Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Luke 5:20

"And seeing their faith, he said, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee." — Luke 5:20 (ASV)

Two declarations form the focal point of this narrative. The first is a declaration of forgiveness, the second an affirmation of Jesus’ authority to make that declaration. The plural reference in the term “their faith” is to the faith of the four who brought the paralytic man, though we may assume from his subsequent forgiveness that he also believed. God responds to the intercession of others regarding a person in need. Those who brought the paralytic to Jesus believed that Jesus would save him, though the paralytic’s salvation was an intensely personal matter between him and Jesus.

Jesus’ declaration of the forgiveness of the paralytic’s sin does not imply that sin was the immediate cause of his disease (1 Corinthians 11:29–30).