God has given only the Son of Man authority to forgive sins (Matthew 9:6), but the crowd marvels for the wrong reason, wondering that God gave that authority to men (in general), unlike the disciples, who by now understand something of Jesus’ uniqueness (see Matthew 8:27). The crowd, however, does connect the paralytic’s healing with Jesus’ authority to forgive sins (Matthew 9:8), which was better than the hostile skepticism of the scribes.
No, only to Jesus. However, upon seeing the paralytic healed by Jesus, the crowd marveled, believing that God had now given over the authority to forgive sins to men (Matthew 9:8). Yet they misunderstood what was happening, for God had not actually given this power to men, but just to one man, Jesus Christ. In this regard the faith of the disciples themselves had already become more mature than that of the crowd (Matthew 8:27).1
The crowd was tremendously impressed by what Jesus had just done and consequently glorified God. Even though the crowd misunderstood the word of Jesus in Matthew 9:6, when he said that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins, wrongly interpreting this as referring to mankind itself, their reaction to the miracle was very different from that of the scribes.2
From the reaction of the crowds to the miracle conducted by Jesus (Matthew 9:8) it becomes apparent that they also understood that the healing of the paralytic demonstrates that Jesus truly has power to bestow grace, and for this they glorified God. Yet it is only the Son of Man, who was identified by Jesus in Matthew 9:6, who has such authority.3
8 When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.