HAVING dealt with the cost of discipleship and shown us the victory of Christ over our great enemy, Satan, we are now led on to the blessing of discipleship, and how wonderful and glorious is this blessing. It is opened to us through the healing of this paralytic man.

We are told of the blessing and the assurance of the blessing. The blessing, which is of inestimable value, is the forgiveness of sins. In the world the forgiveness of sins is not valued very much, if at all. In fact most people would feel insulted if they were told that they needed forgiveness of sins. The great danger of our time is that in Great Britain at least there is no real consciousness of the need for forgiveness of sins, nor the terrible consequence of sin eternally which makes the forgiveness of sins so needful. Because there is no real sense of the need of forgiveness, people are not interested in the forgiveness of sins, so Christ is not valued.

The blessing of forgiveness of sins is in the fact that God can�t overlook our sins. We also have to realise what God classed as sins, which he will not overlook. A sin is anything which falls short, in any way, of the glory and holiness of God. Sins cover what we do and what we leave undone which violates the glory of God. Sins cover, not only our outward actions, but also our thoughts, and affections, and will, and inner character. If our sins are not forgiven then when we come before God on judgement day, his holiness will consume all there is of us, and we shall suffer eternal rejection and consignment to hell.

The wonder and blessing of forgiveness, which this passage and the Bible presents to us, is that it is an action and declaration by God, and by Jesus, that all our sins, whenever they are committed or will be committed, are all wiped away, and God sees no sins in us whatsoever. This is the blessing which is presented to us here, though how such a blessing can be bestowed is not described. Other places in the Bible, and the Bible as a whole, present to us how God gave his Son, Jesus, to make this forgiveness possible justly for sinners. Let us at this moment and from this account, lay hold of this wonderful blessing that there is complete forgiveness of sins available in Jesus.

We are told also here what is required of us that we may know this blessing in our lives. We are told that when Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic �Take heart, son: your sins are forgiven.� What a blessing. His sins were wiped away, and Christ accepted him in the relationship of a son, a son of God. Jesus further re-enforced the blessing with the words �take heart�. What we need to understand is that the blessing of forgiveness is not merited in any way by us but is bestowed as a gift on those who believe on Jesus, and believe in his power and willingness to forgive us all our sins.

It is plain that these men, his helpers and the paralytic himself, all believed this of Jesus. When we read that Jesus saw their faith, it is referring to the faith of the paralytic as well as the ones who carried him to Jesus. The paralytic would not have consented to be carried to Jesus if he did not believe, and the men who carried would not have brought the paralytic to Jesus if they did not believe that Jesus could and would heal. Let us notice that Jesus saw their faith. We can�t deceive Jesus in any way. He knows whether we have faith or not, and he knows genuine faith, even though it may be small, and that faith is real even when the one who has the faith doubts his or her faith in Jesus. The moment we seek Jesus with a believing heart, Jesus reaches out in love and bestows this great blessing of forgiveness, which is salvation from sin, death, Satan and hell.

Why did Jesus give forgiveness of sins before he healed the paralysis? Why did Jesus speak in so public a way? Firstly, forgiveness is a greater blessing than bodily healing. Forgiveness is for eternity, this body is only for the short period in this world. Secondly, Jesus acted in this way because he purposed to present to the paralytic and his friends, and all those present at that occasion, and because the story would be recorded as it has been in Matthew�s Gospel, that he had come to provide forgiveness of sins, and that he had power and authority to do so.

We read that the teachers of the law judged Jesus, and charged him with blaspheme for claiming he could forgive sins. Quite rightly these teachers of the law realised Jesus was acting as God when he forgave sins. In fact Jesus was revealing the truth about himself that he was the Son of God. Firstly, the power of Jesus and his person as the Son of God is revealed in that he read the thoughts of these teachers of the law. This is a humbling fact. Jesus knows the secret thoughts of our hearts, both good and evil. We can�t hide sin form Jesus, but also Jesus knows when we seek him with all our hearts.

In this context Jesus spoke to them, and to all standing with them, and challenged them in their thinking concerning him and their charge of blaspheme. He presents to them that it was easy enough to say �I forgive�, which can�t be verified because it can�t be seen with the physical eyes, but he will now show his power, and who he really was, by doing this impossible act of healing the paralytic and making him completely well in a moment. By this act of bodily healing he revealed his deity, and his office as redeemer of sinners.

The power of this action, and the drama of it, is recorded for us by the words that tell us all who were present were filled with awe, and praised God. However they did not get the message that was there. They only thought Jesus was a man given power from God. In retrospect as we look back to the incident, and by the gift of faith, we can see what is really being revealed. Jesus was showing he could forgive sins because he was God.