23. Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe--The man had
said, "If Thou canst do anything." Jesus replies.
all things are possible to him that believeth--"My doing all depends
on thy believing." To impress this still more, He redoubles upon the
believing: "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that
believeth." Thus the Lord helps the birth of faith in that struggling
soul; and now, though with pain and sore travail, it comes to the birth,
as TRENCH, borrowing from
OLSHAUSEN, expresses it. Seeing the case
stood still, waiting not upon the Lord's power but his own faith, the
man becomes immediately conscious of conflicting principles, and rises
into one of the noblest utterances on record.
JFB.
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