be, an
abundance of rain and crops will flourish in ways never
known since before the fall. Isaiah 35:1-7 predicts the
blossoming of the desert like a rose. Similar evidences of
physical restoration are seen in Isaiah 41:17-18; 51:3;
55:13; Joel 3:18; and Ezekiel 36:29- 38. Animals that have
been natural enemies will no longer be so. Life will
lengthen, for if a person dies at a hundred years of age, he
will be considered to have died young.
The Old Testament also speaks of a time when Satan will
bring his great hosts against the people of God and be
defeated. In Zechariah 3:1-2; Daniel 7:24-27; Daniel
8:23-25; and Daniel 11:36-12:3 we are told Satan wants to
oppress the people of God and ultimately will send his
demonic forces and Antichrist to fight against God's people.
Therefore, the Messiah must be able to overpower the
supernatural world of demons and Satan himself, which is
precisely what Matthew seeks to prove in showing that Jesus
casts out demons (see Authority over Demons, posted on this
site.).
The Old Testament also tells us that the Kingdom will be
marked by forgiveness in such passages as Ezekiel 36; Isaiah
33:24; 40:1-2; and 44:21-22, here in Matthew 9:1-8 we find
that the Lord Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, is able to
forgive sin.
Having healed the demon-possessed men on the eastern shore
of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus returned in the boat and came
into His own city. Now you might think that Nazareth, where
He grew up, was His city. However, if you read Matthew
4:13-15, you discover that He moved to Capernaum at the
beginning of His ministry. In fact, Luke 4:29-31 indicates
that He left Nazareth because He was a prophet without honor
in His own country. He reestablished His home several miles
away in the little town of Capernaum on the north shore of
the Sea of Galilee. It is even likely that He had taken up
residence in the house of Peter from such indications as
Matthew 8:14, where He healed Peter's mother-in-law.
Before He crossed the Sea of Galilee, Jesus had been doing
miracles in Capernaum and the surrounding area. He had been
healing all kinds of diseases and had been casting out
demons. Such demonstrations of power had caused the crowds
to swell. As He came back, another huge crowd had come to
the place where He stayed, and a paralytic was brought to
the place where Jesus was staying.
Note, in Mark and Luke we find that there were four men,
possibly friends or relatives who brought the man to the
place where Jesus was staying. They had heard that Jesus was
in town and wanted the paralytic to come to Jesus. The
paralytic may have even recruited the four to help him.
In Biblical times, it would have been extremely difficult to
be paralyzed, because the ambulatory apparatus and the
medical knowledge that we have today was not available. A
paralytic would have to be cared for in all of the
necessities of life. As a result, there was probably more of
a social stigma attached to such disabling illnesses than
there is now. Furthermore, the paralytic probably thought
that he was sick because he was sinful, a common conclusion
of the time. You may remember some disciples asking Jesus
about this issue (John 9:2). Now the disciples were right in
the sense that all sickness is linked to sin, because if
there were no sin, there would be no sickness. However, they
were wrong in assuming that a person became sick from being
sinful. In fact, such thinking had been around for a long
time, going all the way back to the Book of Job, possibly
the first book ever written in the Bible. Job's friends had
essentially told Job that. Therefore, the paralytic not only
suffered from the disease itself and the stigma and
incapacitation that accompanied it, but also from an
overwhelming sense that he was sinful, and therefore
directly responsible for his illness. Although it would not
be uncommon for such people to seek to be alone and shun the
crowds, the paralytic wanted to come to Jesus. There can be
no doubt the paralytic came to Jesus primarily because of
his sin, not his sickness. That is why Jesus said to him,
“Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven” (v 3).
Jesus addressed the man as “Son,” a term of tenderness. Here
was a man overwrought with his sin by social condemnation
from without and the guilt from within. Believing that Jesus
possessed the power of God, he was willing to put himself in
the presence of a Holy God and take his chances. In the
midst of his fear, the Lord said to him, “Take courage” in
other words, there is nothing to fear. “Take courage” is an
expression of comfort and encouragement to one who was
fearfully conscious of his sickness and sin. That is the
tenderness of Christ, who can love the sinner even though He
is offended by his sin.
In one sense, Jesus is asking the paralytic “what are you
afraid of? There is nothing to fear.” There is plenty to
fear if you come before God as a sinner without repentance.
However, there was nothing to fear when the paralytic came,
because he had a broken and a contrite heart.
The paralytic was burdened down with grief, overcome with
fear, and burdened with guilt, the Lord responded in answer
to his faith, “your sins are forgiven.” Forgiveness is a
divine miracle that ranks with any other miracle, it is
instantaneously bestowed with a word. If the paralytic had
never said a word, how did the Lord know that forgiveness
was what he wanted? Simply because the Lord knows the heart
of every man: He read the heart of the paralytic and He read
the hearts of the scribes. As the giver of all-good, He
gives before we even can ask Him. The paralytic was no
different; Jesus read the man's heart and forgave him.
