Mark 2:5
And Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
(a) Seeing their faith. Jesus saw the actions that accompanied the faith of those who carried the paralyzed man. The four men risked the ire of others by removing the roof of the house. They did this because they believed that Jesus could help their friend.
(b) Your sins are forgiven. Jesus forgave the paralyzed man to show us that God freely forgives us on account of grace and without any regard for our behavior (Eph. 1:7). Jesus died for us while we were sinners, and he forgave us while we were sinners (Col. 2:13). Before you repented, confessed, or did anything, the Lamb of God carried away all your sins – past, present, and future. See entry for Luke 23:34.
Mark 2:7
“Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God alone?”
Forgive sins; see entry for Forgiveness.
Mark 2:17
And hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
(a) The righteous refers to those who trust in their own righteousness (Luke 18:9). Self-righteous religious people, in other words.
(b) Sinners. If the original language did not lack punctuation marks, the word “sinners” would be in quotation marks. Religious people called them sinners; Jesus called them lost sheep (Matt. 10:6, 15:24).
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