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Chapter 5—Healing of the Soul
Many of those who came to Christ for help had brought disease
upon themselves, yet He did not refuse to heal them. And when
virtue from Him entered into these souls, they were convicted of sin,
and many were healed of their spiritual disease as well as of their
physical maladies.
Among these was the paralytic at Capernaum. Like the leper,
this paralytic had lost all hope of recovery. His disease was the result
of a sinful life, and his sufferings were embittered by remorse. In
vain he had appealed to the Pharisees and doctors for relief; they
pronounced him incurable, they denounced him as a sinner and
declared that he would die under the wrath of God.
The palsied man had sunk into despair. Then he heard of the
works of Jesus. Others, as sinful and helpless as he, had been healed,
and he was encouraged to believe that he, too, might be cured if he
could be carried to the Saviour. But hope fell as he remembered the
cause of his malady, yet he could not cast away the possibility of
healing.
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His great desire was relief from the burden of sin. He longed to
see Jesus and receive the assurance of forgiveness and peace with
heaven. Then he would be content to live or to die, according to
God’s will.
There was no time to lose; already his wasted flesh bore signs of
death. He besought his friends to carry him on his bed to Jesus, and
this they gladly undertook to do. But so dense was the crowd that
had assembled in and about the house where the Saviour was, that
it was impossible for the sick man and his friends to reach Him, or
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even to come within hearing of His voice. Jesus was teaching in the
home of Peter. According to their custom, His disciples sat close
about Him, and “there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting
by, who were come out of every village of Galilee and Judea and
Jerusalem.”
Luke 5:17
, A.R.V. Many of these had come as spies,
seeking an accusation against Jesus. Beyond these thronged the
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