Matthew 9:5

‘For which is easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven”; or to say, “Arise, and walk?” '

He then challenged them on the basis of the evidence of His mighty works. Which was easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven”; or to say, “Arise, and walk?” The answer was that they were both impossible to man, but that they were both equally possible to God. And if God performed the one through a man of His choosing, would it not then demonstrate His approval of that man in all that He did? For all knew that God would not perform His mighty works through a blasphemer. So He set the proof of His right to declare the forgiveness of sins categorically and firmly on the basis of His ability to perform mighty wonders by God's power.

This was a question that they could not answer (which was their tendency when they knew that really their case had been destroyed - Mark 11:27). They could hardly say that miracles of healing were not of God. Why, they had themselves taught that God only acted on behalf of those who pleased Him. Yet they dared not say that a man who could heal consistently was demonstrated to be of God, because they knew very well that Jesus could do it. On the other hand they could not deny it in front of the crowds, for they would have simply looked at them in amazement. For this was their basic sin, the ‘blasphemy against the Holy Spirit', that they would accept nothing that did not conform with their teaching, even if the evidence that it was from God, and that the Spirit was at work, was indisputable.