Portraits of Jesus: The One Who Has Authority to Forgive Sins

Our Scripture lesson this morning is taken from Luke 5:12-26:

Luke 5:12–26 ESV

While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him. And he charged him to tell no one, but “go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray. On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal. And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, “Why do you question in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed—“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.” And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God. And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen extraordinary things today.”

May God bless this the reading of His holy and infallible Word.

Introduction:

Starting with our text today, Luke will be providing us with five portraits of Jesus, not in pictures, statues or motion pictures, but in words. The reason I chose the Second Commandment to be the focus of our prayer of confession this morning is to draw your attention to the inadequacy of images.

The number one reason people give for the use of images in the church is for educational purposes. It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. I will not dispute that claim, but what I will say is what Scripture says: “When it comes to God, that word is idolatrous!” In other words, it is the wrong word—it is a deceptive word!

The Problem with Images

The problem of images is this: we always make images of God in our own likeness.

This is not hard to illustrate, doing an internet search for pictures of Jesus. What you will discover is that each culture makes their image of Jesus conform to their own culture. A European Jesus looks like an European! An African Jesus looks like an African! An Asian Jesus looks like an Asian! The same can be said of Jesus “movies”.

While it is true that Jesus perfectly shares in our humanity, He also perfectly shares in the Father’s and the Holy Spirit’s divinity. He is fully God and fully man. This is a truth that cannot be revealed to us in a picture, but only by the Holy Spirit through the Word. This is why in Luke’s gospel...

The Holy Spirit Provides Us With Five Infallible Portraits of Jesus

In Luke’s gospel, there is a series of five conflicts Jesus has with the Pharisees. In these conflicts we see who Jesus truly is. These conflicts arise, because Jesus exposes the idolatry of the Pharisees.

Jesus Challenges False Images

The Pharisees represent the most devout and conservative movement within Judaism at the time of Jesus; but what they were “conserving” was not the true religion of Israel, but an idolatrous version of it.

The False Images of the Pharisees

Their Idolatry manifested itself in many ways, but let us limit ourselves to the idolatrous understanding of who the Messiah was to be. Like most Jews at the time, they understood the Messiah to be primarily a political figure who would free them from the Romans and establish Israel as the preeminent nation on earth. While the OT Scripture most certainly teaches that the Messiah will reign over all the earth; it also teaches us much more about the Messiah and His work. Most notable, the totally ignored those texts which speak of the Messiah being a Suffering Servant who would die for the sins, not only of the Jews, but elect of every nation!

This was the issue at hand in our text today:

Luke 5:21 ESV

And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

The Pharisees were not the only ones who make false images of Jesus, we do as well:

Our False Images

In the late nineteenth-century, Jesus was made in the image of the Romantic Movement—Jesus was the one you met in the Garden to walk and talk with.

In the twentieth-century, Jesus was made into various forms. For some He was made into a Marxist revolutionary. Others conformed Him to consumerism. Still others to therapeutic deism.

In our own century, we have a “Gay Jesus”, a “Social Justice Jesus”, and a “Racist Jesus”.

I could go one, but I think you get the idea. As John Calvin says about this issue, the human heart is an idol factory!

This is why it is so important that we conform our image of Jesus to Scripture, and to Scripture alone! The portrait of Jesus we have in our text today is that He is the one who has authority to forgive sins.

Jesus is the One Who Has Authority to Forgive Sins

The Pharisees in our text were right about one thing, only God has the authority to forgive sins, what they got wrong is they saw Jesus as only a man.

Jesus is patient and kind to them, and to us as well. He truly wants us to see that He is both God and man. The does two things to help us understand this: He performs a miracle and He calls Himself “The Son of Man”

Jesus is “The Son of Man”, Who Appears “like a son of man”

As biblical scholars, the Pharisees would have immediately understood what Jesus meant by the title “the Son of Man”. He is referring to the enigmatic figure in Daniel 7:13-14:

Daniel 7:13–14 ESV

“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

Notice that Daniel saw someone “like a son of man”. The phrase “a son of man” is another way of saying human being. In the book of Ezekiel, for example, God constantly addresses Ezekiel as “a son of man”.

However, Daniel says he saw one “like a son of man”. In other words, by outward appearances, this figure is a human being, but He is something more—He is divine! We know He is divine because He come “with the clouds of heaven”. These are no ordinary clouds, these are multitudes of angels, who are so thick they appears as clouds! Moreover, this figure has “an everlasting dominion”.

It is interesting, that we now know from the Second Temple Judaism documents we have discovered that there were Jews who understood Daniel 7 correctly. They would speak of the “two Yahwehs”. What we know call the “Christian” interpretation of the OT, once was a Jewish interpretation of the OT! The reason that the Jewish interpretation of the OT is different today is because it came from those who rejected Jesus. All those Jewish in the first-century who and a correct interpretation of the OT, became Christians!

What we find Jesus doing in our text today is pulling back the curtain of His humanity to give us a peek at His divinity.

Jesus Pulls Back the Curtain of His Humanity

Jesus does this in two ways: First, most obviously, we have the miracle of healing; but secondly, He uses His divine omniscience to perceive the Pharisees thoughts. We already learned in Luke that Jesus “grew in knowledge and wisdom”. That is, just like you and I, Jesus limited Himself to what normal human beings can know. However, it was necessary for our salvation that Jesus reveal to us His divinity. When Paul says in his letter to the Philippians that Jesus “emptied Himself”, he did not mean for us to understand that Jesus for a time lost His divinity. Nor does it mean that this was a violation of His humiliation.

This is Not a Violation of His Humiliation

By humiliation, I am referring to Jesus taking on our flesh with all of it’s limitations. He had, as the author of Hebrews says, “be made like us in every way, save sin”. This is why we find Him so frequently in prayer. In His humiliation, Jesus depended upon prayer to have fellowship with the Father and Spirit, just as we do. Jesus did not normally use His divine omniscience, but in this case, it was necessary in order that we might have faith.

It is a Necessary Revelation, In Order That We Might Have Faith

It is vital for our spiritual well-being that we believe Jesus has the authority of forgive sins. This is not only true for the beginning of our faith journey, but along its entire course. In fact, it is more vital at the end of the course!

Here is why, as we grow in holiness, the more we offensive we understand unholiness it be. In John 16:8, Jesus teaches us that one of the things the Holy Spirit does is convict us of sin, righteousness and judgement. As counter intuitive as it may seem, the more we progress in holiness, the more we will feel our need for forgiveness. Next Sunday, when we look at the second portrait of Jesus, we will discover that the reason the Pharisees did not feel a need for forgiveness was not because they were so spiritually mature, but rather, because they were spiritually immature!

In our story today, I suspect that the paralytic man who was let down by his friends was hoping the first thing Jesus would have said to was, “Rise and walk”. I can also image that he and his friends were somewhat disappointed that Jesus said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”

Perhaps you are somewhat disappointed by today’s sermon. Perhaps you wanted to hear another word, other than the word that Jesus has the authority to forgive sins. Perhaps you are thinking, “I have heard this all before.”

Perhaps you have. I sincerely hope that you have, because this is the message we need to hear over and over again—Jesus has the authority to forgive sins! It does not matter whether or not your sin is small or great. It does not matter if your sin is widely known or know only to you. Whatever type of sin it is, Jesus has the authority to forgive it!

I realize we have already confessed our sin in this service, but right now as you to bow your heads, examine your live and for any sin the Holy Spirit convicts you of, ask Jesus to forgive it, because He has the authority to do so!