Luke 5:20

And seeing their faith, he said, Man, your sins are forgiven thee.

Not the faith of the sufferer, but the faith of those who bore him, is in focus here. Christ never followed any stereotyped pattern in the discharge of his glorious mission. It is a safe conjecture, of course, that no sufferer would have allowed such inconvenience to himself and his friends unless he too had faith that Jesus would heal him; nevertheless, it was the faith of the group, not that of the individual, that Jesus noted.

Man, thy sins are forgiven thee ... Christ no doubt intended this to be a challenge of the religious doctors present in such large numbers; and, therefore, upon grounds fully known to himself alone, he announced the man's pardon of all transgressions, no doubt foreseeing the objections that would come of it, and the eventual healing of the man's body afterward.