Deal With It!

Luke 5:²⁰ “When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the man, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” (NLV)

Sin is a challenge to man. Sin is disobedience to God. The origin of sin goes back to Adam and Eve. God told them not to eat of the fruit of a particular tree, but they did. Again, sin is disobedience to God. And because sin in parents becomes iniquity in children. Therefore, parents have to deal with besetting sins; otherwise, those sins will become iniquity in their children. What that means is that if the parent is dealing with anger, for instance, and does not triumph over it, deal with it, or crucify it. The anger that is an event in the life of the parent becomes iniquity, programmed into the life of the children. It becomes something that is woven into the children. If a parent does not deal with lust, it becomes iniquity in the children.

The man in our focus text (Luke 5:17-26, please read) obviously had sin manifesting in his life. And Jesus went straight to the heart of it and said, “…your sins are forgiven.” And the hypocrites immediately took exception in their hearts. Luke 5:²¹“The teachers of the Law and the proud religious law-keepers thought to themselves, “Who is this Man Who speaks as if He is God? Who can forgive sins but God only?” People will look at you and say, “Who is she? Why does she think she is cute?” Pay no attention to them; they are just jealous. Who is he? Who does he think he is? Does he really think he is anointed? Yes, you are anointed. Why is he so confident? It is because God is his Father. Why is she so pretty? It is because she is fearfully and wonderfully made. People will beef you, but don’t worry, they did it to Jesus.

Jesus was doing something really amazing, and you would expect that people would be excited, right? But instead, they took exception in their hearts. Who is this man? Who does He think He is? And Jesus answered them. Hypocrisy, being pretentious, is a big thing. And the pretence here is that if it were their children or their family, they would want Jesus to heal them. Yet, Jesus is trying to heal someone else, and they are getting legalistic with Him. The problem with hypocrisy is that, like sin, it becomes something else in children. If you are a parent and you are a hypocrite, your children are going to hate God. This is why a lot of parents are struggling to make their children serve God. Why? Children can smell hypocrisy from a distance.

In fact, someone says, and I quote, “Children find it difficult to listen to adults, but they never have any difficulty imitating them.” This is so profound. So, you cannot say to your child, “Do as I say and not as I do”. He or she is going to do exactly as you do.

Prayer: Father, create in me a new heart and renew my spirit, in the Name of Jesus. Amen!