When Jesus said that the son of man has power to forgive sins on Earth, he was referring to his humanity--and ours. God has already forgiven. Like Jesus, we have the power--and the mission--to offer forgiveness on Earth.
Jesus directly told us that we have the power to forgive sins:
And they brought to Him a paralyzed man lying on a stretcher. And seeing their faith, Jesus said to the man who was paralyzed, “Take courage, son; your sins (hamartiai, plural) are forgiven.” And some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming!” And Jesus, perceiving their thoughts, said, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins (hamartias, plural)”—then He said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, pick up your stretcher and go home.”
Matthew 9:2-6 (NASB)
It is common to interpret the phrase “the Son of Man” in this passage as referring only to Jesus, using his special name or description of himself (only). But the term “son of [a] man” can apply to any male human, and, given the strongly sexist cultural backgrounds of the languages involved (Koine Greek and likely, Aramaic), if we did not automatically limit this phrase to Jesus only, it would be proper to generalize it to all humans. We are all children of some man. In fact, the only people who have ever existed who were not literally children of some man (male human) were Adam, Eve and Jesus!
This passage, and the parallel passages in Mark 2:1-12 and Luke 5:20-26, indeed, make three important points about forgiveness. First, they make the point that the offenses we are called upon to forgive are offenses against us, rather than offenses against God. The fact that all of our individual, discrete offenses against God have already been forgiven is demonstrated by Jesus’ words in these passages. Jesus was–falsely–accused of being a mere “man” who blasphemously claimed for himself the authority to forgive sins against God. But in the instance recorded in these passages, Jesus treated God’s forgiveness of the paralytic’s sins against God as an already accomplished fact–i.e., he did not say he was forgiving them, or promise that he would forgive them at some future time, but merely said “your sins are forgiven” or “have been forgiven.” He then demonstrated this by saying “Which is easier, to say: ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” he told the lame man to get up and walk, and he was healed.
The second important point made by this passage is the destructive power of the paralytic’s consciousness of his guilt–his physical disability had apparently been caused by his guilt-consciousness. When Jesus assured him his sins had been forgiven, he could walk.
But most importantly for purposes of this article, Jesus declared that, because he was a human, the Son of Man, he had the power to forgive sins. In this connection, it should be recalled that, when he was born as a human baby on earth, Jesus temporarily separated himself from his powers as God and lived as a human:
Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, yes, the death of the cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name…
Philippians 2:5-9 (WEB)
During his time bound by time, as a human on earth, Jesus emptied himself of the rights and powers he had as God, and became fully human. He is now exalted, because he became human, and a servant, not only of God, but of other humans, us: “For who is greater, one who sits at the table, or one who serves? Isn’t it he who sits at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.” Luke 22:27. So when Jesus says that the son of man has power on earth to forgive sins, he is including us. We have the power to forgive sins, and, as we shall see, also the command and the mission to do so.
But first I will briefly explore the difference between guilt and shame and the importance of this distinction to God’s forgiveness, our forgiveness, social control and the social order.
NEXT (for now): Sin, Offense, Guilt and Shame–Definitions, God’s Work and the Social Order
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Repeated sins, repeated repentance and repeated forgiveness in Luke 17:3-4 — unforgiven offenses as the chief example of stumbling blocks
