"And again he entered into Capernaum, after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house. And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto them. And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four. And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only? And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts? Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion."
As Jesus preached about the coming of the kingdom, more and more people began to gather around to hear Him. He continued to baffle many, including the Jewish leadership, by casting out devils and by healing the sick.
In the example we find in today's quote, the palsied man and those who brought him had demonstrated great faith in who Jesus was by what they had gone through to get to Him, they knew that Jesus could cure the man's palsy. Jesus, in turn, rewarded the man for his faith, "When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee." This statement has significance in two ways. First, Jesus did NOT say, be cured, He said "thy sins be forgiven thee". that demonstrates that sin was the cause of the man's illness and that if that sin is removed the illness is also removed. Secondly, it demonstrated that Jesus, the Son of God, has power over sin and is capable of remitting it, and thereby curing the sickness.
Although Jesus explained to the accusing scribes that it made no difference how He went about healing the man, the end result would be the same. Being the Son of God with all power over all things, Jesus could have just as easily said, take up thy bed and walk, as He indeed did eventually say, and the result would have been the same.
Jesus knew the minds of the scribes and also knew it was inevitable that eventually they, along with the rest of the Jewish hierarchy, would conspire to kill Him. He also knew that this event was just one step in the process that would lead to His soul saving sacrifice on the cross.
The secondary lesson that comes from this quote is that Jesus forgives sin because of faith, and because of faith only. Forgiveness of sin did not then, nor does it now, require us to do anything other than have faith in Jesus Christ for it's remission.~
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