Luke 5:12-26: Jesus-The Forgiver of Sins

If you mention the name Jesus Christ today the first thought in many minds is that Jesus is a judge and Christians are judgemental, this however is not the first thought they should think. Yes it is true that one day we will have to stand before Christ and give an account for every deed done in the body, but there are two comings of Christ, and until that His second coming we are to think of Jesus as the one who saves not the one who judges, John 3:17, ‘ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.’ This is the Jesus we meet as we continue in Luke 5:12-26. Luke has been showing us who Christ is, that He is the Second Adam, the one with all authority to heal and exorcize demons, but chapter 5 is full of a Jesus who saves sinners. There is Peter the sinful man who sees himself as unworthy who Christ brings into His service, in our section we see Jesus’ compassion and willingness to heal a leper, a picture of our own sin before God; then we see Jesus demonstrating His authority to forgive sin in the healing of the paralytic; and after that there is the calling of Levi, a hated tax collector to be His disciple. As we dig into this section we want to note Jesus willingness in His engagement with the leper and see the leper as a picture of the sinner before God. Secondly, we want to note authority of Jesus to forgive sins and this proven by a miracle in the healing of the paralytic.

There is something else going on in our section to as well. There is the beginning of the conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders. Jesus heals the leper, tells him to tell no one, but it becomes public and Jesus fame grows. This results in many Pharisees and lawyers coming to see what Jesus is doing, v17. Jesus claims the authority to forgive sins, the leaders think He is blaspheming and so the conflict between Christ and the Pharisees begins.