Thy sins be forgiven thee

For the first time in the New Testament the Lord Jesus is directly confessed to be the Son of God and that from a most unexpected source. In chapter 4 the language of the tempter was, ‘If thou be the Son of God’; now in chapter 8 two demon possessed men address him as ‘Jesus, thou Son of God’. Speaking as one with these men the demons acknowledged who the Lord was, that they were powerless to resist His command, and that there was an appointed time for their judgement, vv. 29, 31. The plight of the two men was indeed desperate but ‘the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil’, 1 John 3. 8. Just one word, ‘Go’, from the lips of the Saviour was sufficient to cast them out. How sad that while demons acknowledged and feared Him, men besought Him to depart, their darkened minds valuing a herd of swine above the help of the Saviour! cp. Eph. 4. 18; 2 Cor. 4. 4.

In contrast to those who desired His departure from them, others came to Him, Matt. 9. 2. Their faith that the Lord could meet their need and their determination to bring their friend to Him should surely challenge us, as to how far we are prepared to go in seeking to bring others to the Lord. While those men were occupied with the physical need of the one they brought, the Lord Jesus was concerned with his far greater spiritual need, the two things having in common that only Christ could minister to each need. John would later write, ‘He was manifested to take away our sins’, 1 John 3. 5, and as evidence of His power to forgive sins the man was healed. What a blessing to know that although we are ‘altogether born in sins’, through Christ and faith in Him our sins are forgiven also! Eph. 1. 7; Col. 1. 14. What a meditation to think of the One who ‘died for our sins’, who ‘gave himself for our sins’, and who ‘by himself purged our sins’! 1 Cor. 15. 3; Gal. 1. 4, Heb. 1. 3. What a privilege to preach ‘the forgiveness of sins’ that by Him ‘all that believe are justified from all things’! Acts 13. 38, 39.

In Matthew’s narrative, after the theme of forgiveness we see a man ‘following’, Matt. 9. 9. Has the forgiveness of sins resulted in such commitment to Christ on our part?