Суббота

(1 Cor. 15:58–16:3; Luke 5:17–26) “But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” He said to the paralytic, “I tell you, get up, take up your bed and go to your house” (Luke 5:24). The remission of sins is an internal, spiritual miracle; healing from relaxation is an external miracle, a natural action of God on the world, and at the same time physical. This event justifies and confirms the attraction of the power of God both in the order of the moral world and in the course of the phenomena of the physical world. The latter is similar to the former, for it is the purpose of everything. The Lord does not force freedom, but admonishes, excites, and amazes. The best way to achieve this is an external miracle. He was supposed to be when he was supposed to be a rational creature governed by freedom. This connection is so significant that those who reject the supernatural action of God on the world at the same time reject human freedom in the consciousness that the latter necessarily causes the former; and vice versa, those who profess the truth of God’s influence in the world, beyond the natural course of phenomena, can boldly tell them: we feel that we are free. The consciousness of freedom is as strong and irresistible as the consciousness of being. Freedom urgently requires the direct providential actions of God: therefore, their recognition also stands firmly as the consciousness of freedom. You might be interested in: