Our Lord healed the man with the palsy. It was in a home in Capernaum that a man sick with the palsy was lowered down through the roof (Mark 2:2-4).
In other words, he was paralyzed. He could not come to Jesus on his own. He was totally helpless and hopeless. He is a picture of a hopeless sinner. Ephesians 2:1 says, unregenerate sinners are “dead in trespasses and sins.” Ephesians 2:11 says they are “without Christ” and without hope, “and without God in the world.”
The healing of this man with the palsy's body is an illustration and demonstration of the healing of his soul. We need to emphasize that sickness of the soul is far more serious than sickness of the body.
Let's see sinners the way God sees them (cf. Isa. 1:4-9, 18; Rom. 3:10-18, 23).
Psalm 94:11 says, “The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.” The paralytic man was helpless. He was unable to move, but when Christ commands, He gives the strength to obey (Mark 2:11, 12).
In the OT, physical healing and forgiveness of sin were closely connected (cf. Ps. 103:1-3; Isa. 58:8; 53:4). This is carried over into the NT (cf. Matt. 8:16, 17). Sin blinds and paralyzes. (Eph. 4:18, 19).
Sin brought sickness and death into the world, and throughout the Bible they are all closely related. But the most important thing in the world is salvation, not physical healing (Rom. 5:12; 6:23).
The man sick with the palsy, was saved first, then he was healed (Mark 2:5, 9-12).
Some Christians teach that man has no choice and man has no free will. Man can choose, and must choose. Joshua 24:15; I Kings 18:21.
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James J. Barker is a graduate of Tabernacle Baptist Bible College, Virginia Beach, Virginia. He started Bible Baptist Church, May 1990, in Queens, NY. The LORD commissioned him to minister in the new location of Elmont, NY in 1998. The church has moved from storefront to tent...