03/21/2022 – Day 022 – Matthew – Chapters 8 thru 10 / Am I walking on thin ice?; for, I am taking issue with John Gill’s commentary in 9: 5.
Jesus Heals the Paraylytic: 9:1 – 9:8 :
So before Jesus heals the paralytic: Jesus asks in 9:5: “Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?
Here is John Gill’s take on Jesus’ question:
https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/gills-exposition-of-the-bible/matthew-9-5.html
First as God, Jesus can obviously accomplish both. Of course, what he says , he can and will do, for God cannot lie. But I maintain it is easier to say “Get up and walk” with a healing miracle performed. To say: “Your sins are forgiven” , Jesus must personally suffer and die on the cross. God cannot forgive him of his sin without the cross, for God is holy ,and as God, He cannot go against His own nature. And God cannot live with unredeemed sin. So, he had to go to the cross once he said, “your sins are forgiven”.
For a man, it would be easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven”. A man can and does lie, so what evidence is there to prove the contrary, that his sins aren’t forgiven by God? But to say : “Get up and walk”, the man is not capable of that. He can’t fake it, for that would require a man faking “paralytic” and these people would know that it was a farce. So, Jesus is making his case from his audience’s incorrect perspective, seeing Him as an imperfect man as they are , not as God. He now leaves it to his audience to recognize the truth that in fact, He is all-sovereign God!
Thoughts? Am I on thin ice coming up with a different answer than John Gill?