Authority to Forgive Sins
Matthew 9:1-8
All three synoptic gospels record this event that we have in Matthew 9:1-8. As Matthew does with some other events, he shortens the account, leaving out several of the details that Mark and Luke include. Matthew, instead, focuses on the central point that Jesus has the authority and power to forgive sins.[1] There is nothing more needed in our lives than forgiveness.
John MacArthur correctly states that,
“the most distinctive thing that Christianity has to proclaim is the reality that sin can be forgiven. That is the heart and the very lifeblood of the Christian message. Although the Christian faith has many values, many virtues, and has a myriad of endless applications, the most essential message that God ever gave to man is that man, a sinner, can know the fullness of forgiveness for sin. That is the heart of the message of Christianity.”[2]
That is the message of Matthew 9:1-8. The structure of the passage follows a clear pattern. Jesus meets a paralytic and speaks to him; the scribes react by speaking to themselves; Jesus replies to their thoughts; and then Jesus speaks again to the paralytic, healing him. I have divided it into three sections: Jesus’ declaration of forgiveness, His defense of His authority, and His demonstration of forgiveness.[3]
1. Jesus declares forgiveness of sins (Matthew 9:1-2)
Matthew closes the last story and begins this one by telling us, “So He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city.” Jesus had been in the region of the Gadarenes on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. On the way over to that side, Jesus had calmed the storm on the sea (Matt. 8:23-27), which taught us that Jesus has authority over the natural realm. He rebuked the wind and the waves, and they obeyed Him. While Jesus was on the shore of the Gadarenes, He cast demons out of two demonized men (Matt. 8:28-32), which taught us that Jesus also has authority over the supernatural realm. He commands even the evil spirits, and they must obey Him. Jesus exercises divine authority.
Now, as Jesus enters the boat once again to cross over the Sea of Galilee and comes to Capernaum, “His own city”, Matthew shows that Jesus exercises divine authority in yet another area, the forgiveness of sins.[4] The other Gospels give us the details of the setting. According to Mark, Jesus was in a house (perhaps Peter’s house) in Capernaum (Mark 2:1). There, Jesus was teaching (Luke 5:17), speaking the word to them (Mark 2:2). So many were gathered in the house and outside it, that there was no more room, not even by the door (Mark 2:2).
Matthew 9:2 says, “Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed.” Mark informs us that the “they” was four men (Mark 2:3), and that “when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying.” (Mark 2:4). With the words “Then behold,” Matthew captures the surprise that must have overcome those in the house listening to Jesus teach when these men dug through the roof and lowered their friend right in front of Jesus.
But Jesus does not seem concerned about the roof—what He notices is their faith. Matthew says, “When Jesus saw their faith…”—that is, the faith of the paralytic and his friends who brought him to Jesus. These were not just faithful friends, they were friends who were full of faith—faith in Jesus. They had the strong conviction that Jesus could heal their friend. Jesus perceived the faith of the paralytic and his friends.
How did Jesus respond to their faith? He spoke to the man saying, “Son, be of good cheer …” (Matt. 9:2). Jesus calls him “Son” which is the Greek teknon, a word which speaks not only of Jesus’ authority (as of a parent to a child) but especially of His tenderness towards the paralyzed man.[5] Jesus wants this young man to be encouraged, not afraid or distressed. When you’re paralyzed and lying on a mat and you’ve been brought to a healer, and he tells you to be of good cheer, you know that something good is coming. And you would probably expect that something good to be a healing.
Then Jesus said something that no one expected. He confidently and tenderly said to this poor, helpless, paralyzed man, “… your sins are forgiven you.” To forgive means to let go, send away, or remove. Forgiveness is not just diminishing the guilt of sin but removing it completely.
During Jesus’ day, it was common thought, that if you had a sickness or a disease, you had a double problem—sickness and sin. Even as far back as the Book of Job, it is obvious that people equated suffering with sinfulness. Job’s friends thought he was suffering because of some secret sin. They didn’t believe that the righteous would suffer. Eliphaz told Job, “Remember now, who ever perished being innocent? Or where were the upright ever cut off? Even as I have seen, Those who plow iniquity And sow trouble reap the same.” (Job 4:7-8). Eliphaz thought that pain and wounds were a direct punishment for a person’s sin. This mindset had carried into the New Testament. In John 9 Jesus’ disciples question Him about a man born blind saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2). Later, Jesus healed the blind man, and the Pharisees got angry, because he defended Jesus. So, they say to the formerly blind man (John 9:34), “You were completely born in sins, and are you teaching us?” And they cast him out.
