"He SAW their faith" | Luke 5:20

Luke 5 and the Paralyzed Man’s Faith

So if Pastor Nathan will please roll the clip, we have him talking about a passage from Luke chapter 5, and it's in the context of what he calls a dead faith. So if we can play that clip, please.

And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they that were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, but finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the mist before Jesus.

And when he saw their faith, no, it was faith alone, they had a dead faith. No, he saw what they were doing, and Jesus says it's their faith. See, baptism, confessing is an act of faith. Jesus saw what they were doing, and he said, I see their faith.

Faith, Works, and Justification

Thank you for playing that, Pastor Nathan. The man over there just hanging out. He said so many things, I may have him play that again, because I remember hearing it for the first time, I was just excited over there, you know, I'm only the moderator though.

He said a lot of things. I don't think he captured how you were defining faith earlier in the debate, right? Because you've got to think, their understanding of James 2 is faith without works is dead, meaning it's only alive when you see certain works, right?

And so that's the big difference between what we're saying and what they're saying. Both of us are really saying true faith works, like I get that. But we're saying God knows if faith is real in your heart, and if it is, which he knows, then you're declared right before God.

Now, if we hear someone say, oh, I'm a Christian, I have faith, you know, and it's like, okay, I hear that, but then there's no evidence of their life. I suspect that that's a dead faith, and a mere said faith only, right?

And there's more to that, but there's a semantic domain. You brought this out in the debate. There's a few different definitions of faith, pistis or pistuo for believe. I want you to speak to this, because you've got intellectual ascent and fiducia.

They get that, right?

Oh, yeah.

Fiducia and assensus.

What is it?

Ascensia.

Ascensia, there we go.

Spiritual Discernment and the Fruit of the Spirit

Yeah, yeah. The ascensia is a mind, intellectual, like we see in James 2, I think 23, somewhere around there, where even Satan believes there's one God.

219.

Yeah, 219. That's what we call an ascensia, a mind change. I mean, they know he's God, and they don't confess him.

And if you look up the word pistuo, it literally says to ascent to facts, to know facts. And so what you're getting at is the demons know that you believe that there is one God. You do well. Guess what?

Even the demons believe that. They're monotheists, right? But they don't have trust in Christ. So speak to that.

Yeah, so trust is any reborn Christian knows that trust comes from the heart, like Paul says in Romans 10, that from the heart we believe. So the difference between an ascent faith and a faith that comes from the heart, if we look at Galatians 5, 22 through 25, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.

Well, faithfulness there is pistous. It's faith. So that's a fruit of the Spirit. And Paul makes that clear in other passages like 1 Corinthians 2, 14. We are not able to accept or understand the spiritual things of God because they're spiritually discerned.

You've got to have the Spirit.

And Travis says he doesn't have the Spirit.

That's right.

Like he admits that on his own view. Now he says he does through this representative, but we understand Paul saying, no, you need the Spirit to be able to understand the things of God.

That's right.

And so I think that's a huge problem, but I'm actually kind of glad that there is a line being divided because we're saying without actually having the Spirit, you can't know these things.

That's right, because there's lots of spiritual truths that people just can't understand, like the Trinity, atonement, justification. These are things that are wrought to believe from the heart. You may be able to categorize it in your head, but to be able to believe it is something totally different.

Jesus Sees the Heart in Luke 5:20

Yeah, now it's interesting because we're looking at this passage in Luke chapter 5, right? This is where Jesus heals the paralytic. When you look more into that word, this guy was basically a quadriplegic, right?

He was not able to move. He had to have his friends do it.

That's right.

And it's interesting because when I heard Travis bring up this passage, I'm like, I was thinking, keep reading, keep going. Because if we just pick up, like we understand that the paralytic is with his either friends or family, those with him, and they are basically bringing him down through this ceiling, right?

And so Jesus says in verse, we read here in verse 20, and when Jesus, and when he saw their faith, he said, man, your sins are forgiven you. Now, I want to ask you, Adam, whose faith did Jesus see? According to just what this verse says, right?

He says he saw their faith, right? It's a collective group, right? So it would be the paralytic and those that were with him, right?

Definitely.

And so Travis's point is they had to do something, right? He saw their faith working, right? And so what Jesus is saying, he saw their faith collectively as a group, but there's only the friends, we'll call them, they were the only ones doing something.

Oh, yeah.

They were the ones bringing him down through the roof, right? What did the paralyzed man do?

He just rode for the ride.

He did nothing.

That's right.

He was along for the ride, but he had faith, right? So this is a collective. He saw their faith, but only the friends, we'll call them, they're the only ones doing something, right? And we can even say, yeah, because faith works love.

That's what Galatians said. And Travis thinks that that somehow negates our position. We're saying, no, true saving faith works love, right? And that love is really talking about loving acts, acts of kindness, acts of mercy, because we would even say a repentant faith is a loving repentant faith that manifests itself out with works, James 2, right?

And so, of course, that's what they're doing. They're demonstrating their faith by saying, we believe in this guy as the savior to be able to heal our friend. But here's the key. The rest of verse 20, I'll read it again.

And when he saw their faith, he said, man, this is a reference to the paralytic who did nothing. And even Matthew 9, verse 2, he even addresses to the paralytic, not to be confused who he was talking to.

And he said to the paralytic, man, your sins are forgiven you. There's no works that he did in the text, right? He was a paralytic.

He couldn't.

And so for anyone else to say, well, he maybe could have talked and said something. Not in the text. You're supposed to speak where the Bible speaks. But here's the point, because we can still interpret it.

And I think this is so awesome, because Jesus being the God man, you brought this out in the debate. He sees past the works. He sees the pistis. He sees the faith. And so, and I love how he says it, because I really do think that he's looking past the works.

Because you could have people in the gospel accounts seeking after Jesus that did not have faith. And he knew their hearts, and he did not entrust themselves to them, because he knows the heart of man.

And so this is an affirmation of our position. Jesus looked past the externals and saw the heart. But it gets harder for their position without just reading their theology into it. We all are supposed to be doing systematic theology, by the way.

But the man that did nothing, his sins are forgiven. And if we keep reading in the context, and when the scribes and Pharisees began to question saying, who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?

This is the key. And I think you mentioned this in the debate. When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, why do you question in your hearts? So Jesus sees past the external works that we do.

He sees past our posture. He saw the legitimacy of these individuals' hearts, right? And healed the paralytic. And then conversely, with the Pharisees, he sees past their austere, right? How they present themselves as holy, righteous people.

He saw the intentions of their thoughts. And he was referring to their hearts. Why are you doubting in your heart?

That's right.

And so you're dealing with the God-man that sees past works, right? And so the point is, if Jesus can heal physically, then you should believe that he can heal spiritually.

That's right.

And so you see so many accounts where Jesus heals people where they only had faith and didn't do any works like the paralytic. And then you can also see how true saving faith that justifies is never alone and always demonstrates itself before the world and before man.

That's what you see with his faith.

The Church of Christ and Denominational Critique

So again, one body, which is the body, his body, which is his church, the church of Christ. I mean, man, if you just had some little bit of common sense, you think he drove by these denominations where it says Grandma's Church, Baptist Church, Methodist Church, Life Church.

I mean, he drove an hour and 20 minutes here.

And they act like they give God the glory and Jesus.

I mean, Grandma's Church, Baptist Church, Presbyterian Church, Church of Christ.

Same thing. Again, they deny redemption.

Man, if you just had some little bit of common sense.

Very sad. Very sad.