Day 142: Luke 5:17–26

“But so you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He told the paralyzed man—“I tell you: get up, pick up your stretcher, and go home” (v. 24).

Jesus came as the Son of Man to rescue us from the great plight of man: we have a sin problem, and we are powerless to help ourselves. Given the right set of circumstances and the wrong state of mind, each of us is capable of just about anything. Even if we could get our external lives under perfect and legalistic control, we’d probably rot on the inside with the heinous sin of pride. Let’s face it, we’re all hopeless—except that Jesus came as the “Son of Man” with the “authority on earth to forgive sins.”

I can remember being so devastated over a sin I had allowed to ensnare me that I repeatedly begged God to forgive me. I confessed my sin with great sorrow and turned radically from it. Still I continued to plead for forgiveness. Then one day in my Bible reading, God revealed these Scriptures to me from Luke 5. He spoke to my heart and said: “Beth, My child, you have an authority problem. You think you can do your part, which is repent. You just don’t think I can do My part, which is forgive.”

I was stunned. I began to realize that my sin of unbelief was as serious as my prior sin of rebellion. I wept and repented for my failure to credit Him with the authority He possessed to forgive my sins. It was eye-opening!

In his book I Should Forgive, But . . . , Dr. Chuck Lynch says when we keep confessing the same sin over and over, “each subsequent time the sin is confessed, rather than the confession bringing relief, it only reinforces the false belief that it has not been forgiven. Double, or re-confession, only deepens the false belief that we have not been forgiven.”34 I know he’s right, because my constant re-confessions did not bring me relief. They only made me more miserable and self-loathing. Relief came only when I decided to take God at His Word.

If you have truly repented—which means you have experienced godly sorrow and a subsequent detour from the sin—bathe yourself in the river of God’s forgiveness. The Son of Man has authority to forgive sins right here on earth. You don’t have to wait until heaven. You can experience the freedom of complete forgiveness right here. Right now. Fall under Christ’s authority and accept His grace.