Does that mean the man was paralyzed because he had sinned? In Matthew 8, we saw in our lesson about the leper that sickness and sin are connected in this world, but not always directly. Sickness or disease is a general result of sin in the world. That’s why we see a connection between healing and forgiveness in such passages as Psalm 103: “Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases.” (Psalm 103:2-3). Matthew showed a connection between healing and forgiveness in Matthew 8:17 when he quoted Isaiah 53:4, “He Himself took our infirmities And bore our sicknesses.” We saw that sickness or disease are a general result of living in a sinful world, but we cannot necessarily blame a specific sickness or disease on a specific sin. Jesus provides for healing through His atonement, but not always in this life. Jesus’ healings were a foretaste of the ultimate healing that believers will have in the day of resurrection.
Was the man’s physical condition the result of his sin? We do not know. But we do know that Jesus dealt with the sin problem first, for this is always the greatest need.[6] Jesus knew what this man needed most. From this very passage, we see that Jesus knows the thoughts of those around Him—He knew what the scribes were thinking (Matt. 9:4). And I’m sure He also knew the thoughts of the paralyzed man. Deep down in his soul, forgiveness of sins was what he needed most of all. And Jesus declared his sins forgiven.
Forgiveness of sins is the greatest need for every person. In a lot of ways, this poor man’s physical condition is a picture of our spiritual condition. We are helpless. We can’t heal ourselves. We are completely at the mercy of God who alone can forgive our sins. Paul describes our sin-sick condition in Romans 5:6: “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” The term “without strength” means feeble, helpless, or powerless. The whole reason Christ died for our sins is because we were powerless to save ourselves.
No one but Jesus and the man on the bed himself could have known what happened in his heart when he heard Jesus speak those words and the burden of his debt to God rolled away! I’m sure that had something to do with Jesus’ words, “Son, be of good cheer . . .” Jesus encouraged this man that his fears were gone because his sins were forgiven. I love the way that Keith Getty writes about Christ redeeming us from our sin in the hymn “In Christ Alone”:
No guilt in life, no fear in death, this is the power of Christ in me.
From life’s first cry to final breathe, Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man, can ever pluck me from His hand.
‘Til He returns, or calls me home, here in the power of Christ, I’ll stand.
This is what Matthew is showing us. Jesus performed the miracle of forgiveness of sins and the man’s guilt and fear were removed.
But next, we see that not everyone was cheerful about this. In fact, Jesus’ words sent some people through the roof in the other direction! So, next, we see that . . .
2. Jesus defends His authority to forgive sins (Matthew 9:3-5)
Matthew tells us (Matt. 9:3), “And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, “This man blasphemes!” The Gospel of Mark explains their concern when it has them saying, “Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mark 2:7).
Think about who it was that said this. In his Gospel, Luke tells us who these critics were, writing, “Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem.” (Luke 5:17). These were men who came from all over the region to investigate Jesus. They were scribes, teachers of the law of God in the Old Testament scriptures. They were reasoning within themselves that no one but God can forgive the sins that are committed against God. It would be blasphemous for a mere man to presume to do what God alone had the right to do. Therefore, they conclude that what Jesus said was horribly blasphemous!
They were correct in thinking that only God could forgive sin. On this, the scripture is clear. In Isaiah 43:25, the Lord God says, “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins.” And again in Isaiah 44:22, “I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, And like a cloud, your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.” It is against God that men commit sin (Psalm 51:4). We can only forgive people for what they have done against us. We cannot forgive people for what they have done against others, and we certainly cannot forgive people for what they have done against God. Only God can forgive sin. They had this right.
Their error was in their belief that Jesus was a mere man. It was the discernment of the Scribes that was lacking. The Son of God incarnate was in front of them, and they couldn’t see Him. Jesus had been proving over and over that He was not just a mere man. His works had been testifying that He had authority to heal diseases and infirmities. He had authority over the wind and the waves. Even the evil spirits obeyed His command, crying out and calling Him “Son of God”. His whole life, as we’ve been studying it together from Matthew, has been showing that Jesus was not just a mere man, but is the Son of God in human flesh.
