May 19, 2022

Matthew 9: 5, 6 (NIV)

“Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so you know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . .” Then he said to the paralytic, “Get up, take your mat and go home.”

Testimony is evidence.*

If I told you, “Your sins are forgiven,” how would you know it was true? What proof could I present that I had the authority to forgive sins – or even just the ability to know that your sins had been forgiven? But if I said to someone who had a visible affliction, “You are healed,” it wouldn’t take long to know whether or not I was for real.

Jesus used his healing power as evidence of his divine power. Many people then, and today, are willing to accept that he could heal and that he was a good man but not that he was the Son of God. Could they not follow that misconception to its natural conclusion? How could he perform miracles if he wasn’t who he said he was? And if he wasn’t who he said he was, how could we call him a good man? If Jesus wasn’t the Son of God, he was an impostor and there is nothing he said or did that we could trust. But multitudes witnessed his miracles so how can you explain them without including his claims as to his divinity?

Much of our Christian life requires us to walk in faith. We must believe and trust in a lot of things that can’t be seen or explained. But Jesus never intended for us to wander blindly through life. He used his healing power to prove to his witnesses that he had the authority to forgive sins. Their testimony would have stood up in court then and it’s enough to convince us today. He has not promised physical healing to us, but we can trust that his offer of forgiveness is valid and applicable to those who choose to accept it.

What would it take to convince you?

Faith in the Christian sense goes beyond reason but not against it.*