In studying this lesson, no one should fail to compare the parallel passages in Matthew 9:1-8 and Luke 5:17-26. In these accounts of the miracle a few items are recorded, that are not found in Mark, which add materially to the lesson.
The Story
The story is very quickly told, and very easily learned. Jesus had returned to Capernaum, and had entered the house where He was accustomed to stay when He was in the city. It was quickly noised abroad that He was at home, and soon the house was filled to overflowing with people anxious to hear Him speak, and a great crowd gathered round the door, eager to get within the sound of His voice. These people were not alone from the town, but: "There were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee and Judea, and Jerusalem." (Luke 5:17)
So we see that: "This thing was not done in a corner." (Acts 26:26) "The redemption that is in Christ Jesus," (Romans 3:24) was that day made known throughout all the land. "The power of the Lord was present to heal." (Luke 5:17)
Whether any of those who were sitting by availed themselves of this opportunity to be healed, or not, we are not told; but there were some who were determined not to let the chance go by. While Jesus was teaching, four men came bearing a fifth on a stretcher, seeking to get near to Him. The fifth man was a paralytic, utterly unable to help himself. But the crowd about the door was impenetrable, and no one would move, to give place to the new-comer.
The faith of the five, however, was not dampened; mounting with difficulty to the flat roof of the house, they tore off the tiles, and let the man down directly in front of Jesus. They were bound to attract His attention, and would not be thwarted. Such faith could not be ignored, even if the compassionate heart of Jesus had not been moved by the sight of the suffering. To the palsied man He said, "Son, your sins be forgiven you." (Mark 2:5)
Then, when those sitting by began to murmur, and to talk about blasphemy, Jesus asked them which they thought was easier, to forgive the man's sins, or to make him arise and walk. Without waiting for an answer, He turned again to the man, still lying on his couch, and said, "Arise, and take up your bed, and go your way into your house." (Mark 2:11)
Immediately the palsied man arose, took up his bed, and went his way glorifying God, while the people said, "We have seen strange things today." (Luke 5:26) "We never saw it like this before." (Mark 2:12) "And they glorified God, who had given such authority to man." (Matthew 9:8)
That is the whole story; what lessons may we learn from it?
Man's Chief Need
The first thing that is every man's chief need, no matter what his condition, is forgiveness of sins. The Lord always does the most important thing first, and the first thing He did for this man was to make known to him the forgiveness of his sins. This is man's chief need, for, as we shall see, it includes everything else. "Sin came into the world, and death by sin." (Romans 5:12)
As sin has brought every misery and woe with it, the remission of sins removes every other ill.
We learn also that the palsied man was more troubled over his sinful condition than over his illness of body. Read the words of the Lord: "Son, be of good cheer; your sins be forgiven you." (Matthew 9:2)
This shows that the man was sad and despondent, and that his sadness was over his sins. All that was needed to make him of good cheer, in spite of his helpless condition, was to know that his sins were forgiven.
The words of Jesus brought peace to the troubled heart, and the man felt that now he could be content to die. He had wished for healing, that he might "live a different life." How many have longed for "another chance," not knowing that without a new life from the Lord they could not live any different life from that which they have been living.
But now the man's sins were forgiven; the words announcing the fact came with such positive assurance that he could not doubt it. He believed, and was at peace, for: "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Romans 5:1)
Two Kinds of Wisdom Contrasted
While the paralytic himself believed, the others doubted. If they had not, they too might have been healed, for the power of God was present to heal them before this man appeared on the scene.
Here we have true and false wisdom contrasted. The poor, sick man believed the words of Jesus, and he knew that he was forgiven; he had positive assurance of the fact; there was a power-the power of the Spirit-that came into him, and he needed not that any man should testify to him concerning Christ. He knew that He was the Son of God, the Son of man, with power on earth to forgive sins. "He that believes on the Son of God has the witness in himself." (1 John 5:10)
But the wise men sitting by began to "reason" in their hearts. "And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?" (Luke 5:21)
In their minds the thing was not reasonable, and they would not believe it. Note especially that their "reasoning" consisted in doubting. That is the wisdom of this world, and it leads to blindness, ignorance, and folly. We have here the same word that is used in: "Knowing God, they glorified Him not as God, but became vain in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened." (Romans 1:21)
Human reasoning leads to ignorance of God, and that is the worst kind of foolishness. It is lack of sense, for God is so plainly revealed in His works that whoever does not recognize Him is a fool, with less perception than the dumb brutes.
Simple faith is the highest sort of wisdom. The unlettered man who has learned to recognize God, and who believes in Him, has more wisdom than the most scholarly infidel. This does not by any means disparage learning; on the contrary, it exalts it; for the man who believes the Lord, and who follows Him, has the key to "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," (Colossians 2:3) while the wisdom of this world shall "come to naught;" (1 Corinthians 2:6) for it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." (1 Corinthians 1:19)
But the Lord will never destroy anything that has in it real worth.
Beware of the Gospel of Doubt
Above all things beware of a negative Gospel, which is no Gospel at all. There are many people who seem to have no other message than to warn the people against some other person's supposed errors. Their preaching is always negative.
They have nothing themselves to give, that will build up and set free, and they devote a large portion of their time picking flaws in what some other person has said. Their talk always tends to unsettle. After hearing them, people say, "Well I declare, I don't know what to believe."
