{"id":4935,"date":"2014-01-15T00:05:02","date_gmt":"2014-01-15T08:05:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=4935"},"modified":"2014-01-14T19:22:19","modified_gmt":"2014-01-15T03:22:19","slug":"forgiven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2014\/01\/15\/forgiven\/","title":{"rendered":"Forgiven"},"content":{"rendered":"

And after getting into a boat [Jesus] crossed the sea and came to his own town. <\/p>\n

\tAnd just then some people were carrying a paralyzed man lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, \u201cTake heart, son; your sins are forgiven.\u201d Then some of the scribes said to themselves, \u201cThis man is blaspheming.\u201d But Jesus, perceiving their thoughts, said, \u201cWhy do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, \u2018Your sins are forgiven,\u2019 or to say, \u2018Stand up and walk\u2019? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins\u201d\u2014he then said to the paralytic\u2014\u201cStand up, take your bed and go to your home.\u201d And he stood up and went to his home. When the crowds saw it, they were filled with awe, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to human beings. (Matthew 9:1-8)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\tThe biggest miracles are the hardest ones to recognize. When a paralyzed man was brought to Jesus, he didn\u2019t tell him that he was healed. Instead, Jesus told him to be encouraged! And why should he be encouraged? Because his paralysis was gone? No, because his sins were forgiven. <\/p>\n

\tWere his sins the reason he was paralyzed? Not at all. And he hadn\u2019t come to Jesus for what seemed his most obvious need. The reason this man came to Jesus, why his friends cut a hole in the roof to make sure he could get to him, had nothing to do with being healed physically. Instead, the paralyzed man came for spiritual healing. He came in order to be forgiven. Jesus saw his faith and the faith of his friends, and on the basis of that faith, he forgave the man. <\/p>\n

\tWhat happened to the man after he was forgiven was secondary. And it didn\u2019t happen for the sake of the paralyzed man who already believed in Jesus and who already knew that Jesus was in fact God himself. The paralyzed man was relieved of his paralysis for the sake of those who had witnessed him being forgiven, but still didn\u2019t have a clue about who Jesus was.<\/p>\n

\tGetting healed is great, but what matters most of all is being forgiven of our sins. Jesus gave us the greatest gift we could ever want! Having our sins forgiven and being granted eternal life, is the biggest miracle of all.<\/p>\n

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And after getting into a boat [Jesus] crossed the sea and came to his own town. And just then some people were carrying a paralyzed man lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4935"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4935"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4936,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4935\/revisions\/4936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}