The God-Man 71 4. Jesus asserted His full possession of the power to for- give sins. The moral instincts of the Jews were right when they put the question, “Who can forgive sins but God only?” (Mark 2:7.) We do not wonder that, with their ideas of Christ, they asked in amazement, “Who is this that forgiveth sins also ?” (Luke 7 :49), or that they exclaimed, in reference to such a claim, from such a quarter, “This man blasphemeth” (Matt. 9:3). And yet Christ declared most emphatically, on more than one occasion, His possession of this divine prerogative, and healed the palsied man in professed attestation of the fact (Luke 5 :24.) Those who would eliminate the miraculous element from the. second narrative altogether, must admit that Matthew, Mark, and Luke all relate most circumstantially that Jesus did at least profess to work a miracle in support of His claim to possess power to forgive sins. If He wrought the miracle, His claim is established; and if He did not work it, but cheated the people, then away with Him forever as an ar- rant impostor! But if He wrought it, and proved His claim, He must be equal with His Father; for the Jews were right, and no one “can forgive sins but God only.” Could a mere man cancel with a word the sin of a creature against his Maker ? The very thought is a blasphemy. 5. Jesus claimed the power to raise His own body from the grave, to quicken the souls of men into spiritual life, and to raise all the dead at the last great day. Jesus likened His body to a temple which the Jews should destroy, and which He would raise up again in three days. (John 2:19-21.) He affirmed that He had power to lay down His life, and power to take it up again. (John 10:18.) He decleared that the spiritually dead— for the physical resurrection is spoken of afterward as a distinct topic—sh ould hear His voice and live' (John 5 :25.) And then He tells us not to wonder at this, for the day is coming when, by His omnific fiat, all the generations of the dead “shall come forth; they that have done good, unto
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