“What blasphemy is this that He is speaking? Who can forgive sins except God alone?”
This statement expresses a correct thought, but the scribes understand and apply it in a wrong way. Indeed, the authority to forgive sins belongs only to God. Yet the scribes’ error was that, standing before the Son of God, they did not recognize Him. They drew a correct conclusion about God’s authority, but they were mistaken in their judgment about the person of Christ. In this way many know the divine principles, but they do not humble themselves at the moment when that truth, embodied, stands before them. The scribes’ words also show that the person of Christ does not leave people indifferent: He must either be received as God, or rejected as someone incomprehensible. There is no middle way.