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NASB | Luke 5:23 "Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins have been forgiven you,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Luke 5:23 "Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? |
Bible Question: What does Jesus mean in this verse? I'm not quite sure why He says this or what He is trying to convey. |
Bible Answer: I've read the exchanges below. Great stuff. It's what SBF is for. The Temple and it's priests were the OT channels of forgiveness. Jesus pointedly upends this by offering himself as this channel under his divine authority. His NT mission, the fulfillment of God's OT promise, was the forgiveness of sins: "Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." (Jer 31:31-34 ESV) In addition, it seems that because disease was associated with sin, Jesus used this opportunity, this miracle, to link his power to heal the body with his divine power to heal the soul. The Pharisees would have seen this as omninous blasphemy. These verses in conjunction with, "When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men." (Mat 9:8 ESV) are suitable to deploy against Jehovah's witnesses, with the leading question, "Can a man forgive sins?" |