Not always, however; some, like the palsied man, believe in spite of the reason that consists in doubting. "The Gospel ... is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes." (Romans 1:16)
Doubt finds no place in it; we are not even to spend time doubting the teachings of the enemy of souls, but to meet everything with a positive, "It is written." (Matthew 4:4)
Nobody ever saw a doubting man joyful in the Lord. Don't talk doubts; don't tell what you do not believe; speak always the words of faith. "He takes the wise in their own craftiness." (Job 5:13)
The palsied man needed no demonstration to prove to him that his sins were forgiven; but Jesus would show the doubters the foolishness of their "reasonings." He who forgives sins also heals disease. The man could tell by the witness in himself that he was forgiven, but there was no outward sign to indicate the fact to those who sat by. So in order that they might know that the Son of man had power on earth to forgive sins, He said to the palsied man, "Arise, take up your bed, and go unto your house." (Mark 2:11)
Immediately the man did so, and went forth healed in body as well as in soul, while the wise reasoners were left in confusion.
The Power of Forgiveness
Learn from this narrative that there is real power accompanying the forgiveness of sins. That power is "the power of an endless life," (Hebrews 7:16) by which Jesus is High Priest. He puts His own life of righteousness into and upon all them that believe, and that sends away the old life of sin, which was death.
When we forgive a man who has done wrong, it makes no difference in him; we are to forgive him, not for his benefit, but for our own. If we refuse to forgive an offender, he is not injured by it, but we are. We forgive a man, not to clear him from guilt, but to clear ourselves; for if we refuse to forgive him, we take upon ourselves his sin, and become responsible for it.
But God forgives a man, for the purpose of cleansing him of the guilt. God's forgiveness does not consist in empty words, but it makes the man perfectly free from sin. It does not consist in simply taking no account of the outward acts that the man has done, but it removes the sinful nature. It makes the sinner a partaker of the Divine nature. This Divine nature is the life of God in Christ, so that with it comes healing of body to everyone who can discern the life as it is manifested.
Those who disparage a justified life, and say that while it is very well to live such a life, there is something far higher, cast discredit upon the righteousness of God, by which forgiveness comes. They simply do not know the power that there is in "the redemption that is in Christ Jesus," (Romans 3:24) by which we are justified. True, many people live a sort of Christian life for years, without knowing the real joy of freedom from sin, but that is not the fault of the justification which God imparts, but the fault of their own blindness. They have not known the gift of God.
In the forgiveness of sins, we have every gift that a gracious God can impart to a fallen race. We are justified by the faith of Jesus Christ, even by Christ himself; and in giving us Christ, God must of necessity give us all things. "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." (Galatians 2:16)
The Sign of Forgiveness
Not the sign to the one forgiven, for he needs no sign. The fact is sufficient for him. But God gives a sign, by which others may know that He does forgive sin, so that they too may be induced to trust in His salvation.
What this sign is, we learn from the lesson before us. Jesus told the man to rise up and walk, in order that those sitting by might know that the Son of man had power on earth to forgive sins. The healing of disease in the body of the one whose sins are forgiven, and who has come to a knowledge of the power of this forgiveness,--the power of a new life,--is the sign to the world that the life is there.
True, the altered character of the mark is a sign, but the life of Christ is not divided, and since He who forgives all our iniquities by His life is the One who also heals all our diseases by the same life; the two things ought to go together. If they do not, it shows that there is a failure to appreciate all the fullness of God's life; the word is not given free course, that it may be glorified.
The Authority Given to Men
There is one more most important lesson for us to learn from this incident. When the people saw what had been done, "They marveled, and glorified God, which had given such power to men." (Matthew 9:8)
The margin of the Revised Version has "authority." Many read this carelessly, thinking that the power referred to was the power given to the man enabling him to walk. That is to lose more than half the lesson.
Who was Jesus? He himself used the common title, "the Son of man." Those who were sitting by knew Him as nothing else than the son of the carpenter. He was in every sense of the word a man, one of the people, "made in all things like unto His brethren." (Hebrews 2:17)
He appeared on earth as the Representative Man,-the representation of God's idea of a man,-a perfect man. He was the visible manifestation of God, and that is what the original man was. Indeed, without God in him, man is nothing. Only in Christ can anybody attain unto "a perfect man." (Ephesians 4:13)
That which Christ was on earth, every man may be in Him. "In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, And in Him you are made full, who is the Head of all principality and power." (Colossians 2:9-10,RV) "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself,...and He has placed in us the word of reconciliation, So that He now beseeches men by us, just as He did by Christ." (2 Corinthians 5:19-20,RV)
We, that is, all who are reconciled, are "in Christ's stead." (2 Corinthians 5:20)
So God has given to every man who has come to Him in Christ, the authority to announce to men the forgiveness of sins, not in his own name, but in the name of Jesus. "Through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins." (Acts 13:38)
Do you see a sad and despondent sinner mourning over his sins? Then know that to you is given the authority to say, "Be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you." (Matthew 9:2)
Aye, everyone who knows the full power of forgiveness in his own soul and body, needs no assurance of this right, for he cannot but make known to others that which he himself knows so well.
Every person who is mourning for his sins, gives evidence that he acknowledges himself to be a sinner, and unable in himself to remove his own sins; and we have the right, in the name of the Lord, to declare the forgiveness of sins to everyone who confesses them.
What a glorious gift! In this consists the greatest joy of the pardoned sinner: the power that cleanses him from sin gives him the authority to minister the gift to others. Take it as freely as it is given, and give God the glory.--Present Truth, March 1, 1900--Original title: The Reality of Forgiveness. The Paralytic Healed--Timeline: IV-9 (The Paralytic Lowered Through the Roof)--Mark 2:1-12.