NO clearer proof could be given of the deity of our Lord than we find here in His attitude toward this palsied man. His critics were right when they exclaimed, “Who can forgive sins but God only!” What they did not realize was that God incarnate was in their midst. He who had become in grace the Son of Man had all the divine prerogatives still. He had authority, even while sojourning on earth, to forgive sins.
Some time ago a well-known liberal preacher, who denies the Godhead of the Son, said to me, “I am not afraid of Jesus Christ. I can trust Him to deal faithfully with my case.” I replied, “Why should you fear Him? Why do you not say, ‘I am not afraid of Buddha, or of Mohammed?’ If Jesus is only a man, even though the best of men, you do not have to stand before Him for judgment. It is to God all men must give account.”
We may not climb the heavenly steeps
To bring the Lord Christ down;
In vain we search the lowest deeps,
For Him no depths can drown.
But warm, sweet, tender, even yet,
A present help is He;
And faith has still its Olivet,
And love its Galilee.
The healing of the seamless dress
Is by our beds of pain;
We touch Him in life’s throng and press,
And we are whole again.”
J. C. Whittier.