Can Jesus really forgive sin? S31e113 Matt9:1

Today Jesus will claim something critical to YOU.

Can Jesus really forgive sin?

He says He has authority to forgive sins.  If not, we are all in big trouble.  

This should blow the mind of every human: That God can make our sins disappear forever.  It is done with great cost, but that is for another day.

Does He REALLY have authority to do this?  Listen and find out. 

Subscribe, and Share and repost. 

https://youtu.be/ACrHuxD2yio

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

My brothers and sisters, can Jesus really forgive sins? So Jesus in today's story is going to claim something absolutely critical, and it's critical to you and me too. He says that he is the authority to forgive sins. So our question is: can he really do this? And can sins even be forgiven? And is he the one to do it? So to forgive something is to change history. It's to change something that happens in the past. Now, God, like us, could remember sins forever. And if so, we'd be toast. If God was like us, what hope would we have? Either God forgives sins or he does not. Listen to the story. This is from Matthew chapter 9. And getting into a boat, he crossed over the Sea of Galilee, crossed over and came to his own city. So that he's back in Capernaum, his his uh place where he sets up shop for his ministry life. Verse 2. And behold, some people brought him a paralytic lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Take heart, my son. Here it is, your sins are forgiven. And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, This man, Jesus, is blaspheming. But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier to say, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Rise and walk. And then here, verse 6, but that you may know the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. Then he said to the paralytic, Rise, pick up Hold on a second. Rise, pick up your bed and go home. And he rose and went home. And when the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God who had given such authority to men. So our big question today is what does God have authority over? Verse 6, but you that but that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. So in this in this little series here, recently in Matthew chapter 8, he's had power over leprosy and other illnesses, and about who's in his kingdom and the storm, the wind, the wave, and the seas, and then yesterday a demon. But today, either God forgives sins or not. Is it under God's authority? That's the big question. Which is greater, making paralysis go away, as if it never happened, or making sin go away, as if it never happened. Now, I want to want you to capture some of the beauty of scripture. There's forgiveness is described in four beautiful ways. Uh as far as the east is from the west, so does he remove our transgressions from us. That's beautiful. Then Isaiah 38, for you have cast all my sins behind your back. Micah 7.19. He will have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities underfoot, just stomp them into the ground. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. So these are poetic ways of saying, pick the one you you like the best, out of your sight forever, far as the east is from the west, behind your back, into the depths of the sea, trample them underfoot. So either God forgives sin or not. Now consider this: if he does not, if he does not, we all stand before him with every word, every thought, every action of sin upon our own shoulders, like a big Santa bag of sin. And someone has to endure the consequences for those sins, because God is God is just. Without forgiveness, the responsible party is you. You bear the consequences of a God who will be just, who will make all things right, which will mean, number one, eternal punishment, never forgetting your sin, never stop punishing your sin, and never stop separating you from God. Now, fortunately, he's made a way that his justice can be satisfied and that sins can be forgiven, and you could stand before him righteous by the righteousness of Christ. So it's as if you stand before him and he says, Well, I don't sins, I don't even know what you're talking about. That is, we could be positionally pure, righteous, unblemished. And how? Well, God figured it out, and it's because Jesus takes the sins upon himself, and because he makes them disappear as far as the East is from the West. So does Jesus have the authority to deal with sin as he sees fit? Is this in his bailiwick, his acre of responsibility? Yes, because if not, who else? We can't do it. No other spiritual being that we know of has paid for the sin. So we have to resolve this debt of sin. And the Lord is the first one to figure this out on how to pull this off. He says, I got an idea. Let's send Jesus, the perfect man, as a substitutionary opponent. But wait, he's got to live a perfect life, or the sacrifice will be insufficient. Check, okay, I got that. But wait, he has to bear a brutal death, the worst punishment ever, to bear our sins upon himself as he is unrighteously killed. Check, got that. Well, now there's step three, and that is people have to understand that this is a free gift of God that he offers everybody. Receive him, let him pay for your sins. Cash in the only get out of jail free card that ever actually worked. So people have to believe and receive. And they do it by faith. Now he has friends here which have faith. Some people brought him a paralytic lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, maybe that's the paralytic helpers, plus the paralytic. Take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven. So let's just get you to Jesus, they say, He's gonna fix this. And this is what we call faith. Faith is trusting in the person of God before you see the promises of God come true. So they were trusting that if they brought Jesus, Jesus was eventually going to heal him. Now they didn't expect this, this bonus that your sins are forgiven. This bust open all kinds of theology. So perhaps they did expect their friend to be physically in paralysis be healed. So what does Jesus have authority over? Leprosy, healings, who's in his kingdom, storms, winds, waves, and demons. And now we find that he has authority over spinal cords and sin. He makes sin go away. So if, ladies and gentlemen, you are a sinner, may I suggest having faith in Jesus? Thanks for listening.