From the Pastor’s Study

By Rev. Ken Schurb, Zion Lutheran Church

“Who can forgive sins but God?”

That is a good question. This query arose during the three-year ministry of Jesus Christ.

Four men had a sick friend. Their friend was paralyzed, but they had heard about a preacher and healer named Jesus of Nazareth, and they wanted Him to help their friend. Despite a crowd that filled the house where Jesus was teaching, these men did not give up. They made a hole in the roof and through it lowered their friend down on his bed, right in front of Jesus. Jesus took one look at the paralytic and said, “Your sins are forgiven.”

Some people there started thinking, “Who can forgive sins but God?” In the Old Testament, the psalmist had said to God, “Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight” (Psalm 51:4). Whoever else any of us has wronged, ultimately all of our sin is against God. So who else, ultimately, can forgive? Many of those sitting and watching Jesus were convinced that He was nothing but an imposter dispensing fake forgiveness.

Perceiving their thoughts, Jesus asked, “Which is easier to say: ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or “Get up and walk’?” It requires about as much effort to say the one sentence as the other. If you are an imposter, though, you will find it much easier to go around telling people that their sins are forgiven. If you tell paralytics to walk, and they cannot, you will be exposed as a fraud.

To show His very real authority on earth to forgive sins, Jesus next told the paralytic to get up and walk – which is exactly what the man did. No fake! Just so, it had been no fake a moment earlier when Jesus told the man that his sins were forgiven. Unlike getting up and walking, no one could see the forgiveness at the time. Still, the man’s sins truly were forgiven. Jesus is God, and He forgave the man’s sins. (See Mark 2:1-12.)

In one way, however, Jesus Himself would find it not easier but harder to say, “Your sins are forgiven.” For He knew He was going to pay for that forgiveness with His suffering and death on the cross. Then He would rise from the dead in victory.

The risen Christ gave His Church the word of forgiveness to proclaim and pronounce. “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20:23). Sins are really forgiven when this word of forgiveness is pronounced on Christ’s authority. Yes, the sins of people in this world are forgiven even in heaven before God Himself, for this forgiveness is rooted in the sacrificial death of Christ. It is as sure as His resurrection.

Do you have sins for which you need forgiveness?