Matthew 9:3 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

This man blasphemeth. — The words were but an echo of the charge that had been brought at Jerusalem, that “He made Himself equal with God” (John 5:18), and may well have come from some of the same objectors. St. Mark and St. Luke give the grounds of their accusation: “What is this that this Man thus speaks? Who can forgive sins but One, that is, God?” Speaking abstractedly, they were affirming one of the first principles of all true religious belief. All sins are offences against God, and therefore, though men may forgive trespasses as far as they themselves are concerned, the ultimate act of forgiveness belongs to God only; and for a mere man, as such, to claim the right of forgiving thus absolutely, was to claim a divine attribute, and therefore to blaspheme — i.e., to utter words as disparaging as open profaneness to the majesty of God. What they forgot to take into account was the possibility (1) that God might so far delegate His power to His chosen servants that they, on sufficient evidence of that delegation, might rightly declare sins to be forgiven; or (2) that the Teacher might Himself be one with God, and so share in His perfections and prerogatives. On either of these suppositions the charge of blasphemy was fully answered, and the sin of the scribes lay in their ignoring the fact that He had given sufficient proof of the former, if not of the latter also.