10.-Out of Weakness Made Strong (continued)
Forgiveness of Sins
It is remarkable that the Lord in His ministry in only one other recorded instance deals with the question of the forgiveness or remission of sins. To the penitent woman, in Simon the Pharisee’s house, He said definitely, “Thy sins are forgiven” (Luke 7:48). There were thus two witnesses to His power on earth to forgive sins according to the prophecy of Zacharias (Luke 1:77). This blessed work was hindered by the obduracy and impenitence of the people. But after His crucifixion and the shedding of the blood of the new covenant for the remission of sins, He is presented anew in this character. Peter testified concerning this: “Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:31). And this grace is not for Israel alone, but for all that believe. This Paul declared in the synagogue at Pisidian Antioch: “Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are justified from all things” (Acts 13:38, 39).
Such was the wider and fuller tide of blessing for man which was ensured by the death of Christ. But here was a sample of this function performed by the Person deputed to forgive, the blood-basis of the act having not yet been laid. The cleansing of the leprosy and the healing of the paralytic, coupled with the forgiveness of sins, were indisputable evidence that the Servant-Prophet of Jehovah was present in Galilee exercising divine prerogatives in His own right. Was not the Psalm familiar to their ears, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits; who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases” (Psa. 103:2, 3)? There was now an exemplification of this mercy before their eyes which could not be dissociated from Jesus of Nazareth as the One who was acting. In point of fact, Israel did not know nor consider, but this Servant of God patiently accumulated evidences of His mission which would leave the nation without excuse.
Are the Lord’s words to be regarded as a benevolent wish on His part that the sick man’s sins may eventually be forgiven? Not so; but rather as a positive declaration that they were then and thereby forgiven (“Thy sins are forgiven”); and the Lord intended that the sufferer should understand His words in this unequivocal sense. At any rate, the scribes understood the words in this sense, and they, in consequence, brought the charge of blasphemy against Him: “Why doth this man thus speak? he blasphemeth? Who can forgive sins but one, even God?” It is evident they regarded the words as a positive expression of fact, and not a hope for future pardon, such as any one might compassionately utter on behalf of another.
It may be asserted that the disease of this man’s body was an infliction upon him in consequence of some particular sins of which he had been guilty. God sent such temporal judgments in His government of the people of Israel, as the scripture testifies in many parts. For instance, at the repeated murmuring of the nation in the wilderness Jehovah smote them with a plague (Num. 11:32, 33; Psa. 78:31). In New Testament times it was so also in the assembly at Corinth, where many were in sickness and some even slept, because of their transgression (1 Cor. 11:30; see also James 5:14-16). The Lord recognized afflictions of this judicial character in the case of the impotent man of Bethesda, to whom He said after His cure, “Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee” (John 5:14).
If it be so, that the Lord’s declaration of forgiveness had reference only to that portion of the man’s sins for which his paralysis was a temporal chastisement under the hand of God, and not to the sum total of his guilt as a sinner, the principle still holds good. It is equally the exclusive prerogative of God to release a man from the temporal, as it is from the eternal, consequence of his sins. Sin is an offense against God, and therefore He only can remit it. By divine mercy the sins of Saul of Tarsus, the chief of sinners, were forgiven; by that same mercy alone, the thorn in the flesh could be removed from Paul the apostle (1 Tim. 1:15; 2 Cor. 12:7).
True were the words of the scribes, “Who can forgive sins but one, even God”; but false was their assumption that He who had just spoken was not God. He was God “manifest in the flesh,” as He proved so often before their eyes. But all human reasoning founded upon disbelief in the person of Christ must not only he false but evil. He alone is the Truth, and He is also the Life, and the Way to the Father.
SPEAKING BLASPHEMY
Blasphemy in Holy Scripture, while sometimes used for evil speech against man, has reference also to evil speaking against or about God. The mental charge of blasphemy made against our Lord on this occasion was due to the assumption of the scribes that He usurped one of the attributes of Godhead by pronouncing absolution of sins. His claim to be the Son of God was so regarded by the Jews; as the Lord said to them, “Say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of God?” (John 10:33, 36). At the trial Caiaphas said to Jesus, “I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell us whether thou he the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said; nevertheless I say unto you, Henceforth ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his garments, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? Behold, now ye have heard the blasphemy. What think ye? They answered and said, He is worthy of death” (Matt. 26:63-66; Mark 14:64, New Tr.).
While these references illustrate the use of the term by the Jews, the Lord Himself applies it to the disparagement of God the Holy Spirit (Matt. 12:31; Mark 3:28, 29; Luke 12:10). The term is also used for the calumniation of men, and of Jesus on the cross (Luke 22:65; 23:39), and is translated variously as “evil speaking,” “railing,” “being defamed,” etc. Its seriousness as a sin is correlated to the dignity of the person slandered or blasphemed—a distinction fully recognized by human laws.
SON OF MAN
It is to be noted that in this connection we have the first recorded use of this title of our Lord in this Gospel and also in Luke—the power of the Son of man to forgive sins. In Matthew it first occurs in the sentence, “The Son of man hath not where to lay his head” (Matt. 8:20). The title is frequently applied by the blessed Lord to Himself, but is never applied to Him by others, nor by the Evangelists themselves. Stephen testified, however, that he saw the “Son of man standing on the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56). And in the Apocalyptic visions John saw the Son of man in His capacity as Judge (Rev. 1:13; 14:14). It does not occur at all in the Epistles, except once in a quotation from the Psalms (Heb. 2:6).
This title, “Son of man,” by its terms suggests a wider sphere than is suggested by “Son of David” and “Son of Abraham.” It implies universal headship, as Heb. 2 shows, and was adopted by the Lord in view of His rejection by the Jews as the Messiah. Son of a man He was not, but Son of man He was, and when on earth He could say, “The Son of man which is in heaven” (John 3:13 Cor. 15:47). In Daniel His universal dominion is prophesied of under this title: “I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like unto the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom that all the peoples, nations and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed” (Dan. 7:13, 14). As Son of man He has power to execute judgment on sins as well as to forgive them (John 5:27).
In the prophetic communications to Ezekiel, the title, “Son of man,” is frequently employed by Jehovah when addressing the prophet. It is also used once in addressing Daniel (Dan. 8:7), but they never apply it to themselves. Both Ezekiel and Daniel were prophets of the exile, and ministered away from Judah, which was under the power of the Gentiles. The Lord too, as the despised Servant-Prophet, ministering in “Galilee of the Gentiles,” assumed this title, proving His authority to forgive sins, not as Jehovah of Psa. 103, or as the Messiah of Israel, but as the Son of man. [W. J. H.]
(To be continued)