Note 3 at Lk. 5:23: The point that Jesus is making is that both forgiveness of sins and the healing of the paralytic are humanly impossible. If Jesus could do one of these things, He could do the other. He then healed the paralytic showing that He did, indeed, have the authority to forgive sins. In Jesus' day, the people were more prone to accept that God would heal than they were to accept that He would forgive sins without the keeping of the law. Today, the church world basically accepts forgiveness of sins but doubts His willingness to heal. They were never meant to be separated (Ps. 103:3; see note 2 at Mt. 8:17, p. 68).