So, Jesus sets out to defend His authority to forgive sin. Notice again, that Jesus knows their thoughts (Matt. 9:4), “But Jesus, knowing their thoughts…” Jesus had seen the faith of the paralytic and his friends, now He saw the thoughts of these scribes. And notice how Jesus characterized their thoughts. He said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” They thought that their thoughts of Him were reasonable. But He said that they were “evil” thoughts. They were thoughts of sinful unbelief. He had been showing them who He was, but they still wouldn’t believe. This was the beginning of the religious leaders’ opposition to Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. Next, in Matthew 9 we will see them grumble that Jesus associates with sinners (Matt. 9:11) and later they say, “He casts out demons by the ruler of the demons.” (Matt. 9:34). What they were thinking was untrue, unbelieving, and blind to what was being revealed before their eyes.[7] Either Jesus was a blasphemer assuming to Himself the right to forgive sin, or He was God. But they refused to entertain that possibility for a moment, even though no other man had ever spoken as He spoke or performed miracles as He did.[8] It was not Jesus who blasphemed, it was the scribes who blasphemed by having evil thoughts toward the Son of God.
Jesus turned to those who had evil thoughts about Him and said, “For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’?” (Matt. 9:5). Jesus may have paused for a moment to let that question sink in. Notice He doesn’t ask them which is easier to do, rather, which is easier to say. Both of them are equally impossible for men to do.
But which is easier to say? To be honest, it’s a very easy thing to simply ‘say’ the words, “Your sins are forgiven you.” Anyone in this room could say those words. But there would be no way for others to know if we actually could forgive sins. We can’t look into someone’s heart and mind to see if they are forgiven. No one would be able to tell if the debt of sin had been removed. Even if the person felt relief from the feeling of guilt, who is to say that the real guilt of their sin against God was removed? Who could prove that the sin debt they owed God had been canceled? To say, “Your sins are forgiven you,” would be a very easy thing to say but a very hard thing for others to verify.
But if someone were to tell the man to get up and walk away; now, that’s not such an easy thing to say because it could be immediately proven whether or not it was true. All that would need to happen to prove it would be that he got up and walked home! To order him to get up, then, is not such an easy thing to say because none of us can make it happen. It is humanly impossible.
Now think about what we’ve seen so far. We’ve seen that Jesus has forgiven sins and that the scribes challenged His authority to forgive sin. This leads us to our third point; that . . .
3. Jesus demonstrates His authority to forgive sins (Matt. 9:6-8)
So, Jesus and the teachers of the law are at a standstill. How do we know if Jesus actually forgave this man’s sins? How could anyone know? There is nothing visible about forgiveness. It is an act that takes place in the spiritual realm. Anyone can say, “Your sins are forgiven.” But how do you know if they really have the authority to forgive?
So how do we know? Jesus demonstrated His authority to forgive by healing the paralytic. Look at what Jesus does. He speaks to the doubting scribes and says (Matt. 9:6), “But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins.” This is the second time in the gospel of Matthew that Jesus refers to Himself as the Son of Man. The first time was back in Matthew 8:20. Remember we learned then that the Son of Man not only refers to Jesus’ humanity but also His deity. It is the title given to the divine figure in Daniel 7 who is given an eternal kingdom and who is worshipped by all. Jesus began his ministry preaching that the kingdom of God was near, and He demonstrated that He was bringing the kingdom through His miracles.
The word, “power” in Matthew 9:6 (ἐξουσια, exousia) may mean either the ability and strength one has or the authority one holds. Jesus is claiming both. He has the ability to forgive sin and the authority to forgive sin. Then, turning to the man on the bed, “He said to the paralytic, ‘Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.’”
When Jesus commands the paralytic to rise, in front of everyone, salvation hangs in the balance. If the man rises, Jesus is Lord and has the power to forgive sins. If not, Jesus is a blasphemer and deserves the full punishment of the law.[9] Matthew doesn’t leave us in suspense. He tells us (Matt. 9:7), “And he arose and departed to his house.“
What does this mean? Jesus has the authority to forgive sins! He offered unmistakable proof that He forgives sin. Jesus is Lord. He is Immanuel, God with us (Matt. 1:23). This is why He was given the name Jesus, “for He will save His people from their sins.” (Matt. 1:21).