This is the good news, when the Lord sends our sins away, He
sends them as far as the East is from the West, buries them
in the depths of the deepest sea, and remembers them no
more.
The Bible says that sin is the transgression of the Law (1
John 3:4), defiles God’s image in man (John 6:70), displays
gross ingratitude toward God (Joshua 2:10-12), affects all
men (Romans 3:23), brings man under the dominion of Satan
(Ephesians 2:2), brings man under the wrath of God
(Ephesians 2:3), and dooms men to hell forever (2
Thessalonians 1:9).
If sin so affects all men, then the best news you could ever
give is that God forgives sin. The paralytic was living
proof.
Jesus forgave the crippled man, but some of the scribes
claimed that Jesus was a blasphemer. They even failed to
acknowledge their own need for forgiveness. Such an attitude
has been around for a long time. Today, when a message is
preached on forgiveness, some will open their hearts to
Christ, and others will leave uninterested, failing to
recognize the problem of sin and therefore not willing to
accept the solution of forgiveness. Furthermore, instead of
accepting the fact that Jesus could forgive sin and relieve
the pressure of their guilt, Jesus’ opponents realized that
since only God could forgive sin, and Jesus was claiming to
be God, He was therefore a blasphemer. To them, the ultimate
blasphemy was to claim to be God by saying and doing things
that only could be ascribed to Him.
The scribes were right about the fact that only God can
forgive sin (Isaiah 43:25), however, they were wrong about
Jesus because He is God. In fact, the divine ability Jesus
demonstrated by reading their thoughts was evidence of His
omniscience; He knew what was in the heart of the paralytic
and He knew what was in the minds of the scribes because He
is God. Accusing Jesus of blasphemy was part of the
ever-increasing antagonism that ultimately led to His
crucifixion.
In response to the evil thoughts of the scribes, Jesus asked
them, “Which is easier, to say, your sins are forgiven, or
to say, get up and walk” (v 5).
The scribes could not give an answer, because neither is
easier, both are impossible for men, but are possible for
God. They could not truthfully say either one, let alone do
them. However, Jesus could say both, because He could do
either with the same divine ease. Only God can heal, and
only God can forgive. The scribes were the ones who taught
that disease and sickness were a result of sin. If they
really thought about it, their own theology told them that
the One who could heal diseases could forgive sin and vice
versa. So He said, in effect, “Which is easier, to forgive
or to heal? If I can do one, then I can do the other. I am
not a blasphemer, I am God." They were trapped, because they
knew He could heal, and they knew that God was capable of
both. If Jesus had power over disease, and disasters, then
He could certainly deal with sin.
There is another interesting way to look at this verse and
that is from the human viewpoint.
Which one of the two miracles is easier to say? It is easier
to say, “your sins are forgiven.” Why is it easier to say,
“Your sins are forgiven?” There is no way to prove whether a
person’s sins have been forgiven. However, to tell someone
take up his or her bed and walk can be verified. Therefore,
the latter statement would be more difficult to say.
If all that Jesus said were, “Your sins are forgiven,” those
watching would have never known that He actually did that.
Therefore, by saying, “Get up, pick up your bed and go home”
(v 6) they would conclude that Jesus had forgiven his sins
because the two are inseparably linked. Jesus was
demonstrating His healing power as proof of His power to
forgive sin, which was the root of the paralytic's problem.
Any pretender can claim to forgive sin, and through the
centuries, some have claimed that they had the power to do
so. However, Jesus did not want the people to think that He
was making an empty promise, so He accomplished the visible
miracle, which proved He had the power to do the invisible
one.
Verse 7 – “And he got up and went home.”
Can you imagine that? The paralytic's four friends had their
heads through the roof, according to Luke’s account (Luke
5:17-26), watching, the people were listening, the scribes
were accusing and Jesus simply said, “Get up and go home”
and immediately, the man got up, rolled up his little bed
under his arm and picked up its wood frame and went home.
You had better believe that an aisle was instantly created
as the man walked out of that place. When he got outside,
you can imagine the excitement when he met his four friends.
What power they had experienced. Not only did Jesus have the
power to heal that man's disease, He forgave his sins.
The good news, He still does.
Verse – 8 – “But when the crowds saw this, they were
awestruck, and glorified God, who had given such authority
to men.”
We should in like manner be in awe of Christ. That type of
fear should characterize the Christian today as it did the
early church. Acts 9:31 says that the church was “walking in
the fear of the Lord.” It is essential that we be in awe of
Christ, not only because we see the response of fear to the
power of God demonstrated in the gospels and in Acts, but
also because Christian behavior is to come out of the
reverential fear of God. The people who witnessed the
healing of the paralytic glorified God and so should we.
They were in awe of His presence that is the right response.
The Authority of
Jesus Series
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