In this message we will cover further aspects of the experience and enjoyment of Christ in the Gospel of Matthew. All these aspects are related to experiencing and enjoying Christ as the most pleasant person.
In Matthew 9:1-8 we see that Christ is the Forgiver of sins. “Behold, they brought to Him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, Take courage, child; your sins are forgiven” (v. 2). This word was probably a shock to the paralytic and to those who had brought him to the Lord. They no doubt had never thought that the cause of his illness was sin. But much to their surprise, the Lord Jesus told the paralytic that his sins were forgiven.
As fallen human beings, our basic problem is our sin, even our sins. All the problems of mankind are the result of sin. Because of sin, the situation of fallen mankind is hopeless. Because of sin, everyone has been corrupted. Because all the problems of mankind are the result of sin, sin must be dealt with if people are to be restored to God. We need Christ as the Forgiver of sins. On the day we believed in the Lord Jesus and received Him, our sins were forgiven.
Matthew 9:6a indicates that it is as the Son of Man that the Lord Jesus is the Forgiver of our sins. The One who forgave the sins of the paralytic was actually the forgiving God in the form of a lowly man. He was the incarnation of the forgiving God. When the Lord Jesus forgave the sins of the paralytic, His deity was manifested in His humanity.
Verse 6 reveals that “the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” To forgive sins is a matter of authority on earth. Only the Lord Jesus, who had been authorized by God and who would die to redeem sinners, has such authority (Acts 5:31; 10:43; 13:38). Because the Lord Jesus is the God-man, He has not only the ability to save sinners but also the authority to forgive their sins.
Matthew 9:10-13 indicates that we also may experience and enjoy Christ as the Physician. In calling people to follow Him for the kingdom, the Lord Jesus ministered as a Physician, not as a Judge. A judge’s judgment is according to righteousness, whereas a physician’s healing is according to mercy and grace. If the Lord Jesus had visited us as a Judge, we all would have been condemned and rejected. None of us would have been qualified, selected, and called to be the people of the heavenly kingdom. However, He came to minister as a Physician, to heal, recover, enliven, and save us, that we might be reconstituted to be His new and heavenly citizens, with whom He is establishing His heavenly kingdom on this corrupted earth.
“But go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (v. 13). The Lord’s word here, addressed to the Pharisees, indicates that the Lord Jesus heals man’s spiritual illness, the illness of sin. Sin came first and death follows. Between sin and death there are all kinds of illnesses, diseases, and infirmities. The Lord Jesus forgives our sins and also heals us in every way. As sinners, we are sick absolutely, for we are sick physically, spiritually, morally, and mentally. But Jesus, the Forgiver and the Physician, is able to heal all our sicknesses.
As our Physician, the Lord heals us mainly in our spirit and in our soul, not mainly in our body. The tax collectors and sinners in Matthew 9:10 were not physically sick; they were spiritually sick. While the Lord Jesus was feasting with them, He was healing them spiritually. Likewise, although the Lord may or may not heal us in our body, He is always ready to heal us in every part of our spirit and soul.
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