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Luke 5:21–26
“ ‘That you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’—[Jesus] said to the man who was paralyzed—‘I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.’ And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God” (vv. 24–25).
Pharisees, scribes, and other teachers of the Jewish law were present when Jesus healed the paralyzed man who had been lowered through the roof by his friends (Luke 5:17–26). Upon hearing our Savior forgive the man of his sins (Luke 5:20), however, these Jewish leaders did not immediately put their trust in Christ. As we see in today’s passage, they began to draw up accusations of blasphemy against Jesus in their hearts and minds. They believed that Christ had committed a great sin because no one can forgive sins but God alone (Luke 5:21).
The objections of the Pharisees were grounded in a correct view of God’s role in forgiveness. After all, every sin is an offense against the Lord, and therefore only the Lord can forgive every sin, and only He can forgive the sins committed against Him (Ex. 10:16–19; Ps. 130:4; Rom. 3:9–20; 4:5–8). For Jesus to offer a blanket forgiveness of sins to the paralyzed man was for Him to exercise the prerogative of God alone (Luke 5:20), and the Pharisees and scribes were right to recognize that Jesus was doing something that only God can do. Moreover, if Jesus were a mere man, His action would have been blasphemy, for a mere man is not God.
The Pharisees and the scribes did not err in understanding the basic truth that only God can forgive sins; rather, they erred in accusing Jesus of blasphemy because, in fact, Jesus is more than a mere man. He is the second person of the Trinity, the incarnate divine person of the Son of God (John 1:1–18). It was not blasphemy for Jesus to forgive sins against God, in other words, because Jesus is God. He is the Creator of heaven and earth, in whose person is perfectly united the divine nature and a human nature.
Instead of offering a full explanation of this fact on that occasion, our Savior chose instead to show the crowd who He was by healing the man (Luke 5:22–25). Jesus did something that only God can do—namely, restoring the man’s ability to walk—thereby proving that He can do other things that only God can do, including the pardon of transgressions against heaven. His divine power was a revelation of His divine identity, proof that His declaration of the paralytic’s forgiveness did not consist of mere empty words but reflected the truth of the man’s reconciliation to the Lord. The crowd, understandably, was filled with awe, recognizing that God had come near them in the person of Jesus Christ (Luke 5:26).
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
The miracles of Jesus were not ends in themselves but were tangible indicators of His divine identity. When we read the stories of Jesus’ exercising supernatural power, we should remember that our Savior’s signs and wonders prove that He is God incarnate and thus that we must worship Him as such.
for further study
- Psalm 103:1–5
- Isaiah 35
- Mark 2:1–12
- Acts 9:32–35
the bible in a year
- Deuteronomy 5–7
- Mark 12:1–27