'Who Is This Fellow?' - Tuesday August 19, 2014
But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...Then he said to the paralytic, "Get up, take your mat and go home." Matthew 9:6
When we sin, we've really offended God. We've sinned against a holy, righteous God. We can forgive the offense of a sin against ourselves, but only God can wipe away the eternal consequence of the sin. In today's verse we see Jesus doing just that.
You don't see anyone else in the New Testament forgiving sin, and it was a big deal that Jesus forgave sins: "The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, 'Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?'" (Luke 5:21 NIV).
Who is this guy? We saw Him doing miracles, now He is forgiving sins! The answer: Jesus is God in the flesh!
Jesus said, "I AM God." That makes Christianity unique! This separates Jesus from all other religious leaders. Most leaders of cults or world religions don't claim to be God. They claim to be from God or to know how to get to God.
I like this quote: "Buddha never claimed to be God. Moses never claimed to be Jehovah. Mohammed never claimed to be Allah. Yet Jesus Christ claimed to be the true and living God. Buddha simply said, 'I am a teacher in search of the truth.' Jesus said, 'I am the Truth.' Confucius said, 'I never claimed to be holy.' Jesus said, 'Who convicts me of sin?' Mohammed said, 'Unless God throws his cloak of mercy over me, I have no hope.' Jesus said, 'Unless you believe in me, you will die in your sins'" (source unknown).
Jesus was fully human and fully God.
Submitted by:
Bill Young
Faithwalkers West 2013
Jesus is God,
One-Year Reading Plan:
Esther 4:1-7:10
1 Corinthians 12:1-26
Psalms 36:1-12
Proverbs 21:21-22
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SCRIPTURE REFERENCB-ES: Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible B) The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are from the Holy, Bible, New International Version, copyright B) 1973, 1978, 1984 by InternaB-tional Bible Society; (NKJV) are from New King James Version B) 1982 by Thomas Nelson; (NLT) are from the New Living Translation, B) 1996, Tyndale House Publishers; (ESV) are from English Standard VersionB., B) 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers; (TM) are from The Message B) 1993 by NavPress Publishers.