Faith to Believe
5 min read
27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
John 20:27-28
It takes no faith to believe something when you can literally experience it right before your you. I believe that CJ is my wife. It takes no faith to believe that fact. If I didn’t believe it, then I am delusional.
Of course, if we experience something that seems completely impossible, we might think that we are hallucinating or that some trick is unfolding before us. So, even in those situations, we need faith to guide what we believe.
But what does faith guide us to believe? What we believe will always be determined by the faith that we have. If Thomas’s faith was only in the material world, then nothing could have changed his mind about what he was experiencing.
Everybody has faith. It is a part of the image of God inside of every person. But what is the nature of a person’s faith? The nature of a person’s faith is what determines what we believe.
What Thomas needed to believe was not so much that the resurrected Jesus was standing right in front of him. It took no faith on his part to believe that fact. What Thomas needed to believe was the meaning of the fact that the resurrected Jesus was standing right before him. What Thomas needed was the right kind of faith to believe that Jesus is Lord and God. And he did. Even though his faith was the size of a mustard seed.
In some way, we could suppose that the faith of every believer today is greater than the faith of Thomas. I believe that Jesus is “my Lord and my God” but it is not based on faith in a direct personal encounter with the risen Christ. My belief is based on faith in the eyewitness testimony of the Apostles.
Faith is never just blind faith. Faith is driven by many factors, and so whatever kind of faith that a person has is based upon an internal “reasoning.” And “reasoning” is in quotes because one person’s reasoning is never another person’s reasoning.
When a person’s “reasoning” begins to surrender to the mind of Christ, as revealed in the word of God, that is when true faith starts to take hold in the person’s life.
Later, John writes:
But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
— John 20:31
That “life in His name” is the result of believing the right things based on faith in the right Person.
Father, You are the Author my salvation and the Giver of life. I confess that my mind is so often corrupted by the flesh and the world. Thank You for Your word that guides me and Your Spirit who leads me. Align my faith to Your word, so that I may believe and have life to the full. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
