No mere man can forgive sin. Again and again the Scriptures teach us that forgiveness is with God that he may be feared.
In announcing the man’s sins forgiven, Jesus clearly claimed the prerogative, power and authority, which belong to God.
He claimed this equality by declaring himself to be the Son of God. To the Jews, “Son of God” was equivalent to “God the Son.” It meant to them, the moment he styled himself by that name, an unqualified claim to essential equality with the Father. Because of this they raged against him and would have killed him, crying out that he had made himself equal with God.
He made this claim in terms which admit of no misunderstanding. He said:
“I and my Father are one.”
When Philip said, “Shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us,” he answered and said:
“Hast thou been with me so long time and hast thou not known me, Philip? From henceforth ye know him and have seen him.”
To Philip he had also said:
“I am the way and the truth and the life—no man cometh unto the Father but by me.”
By this statement he deliberately shut out all other men as the ground and means of approach to God. He declares that God, the Father, can be found in and through him alone; that he is the supreme way, the very truth and the very life; not that he knows some truth and has a measure of life in common with men, but that he is the truth—the absolute life. Such attitude, such claimed rights, privileges and powers, belong alone to God.