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When Jesus spoke to the paralytic and said, “Your sins are forgiven you,” how could the scribes and Pharisees have known the truth about Jesus? How were they to know that He was not just another crackpot who was coming to erode the power of the religious establishment and cause discontent among the Hebrews? We have expanded this question to include, “How can man – any man – know the truth and know that he knows it?

If the scribes and Pharisees had talked to almost anyone in the countryside they could have determined that there was something far above the ordinary about Jesus. He had spoken with authority that no one else seemed to have. He had healed Peter’s wife’s mother, He had healed from afar the servant of a Roman officer, and He had healed all the sick in a great multitude of people. He had stilled a dangerous storm. He had demonstrated superior power over evil spirits (Matthew 8). Could the scribes and Pharisees have known about Jesus? Certainly the available evidence, had they considered it, would have raised some question as to whether Jesus was just an ordinary man or not.

Be that as it may, Jesus (for whatever reason) wanted these particular scribes and Pharisees to have irrefutable evidence that He was more than mere man. Hear His response to their debased reasoning: “But that you [the scribes and Pharisees] may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins — then He said to the paralytic, ‘Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.’ And he arose and departed to his house.” (Matthew 9.6-7). Notice clearly His statement of intent – “But that you may know…” His reason for healing the man was not merely to heal; it was to demonstrate His right to forgive sins! If He indeed had this right, He was not guilty of blasphemy; He was God!

These events and Jesus’ actions speak directly to the question, “How can man – any man – know the truth and know that he knows it?” The truth with which we are concerned is the truth that relates to God and forgiveness. How can man know that forgiveness is needed? How can he know that it is possible? How can he know that forgiveness has been granted? How can he know and know that he knows? These critical questions are at the heart of our study.

Dear, dear reader, you are challenged to consider the words of the majority of evangelists who appear on television and who are heard on radio. They are quick to tell their listeners to “Pray this prayer after me,” or, “Just accept Jesus into your heart.” With these statements they then pronounce, “If you have done these things, you are saved and God has forgiven you of all your sins!” I pose a question! How do they know that God forgives man under these circumstances? The Bible knows nothing of such verbiage! Never in all of Holy Writ was any alien sinner told to do such things! The truth can set man free, but the truth that saves is revealed in the Scriptures, not on television or radio!

When men burdened with guilt on Pentecost asked what they should do, they were told, “Repent and let every on of you be baptized… for the remission of sins…” (Acts 2.37-38). When Paul prayed earnestly for days on end, a gospel preacher told him, “And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins…” (Acts 22.16). How can man know and know that he knows? It is not by listening to the radio or TV!

Questions:

1. For what purpose did Jesus heal the paralytic? How can you be sure that was His purpose?

2. Did these men ask him to demonstrate His supernatural abilities? Did they have faith that He could?

3. If such a healing could NOT prove the point in question, what does that make Jesus?

4. That being said, were miracles a means by which God confirmed the truths He wished to reveal?

"'Winging It" from Stan Smith

Moralism