From Unbelief to Faith (John 20:26-28)

From Unbelief to Faith ​(20:26-28)

Why was Thomas absent when the disciples met on the evening of the resurrection day? Was he so disappointed that he didn't want to be with his friends? Usually, when we are discouraged and beaten down, we need our friends even more! Solitude feeds discouragement and lets it grow into self-pity, which is worse.

Maybe Thomas was afraid. But John 11:16 appears to make him out as a brave man, ready to go to Judea and die with the Lord! Thomas was a spiritual man who wanted to know the truth and was not ashamed to ask questions, as we see in John 14:5. Thomas appears to have had a "pessimistic" perspective. We sometimes call him “Doubting Thomas,” but Jesus did not reprimand him for his doubts. He upbraided him for unbelief, saying, "Be not faithless, but believing.” Doubt is often an intellectual problem: we want to believe, but our faith is flooded with problems and questions. Unbelief is a moral problem; we refuse to believe.

What would Thomas doubt? After all, the other Christians reported that Jesus Christ was alive. In John 20:25, the verb "said" is in the active voice, thus implying that they were saying to him that they had seen the Lord Jesus Christ alive. The women and the Emmaus pilgrims certainly added their witness to this testimony. We admire Thomas’s desire for personal experience but must fault him for laying down conditions for the Lord to meet.

He had two names like most people in those days: Both “Didymus” and “Thomas” mean "twin" in Greek and Aramaic, respectively. Who was Thomas’ twin? We don't know—but occasionally you and I feel as if we were his twins. How often have we refused to believe and required God to give us proof of Himself!

Thomas is a powerful warning to us all not to miss meeting with God’s people on the Lord’s Day (Heb. 10:22–25). Because Thomas was not there, he lost the opportunity of seeing Jesus Christ, of hearing His words of peace, of receiving His commission and gift of spiritual life. He had to go through a week of fear and unbelief when he could have had joy and peace! When you are tempted to miss church, think of Thomas. You never know what special blessing you might be missing!

However, he deserves credit for showing up the next week. The other ten men had told Thomas they had seen the Lord’s hands and side (John 20:20), so Thomas used that as his test. Thomas had seen Jesus raise Lazarus, so why doubt the resurrection of our Lord himself? But he still wanted proof; "seeing is believing."

Thomas’s words help us see the difference between doubt and unbelief. Doubt says, 'I can't believe it!' There are too many problems!” Unbelief says, “I will not believe unless you provide me the evidence I ask for!” In fact, the Greek text uses a double negative: 'I will positively not believe!'

Jesus had heard the words of Thomas. No one had to tell Him. So, on the next Lord’s Day, the Lord came into the room (again, the doors were locked) and addressed Thomas and his unbelief. He still said, “Shalom—peace!” to them. Even Thomas’ unbelief could not take away the peace and joy of the other disciples in the Lord.

How gracious our Lord is to come down to our plane of experience to lift us up to where we ought to be. The Lord gave Gideon the “tests of faith” he asked for (Judges 6:36-40), and He gave Thomas what he asked for too. There is no record that Thomas ever accepted the Lord’s invitation. When the time came to prove his faith, Thomas needed no further proof.

Our Lord told Thomas to stop becoming faithless but become a believer. Jesus saw a dangerous process underway in Thomas’s heart, and He wanted to stop it. The best commentary on this is Hebrews 3, where God warns of "an evil heart of unbelief” (Heb. 3:12).

The psychology of doubt and unbelief is difficult to understand. Maybe it's something to do with personality traits; some people are more trusting than others. Maybe Thomas was so downhearted that he was ready to give up, so he “threw out a challenge” and didn’t really think Jesus would take him up on it. But in any case Thomas was faced with his own words and had to make a decision.

John 20:29 shows that Thomas’ testimony was based not on touching Jesus but on seeing Him. My Lord and my God! This statement is the last of the testimonies to the deity of Jesus Christ that John records. The others are John the Baptist (John 1:34), Nathanael (John 1:49), Jesus Himself (John 5:25; 10:36), Peter (John 6:69), the healed blind man (John 9:35), Martha (John 11:27), and of course, John himself (John 20:30-31).

It is comforting to know that the Lord had a personal interest and concern for “Doubting Thomas.” He wanted to strengthen his faith and to share in the blessings that awaited His followers. Thomas reminds us that unbelief deprives us of blessings and opportunities. It may sound sophisticated and intellectual to ask what Jesus did, but usually such questions are evidence of unyielding hearts, not of searching minds. Thomas represents the "scientific method" of living, and it didn't work! When a skeptic says, “I won’t believe unless—,” he’s already admitting that he does believe! He believes in the validity of the test or experiment he has invented! If he can believe in his own “scientific approach,” why not believe in what God has revealed?

We have to remember that everyone lives by faith. The only thing different is what that faith is in. Christians believe in God and in His Word; unsaved people believe in themselves.