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A New Heart for the Valley Week 3, Day 6

by David Joynt on March 09, 2018

A New Heart for the Valley Week 3, Day 6

 

MARK 2:6-7

 

Jesus’ granting forgiveness to the paralyzed man is different than the forgiveness we give one another. You forgive me, hopefully (!), when I offend you. Here, Jesus forgives all the man’s previous sins, and since he is a stranger, this is not a case of him letting go of offenses he has suffered individually. In this instance, the forgiveness isn’t individual but plenary. Only God can forgive sins in this complete and thorough-going way. This is true for two reasons. First, only God has the divine authority to do so. Second, it is only God who is injured and hurt in every individual instance of inter-personal or private sin. Every life is part of his life. The scribes recognize the implicit claim, present in Jesus’ act of forgiveness, to divine status, and they see it as blasphemy.

 

 

Do you see what is unique about the forgiveness Jesus offers this man and us?

 

Do you see how it connects to his identity?

 

FAMILY TIME

How forgiving is your family?

 

Tags: forgiveness

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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