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man sick of the palsy at Capernaum. When the people brought the sick man to
the Lord Jesus Christ, instead of healing him at once ' Jesus,l
seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins are forgiven.
But there were certain of the scribes sitting there and reasoning in their
hearts, Why doth this man thus speak? he blasphemeth: who can forgive sins but
one, even God?' It is clear that they quite rightly judged that the Lord Jesus
Christ had laid claim to do what none but God could do. As they did not believe
in Him, these leaders of the Jews considered this claim blasphemous. But the
Lord Jesus proved that He had the right to forgive sins, and that His claim was
divinely sanctioned, by proceeding to work a miracle of healing. Palsy is a
disease which man cannot even now cure by any skill, science, or remedy ; but
Christ cured it completely by a single utterance, thereby showing that He
possessed more than human power to heal. He said: 'But 2 that ye may
know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins (he saith to the
sick of the palsy), I say unto thee, Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thy
house. And he arose, and straightway took up the bed, and went forth before them
all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw
it on this fashion.' On this occasion Christ's
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PROOF OF THE DEITY OF CHRIST
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exercise of divine power to heal showed that He was speaking no blasphemy but
the simple truth by claiming to exercise the divine attribute of forgiving sins.
Moreover, by calling Himself the 'Son of man' He once more laid claim to a high
position, higher than that of any prophet or apostle for the title is taken from
the Book of Daniel. There the prophet tells us his vision of the establishment
of God's kingdom upon earth in these words: 'I 1 saw in the night
visions, and, behold, there came with the clouds of heaven one like unto a son
of man, and he came even to the ancient of days, and they brought him near
before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all
the peoples, nations and languages should serve him; his dominion is an
everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which
shall not be destroyed.'
(2) In St. John's Gospel especially we are given many of the words which
Christ uttered to His disciples. These are full of such claims. One example of
this is His saying: 'I 2 am the way, the truth and the life: no one
cometh unto the Father but by me.' Here He shows that there is a distinction of
some kind between Himself and the Father, yet He asserts that only through Him
can any one come to the knowledge of God the
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