Mark 2:5

If I were to break into your house and steal your I-Pod, then your neighbor comes up to me and says, "I forgive you for stealing the I-Pod", have I truly been forgiven?

No. Only you can forgive me. Only the person whom I have harmed (disobeyed) can forgive me. Your neighbor telling me that he forgives me has no meaning.

I put the word "disobeyed" in parenthesis because disobedience is the root cause of doing wrong. If you had given me permission to take your I-Pod, then if I go into your house and take it, I've done nothing wrong. But if I take it without your permission, I have disobeyed you in an area in which you have authority. That is wrong.

If I steal your I-Pod, who have I disobeyed?

Both you and God. Because God has said, "Do not steal." Thus I am also disobeying God. This is called sin.

Who can forgive me? You and God. I have disobeyed each in an area in which they each have authority.

Mark 2:5 says, "And Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, 'Son, your sins are forgiven.'"

By doing this Jesus is saying that he is God. Only God can forgive sins.

To be sure we understand what Jesus has done, the Bible goes on to describe what happened after Jesus forgave the paralytic's sins. The people watching knew exactly what Jesus was claiming. In 2:7 the scribes ask, "Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God alone?'"

Jesus is God, and he proclaimed it in many ways throughout the New Testament.