Apologetics · FaithLogic
Jesus Does What Only God Can Do
"When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, 'Son, your sins are forgiven.'"
The scribes' reaction proves they understood: Mark 2:7 — "Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone (ei mē heis ho Theos)?" They did not say "who can forgive sins but God through his authorized representative?" They said "God alone." And they called Jesus a blasphemer — because a mere man claiming to forgive sins directly is claiming to be God.
Jesus confirms rather than corrects: He does not say "God forgives you through me." He says "I forgive you" — then performs a public miracle to prove the authority. In Mark 2:10: "that you may know that the Son of Man has authority (exousia) on earth to forgive sins." He claims this authority as his own possession — not delegated, not borrowed, but his.
The Pharisees in Luke 7:49: When Jesus forgives the woman who anoints his feet, those at table ask: "Who is this, who even forgives sins?" The Greek is "kai hamartias aphiēsin" — he forgives sins as his personal ongoing action. Every instance of Jesus forgiving sins uses first-person active verbs. Every OT instance of forgiveness uses YHWH as the subject. The parallel is precise and unmissable.
"He rebuked the wind and said to the sea, 'Peace! Be still!' And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm."
How Jesus commands it: He rebukes (epetimēsen) the wind and speaks directly to the sea — as if addressing a living being. He does not pray first. He does not say "YHWH, calm this sea." He speaks, and creation obeys immediately. No prophet in the entire OT ever commanded a storm to stop on their own authority. Moses stretched his staff — but God parted the sea (Exodus 14:21). Elijah prayed for rain to return — but YHWH sent it (1 Kings 18:41–45). Jesus speaks and it stops — because he is the Creator addressing his own creation.
The disciples' terrified reaction: Mark 4:41 — "They were filled with great fear and said to one another, 'Who then is this, that even the wind and sea obey him?'" This is not the reaction to a miracle-worker. This is the reaction of people who recognise they are in the presence of the one their Psalms say controls the sea. The Greek "tis ara houtos estin" — "who then is this one?" — is a question about identity, not power. They are asking: what kind of being is this?
"When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come out.' The man who had died came out."
Jesus's method is categorically different: He does not pray (his prayer in John 11:41–42 is explicitly for the benefit of the crowd's understanding — "I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe"). He then simply speaks to a dead man — "Lazarus, come out." Four days dead, wrapped in burial cloths, sealed in a tomb. Jesus commands, and the dead man walks out. The authority is his own. The power is exercised by his voice alone.
John 5:25–29 — Jesus explains the theology himself: "The hour is coming when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live." And: "Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out." Jesus claims that on the last day, all the dead of history will rise because they hear his voice. In Daniel 12:2, this resurrection is YHWH's act. Jesus claims it as his own. He is the one whose voice raises all the dead — which is the authority of the Creator over his creation.
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats."
Jesus claims this throne for himself: He sits on the throne of his glory (not "God's throne" — "his" throne). He gathers all nations before himself. He separates them. He pronounces eternal destinies — "eternal life" and "eternal punishment" (v.46). He says "Come, you who are blessed by my Father" (v.34) — making himself the criterion of salvation. John 5:22 states it explicitly: "The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son." God has handed his own exclusive divine prerogative of final judgment to Jesus.
The criterion of judgment is relationship to Jesus: Matthew 25:40 — "as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me." The eternal destiny of every human being is determined by their relationship to Jesus — not to God in the abstract, not to Torah, not to any prophet. This is divine authority so absolute that no created being could claim it without blasphemy.
"But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me."
Acts 2:33 confirms Jesus did exactly this: Peter at Pentecost: "Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing." Jesus pours out the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. The Creator breathed the breath of life into Adam (Genesis 2:7). The Son pours out the Spirit onto the church. This is the same divine action — giving the divine breath/Spirit — performed by the second person of the Godhead just as the first performed it at creation.
"Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask [me] anything in my name, I will do it."
Textual note: some manuscripts omit "me" in v.14, others include it (NA28 brackets it). The stronger evidence for the prayer-to-Jesus point is Stephen's dying words — "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" (Acts 7:59) — and the fixed early-church description of Christians as "those who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 1:2).
What Jesus claims: "If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it" (John 14:14). The Greek is explicit — "aitēsēte me" — "you ask me." Not "ask in my name and the Father will do it." But "you ask me — and I will do it." Jesus positions himself as the one who receives petition and acts on it. This is receiving prayer — a divine prerogative.
Stephen's dying prayer confirms it: Acts 7:59–60 — "And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.' And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, 'Lord, do not hold this sin against them.'" Stephen prays to Jesus as he dies — using the exact same language Psalm 31:5 uses for prayer to YHWH ("Into your hand I commit my spirit"). The first Christian martyr prays to Jesus for forgiveness of sins and the reception of his spirit — because Jesus is God.
Miracles vs Divine Prerogatives — The Critical Distinction
The argument is not about the miracle — it is about the mechanism and the authority claimed. Every prophet who performed miracles did so by appealing to a power outside themselves. They prayed. They called on YHWH. They stretched their staff as an instrument of God's act. The miracle was God's — the prophet was the vessel.
Jesus consistently operates differently: When Moses parted the sea, God acted (Exodus 14:21: "YHWH drove the sea back by a strong east wind"). When Jesus calms the sea, he speaks to it personally — no prayer, no instrument, no appeal to a higher authority. When Elijah raised the dead, he prayed three times and called on YHWH (1 Kings 17:21). When Jesus raises Lazarus, he simply commands: "Lazarus, come out" — and explains that his voice will raise all the dead on the last day (John 5:25). When the prophets forgave sins, they announced YHWH's forgiveness. Jesus says "I forgive you" — and the scribes correctly identify this as a claim to be God.
The specific divine prerogatives Jesus claims are not miracle categories: Forgiving sins directly, judging all nations from the throne of glory, sending the Holy Spirit, receiving prayer — these are not miracle categories. They are divine prerogatives. The Quran itself does not claim Muhammad forgave sins directly, or that he will judge all nations, or that he sends the Holy Spirit. These are not miracle claims. They are identity claims.
The Quran's own Jesus does miracles differently from Muhammad: Quran 3:49 — Jesus says "I will create for you from clay the form of a bird, then I breathe into it, and it becomes a bird by permission of Allah." Even the Quran's Jesus breathes life — an echo of Genesis 2:7 where YHWH breathes life. No other prophet in the Quran breathes life into anything. The Quran's Jesus is already theologically elevated beyond the prophet category.
On forgiving sins. Ambrose, Concerning Repentance 1.2: "He forgave sins by his own authority… 'Who can forgive sins but God alone?' — therefore he who forgave by his own power is God." Chrysostom, Homilies on Matthew 29: "To forgive sins belongs to none other than to that God against whom we sin; and he proved his authority by the sign."
On raising the dead by command. Chrysostom, Homilies on John 63: "'Lazarus, come out' — not with a prayer, but with authority; as at the creation he said 'Let there be light,' so here he calls, and it is done."
The fathers' consistent point is this section's: not the miracle but the manner — prophets petition a power outside themselves; the Son commands, as the Maker commands what he made.
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