Chapter # 2 Paragraph # 1 Study # 4
June 11, 2019
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(080)
1901 ASV
5 And Jesus seeing their faith saith unto the sick of the palsy,
Son, thy sins are forgiven.
6 But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts,
7 Why doth this man thus speak? he blasphemeth: who can forgive sins but one, [
even] God?
8 And straightway Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, saith unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts?
9 Which is easier, to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins are forgiven; or to say, Arise, and take up thy
bed, and walk?
10 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath authority on earth to forgive sins (he saith to the sick of the palsy),
11 I say unto thee, Arise, take up thy
bed, and go unto thy house.
12 And he arose, and straightway took up the
bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion.
- I. The "Divine" Side of Mark's Presentation of the "Grace" of God.
- A. The focus of the "Grace".
- 1. It has to do with the "healing" of the relational rupture that exists between The God and those who are His personal, human creatures.
- a. Hebrews 2:16-17 is fairly clear that Jesus did not "...take on [Strong's says, 'to take on for help'] ...angels..." in respect to the issues of "...reconciliation..." in view of the rupture that "sins" had caused. This means that we have no reason to believe that the angels were ever offered "forgiveness of sins"; rather, 2 Peter 2:4 indicates that He refused to "spare" them.
- b. This "relational rupture" had already been generated in the creation of God by Lucifer (Isaiah 14), and was made evident in Genesis 3 by the coming of a deceptive "tempter" into the Garden of Eden to bring humanity down into the chaos of loveless disbelief and overt rebellion against known revelation (1 Timothy 2:14). Thus, the relational rupture was generated in the human part of God's creation and "reconciliation" was established as the goal of God to destroy the efforts of Lucifer to take over the Kingdom of God.
- 2. It has also to do with the major "point" of such "healing": the provision of Eternal Life by Grace for "sinners".
- a. This "point" is consumed by the reality that such "Life" is by means of the "knowledge of God", according to Jesus' own "methodological definition" of "Eternal Life" in John 17:3.
- b. For "Life" to be experienced "across the board" without pre-set boundaries, God must be known.
- 1) This "knowability" is "bounded" by the realities of Infinity's inability to "fully inform" finitude.
- 2) But, the key word here is "fully". Eternal Life is made possible by the fact that God has revealed some things about each of the major categories of His "glory", even though He cannot "fully" reveal all things within each of those categories simply because He is infinite and man is not and never will be.
- a) This possibility is not "infinite", but it is real: Eternal Life is infinitely beyond our capacities to "fully" experience, but it is a real experience to some degree even to the finite.
- b) Thus, we are capable of a "degree" of the experience of Eternal Life.
- 3) Thus, the revelation of "Grace" was essential to "Life"; a characteristic of the "glory" of God to which the creation had not been exposed until after man's "fall".
- 3. And, for this provision of Eternal Life by the knowledge of "Grace", "reconciliation" must be provided by "Grace".
- a. This means, as a bottom line reality, that the "forgiver" absorbs all of the losses imposed on the relationship by "sins".
- b. This also, however, means that the "forgiven" has "repented": the significance of which is that God has been accepted into the "relationship" as both "Forgiver" and "Empowerer".
- 1) Forgiveness is not a provision intended to allow a person to "sin" and then escape the consequences.
- 2) Forgiveness by "Grace" is free to the "forgiven" on the front end of the transaction, but brings "obligation" with it (Matthew 18:21-35). "Grace" imparted by God brings "power" into the mix so that the "repentance" is not just "words" and the "sin" is not seen as something that can be pursued over and over with "repentance" afterward providing escape from the consequences.
- a) This is not a return to legalism (legalism is not the presence of obligation) because the promise of God is of "harmonious union with God" so that His Life can flow into the repentant with the "power of reconciliation".
- b) "Grace" is not, fundamentally, "forgiveness"; it is, fundamentally, "provision" so that the obligation is met by the power of God in the "forgiven".
- B. The key methodological provision of "Grace" is "the forgiveness of sins" so that "reconciliation" can be accomplished by "faith" (the root of all genuine relationships).
- 1. Thus, we must understand what "forgiveness of sins" means.
- 2. Our understanding must be the result of our consideration of Mark's Gospel since that is where we find ourselves being addressed for our understanding.
- a. Mark began his Gospel with a quotation of a major thesis of Isaiah and Malachi that, in summary, means that "preparing the way" for the coming of the Christ by calling for a "preparation" of "the way of the Lord" and a making of "His paths straight."
- b. That he immediately pointed to John's "baptism" in the wilderness with its "message" that repentance would result in the "forgiveness of sins" indicates the potent link between getting the people "prepared" for the coming of Jesus Christ and the concept of "forgiveness of sins".
- c. Then, he moved into his record of the coming of Jesus as the "Mighty One" with a message that the kingdom of God is at hand so that it was crucial that people "repent" and "believe". In this way, both John and Jesus indicate that "repentance" and "faith" are the crucial elements of "relationship" that makes "forgiveness of sins" a kind of absolute bottom line.
- 1) That "the Kingdom of God" was "at hand" inexorably establishes the link between "forgiveness of sins" and "participation in the Kingdom of God".
- 2) That it is "forgiveness of sins" that makes participation possible inexorably makes the issue "relational harmony between God and those 'forgiven'". In other words, there is no suitable alternative objective for "forgiveness"; all who are "forgiven" are "forgiven" for only one reason: to enter into a personal, interactive, relationship with God. We are not "forgiven" so that we may go to heaven and escape judicial consequences for sins; we are not "forgiven" so that we may "live forever in a mansion just over the hilltop, or walk down streets of gold"; we are not "forgiven" so that we may enjoy the pleasures of joy forever; we are "forgiven" so that we may "Live" in a relationally harmonious unity with God in His presence.
- d. Having laid this foundation, Mark proceeds to present Jesus' "message" as a "new doctrine" (1:27) that was not a part of the theology of the synagogue.
- 1) That it is "new" must mean that, though "forgiveness of sins" is not a "new" concept, the way it is obtained is "new".
- 2) And that it is rooted in a "new" methodology indicates that whatever "forgiveness" actually is, it is not something that can be acquired by the "inauthoritative" teaching of the leaders of the synagogues. This has to mean that the Jews did not know how to obtain the most critical issue of "relationship" until John came on the scene preaching a "message" of "forgiveness through repentance" and having the people's "confessing their sins" (1:5) as a critical element of that "forgiveness". This is in exact harmony with 1 John 1:9 which uses exactly the same terminology (John -- the Baptizer -- is backed up by John -- one of the original net-menders of Mark 1:19). Thus, we conclude that the critical factor of the "new" doctrine is that "confession" brings about "forgiveness" and that means that "confession" is brought about by "repentance".
- e. And, then, we come to our current paragraph at the beginning of chapter two where Jesus ties "faith" ("seeing their faith"'; 2:5) to "forgiveness".
- II. The Inescapable Necessity of Human "Faith" (The Human Side of These Issues: See (080)).