The Ingathering of the Dispersed

God the Glory of Zion

God Challenges Israel

What God Requires

Jesus Heals a Paralytic

2 When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. ² So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door, and he was speaking the word to them.^{(A) 3} Then some people^[a] came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them.^{(B) 4} And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. ⁵ When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” ⁶ Now some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts, ⁷ “Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”^{(C) 8} At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves, and he said to them, “Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? ⁹ Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and take your mat and walk’? ¹⁰ But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— ¹¹ “I say to you, stand up, take your mat, and go to your home.” ¹² And he stood up and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”^(D)

The Authority of the Son

¹⁹ Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own but only what he sees the Father doing, for whatever the Father^[a] does, the Son does likewise.^{(A) 20} The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing, and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished.^{(B) 21} Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes.^{(C) 22} The Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son,^{(D) 23} so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.^{(E) 24} Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come under judgment but has passed from death to life.^(F)

²⁵ “Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.^{(G) 26} For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself, ²⁷ and he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man.^{(H) 28} Do not be astonished at this, for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice ²⁹ and will come out: those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.^(I)

Witnesses to Jesus

³⁰ “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me.^(A)

³¹ “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true.^{(B) 32} There is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that his testimony to me is true.^{(C) 33} You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth.^{(D) 34} Not that I accept such human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved. ³⁵ He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.^{(E) 36} But I have a testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me.^{(F) 37} And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form,^{(G) 38} and you do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he has sent.^(H)

³⁹ “You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that testify on my behalf.^{(I) 40} Yet you refuse to come to me to have life.