When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.
When Jesus saw their faith. It is remarkable that all the three narratives call it "their faith" which Jesus saw. That the patient himself had faith, we know from the proclamation of his forgiveness, which Jesus made before all; and we should have been apt to conclude that his four friends bore him to Jesus merely out of benevolent compliance with the urgent entreaties of the poor sufferer. But here we learn, not only that his bearers had the same faith with himself, but that Jesus marked it as a faith which was not to be defeated-a faith victorious over all difficulties. This was the faith for which He was ever on the watch, and which He never saw without marking, and, in those who needed anything from Him, richly rewarding.
He said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, ["be of good cheer" (Matthew 9:2 )], thy sins be forgiven thee, [ afeoontai (G863 ) soi (G4671 ) hai (G3588 ) hamartiai (G266 )]. By the word "be," our translators perhaps meant "are," as in Luke (Luke 2:20 ). For it is not a command to his sins to depart, but an authoritative proclamation of the man's pardoned state as a believer. And yet, as the Pharisees understood our Lord to be dispensing pardon by this saying, and Jesus not only acknowledges that they were right, but founds His whole argument upon the correctness of it, we must regard the saying as a royal proclamation of the man's forgiveness by Him to whom it belonged to dispense it; nor could such a style of address be justified on any lower supposition. (See the note at Luke 7:41 , etc.)