November
5 Bible Reading: John Chapters 19-21
We must DOUBT our DOUBTS & BELIEVE our BELIEFS!
And
after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus
came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, "Peace to
you!" Then He said to Thomas, "Reach your finger here, and look at My
hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be
unbelieving, but believing." And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My
Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen
Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have
believed." (John 20:26-29)
The above
scriptural passage records an incident where Jesus appeared to His disciples after
His resurrection and declared peace upon them. The specific purpose of Jesus
appearing to all His disciples (that included Thomas this time) was to dispel
the skepticism of Thomas who had categorically stated to the other disciples: "Unless I see in His hands the print of
the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into
His side, I will not believe" (v. 25b). Also, Jesus wanted to provide hope and peace to the distraught minds of His disciples who had a hard time
believing that Jesus had indeed risen
from the dead as He had promised them earlier.
The doubting
Thomas could not just believe the
words of the other disciples who had declared to him earlier: "We have seen the Lord" (v.
25a), and the fact that Jesus was alive in His resurrected body. How Jesus dealt gently and patiently with
His faithless disciple! After Jesus had appeared to Thomas and showed the
evidence of his resurrection, Thomas exclaimed that Jesus was both his Lord and
his God (v. 28). These words from Thomas form the climax to John’s gospel and
summarize its theme. John’s purpose, to
demonstrate the deity of Christ, climaxes in this confession of Thomas!
Unlike
Thomas, though we cannot see Jesus physically through our eyes and sense His
presence, we should totally believe in our hearts that Jesus is ‘both Lord and God’. Jesus has
proclaimed that we are blessed (v. 29) when we believe in the deity of Jesus
even though we cannot see Him with our mortal eyes or, sense His presence or,
scientifically prove that He is truly God incarnate.
Someone has
once said that we must doubt our doubts
and believe our beliefs when it comes to the veracity of the resurrection of
Jesus Christ. We must have faith in
our hearts, defined as follows: "Now
faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen" (Heb 11:1). Through faith we do not see the evidence of things,
particularly concerning the truth of the gospel. However, "we walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Cor. 5:7). In our
daily activities, we may have experiences that can build our faith or, that
which causes us to temporarily doubt our beliefs. When we have these doubts, we
should ask God to a deeper understanding of His reality!
It will be
extremely helpful if we are able to react at least as the father of the sick
child in the following incident: Jesus
said to him, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who
believes." Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with
tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:23-24) If we
are seriously harboring any kind of skepticism or unbelief in our hearts, let
us sincerely ask God to strengthen our faith in Him and dispel all unbelief
that Satan tries to sow into our hearts every
hour of every day.
Today, let
us rise above our mediocre sight-living and truly believe in God’s Word that
has become an ancient tale to a skeptical populace today. If God says a thing,
we honor Him by believing it; but we dishonor Him by demanding additional
evidence. We should believe simply because He said it and because He cannot lie
or be mistaken. When our faith falters, let us not ask for signs like Thomas. Instead,
let us open His Word and allow Him to reassure us through His Word. God’s Word is the best evidence that we have
in our hands today!