What that means for us, is that when we come to Jesus in true repentance and faith, then we can be confident that our sins are indeed forgiven. Paul writes in Colossians 2, “And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” (Col. 2:13-14). And in Ephesians 1:7 he writes, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.”
Jesus died on the cross for our sins. Through His death and resurrection, He has canceled our debt. He has removed our condemnation. All our sin was nailed to the cross as Jesus died. He has the power and authority to forgive.
And notice the reaction of the people who saw this. Matthew tells us (Matt. 9:8), “Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men.” The word that Matthew uses to describe their reaction isn’t one that simply describes a mild amazement at what occurred. It’s one that means that they were “terrified” or “frightened”. They became afraid just as the disciples in the boat were afraid when He commanded the winds and the sea and just as the people of the Gergesenes were afraid when He commanded the evil spirits to be cast out of the two men. The people who saw the paralyzed man get up were moved with a sense of holy fear because they knew that they were in the presence of One who possessed divine authority, and who exercised the right to do what only God can do—to forgive sins.
And they also glorified God. But you’ll notice that their reaction still came up somewhat short. They glorified God for giving such power “to men“. It may be that they had a reverential fear of what they saw in Jesus but they still seemed to think of Him as a great man among men. They didn’t yet understand, it would seem, that He forgave sins committed against God because He was, in fact, the Son of God in human flesh.
Those of us who know the truth that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the World—we should worship Him, giving glory to God. Worship Him for the forgiveness He provides through His death and resurrection. We couldn’t earn forgiveness. We couldn’t afford to pay our sin debt. We didn’t deserve to be forgiven. We could never perfectly live up to it. But praise be to Jesus—He has given it to us and we will never be without it.
Those of us who are in Christ have not only been forgiven, we have also been given the privilege of announcing Christ’s forgiveness to others. The Risen Lord Jesus breathed on His disciples and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20:22-23). As His church, we proclaim to all who repent and believe in Jesus that their sins are forgiven through His blood shed on the cross.
This morning, let me offer this forgiveness of sins to you. The Son of God became a man in Jesus Christ (John 1:14). He lived a perfectly sinless life (Heb. 4:15). He then was crucified for sins He did not commit (1 Pet. 3:18). And His blood became an acceptable offering to God on behalf of all who will trust in Christ (Heb. 9:12). God raised Him from the dead for your justification (Rom. 4:25). He lives today at the right hand of the Father in Heaven to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him (Heb. 7:25). If you will repent of your sin, and believe in Jesus Christ, He will forgive you of all your sin and make you righteous before God (Acts 2:28; 3:19). God’s Spirit is calling you to embrace Jesus Christ as the Son of God who alone can forgive you of your sins. If you have not done that, do it today. Do it now. Who knows but this may be the last time you will hear the gospel?
This morning, before we come to the Lord’s Table, let me also say that if you have turned from your sin, and trusted in Christ, there is no reason for you to live in fear or guilt anymore. We “have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 2:1-2). “For [God] made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus says to you what He said to the paralytic, “Be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.”
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[1] James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of Matthew (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2001), 146.
[2] John MacArthur, Jesus’ Power Over Sin, https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/2262/jesus-power-over-sin
[3] Allen Ross, 12. The Authority To Forgive Sins (Matthew 9:1-8). https://bible.org/seriespage/12-authority-forgive-sins-matthew-91-8#P35_10367
[4] Michael Green, The Message of Matthew: The Kingdom of Heaven, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001), 122.
[5] Bruce Hurt, Matthew 9 Commentary. https://www.preceptaustin.org/matthew-9-commentary#9:2
[6] Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 34–35.
[7] D. A. Carson, “Matthew,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), 222.
[8] John Phillips, Exploring the Gospel of Matthew: An Expository Commentary, The John Phillips Commentary Series (Kregel Publications; WORDsearch, 2014), Mt 9:4b–5.
[9] Daniel M. Doriani, Matthew & 2, ed. Richard D. Phillips, Philip Graham Ryken, and Daniel M. Doriani, vol. 1, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2008), 373.
