From Doubt to Faith
John 20:24–31
My Lord and my God! John 20:28

What convinced Thomas that Jesus had risen from the dead? What finally got through to him was the presence of Christ, identified by the wounds in his hands, feet, and side. It was the Christ of the cross who reached Thomas. This is the greatest proof of all: the love of Christ revealed in his wounds. Do not misunderstand me here. If you have honest intellectual questions about Christianity, God will provide intellectual answers for them. He gave you a mind as well as a heart. He will provide what you need. But the thing that will ultimately win you is not so much the reasoned arguments, though they are often important stepping stones, but the love of Christ demonstrated by his death for you.

Here is some encouragement. Thomas was the most doubting of all Christ’s apostles. But notice that when the Lord revealed himself to Thomas, Thomas moved from doubt to the greatest testimony of faith in Christ recorded by this or any other Gospel. He said, “My Lord and my God.” “Lord” was sometimes used of Christ by others, often with less than its full meaning. But here it must have all the content it will bear—“Jehovah, Master, Sovereign.” “God” is a new form of address; no one had previously addressed the Lord in this way. It represents a great insight of faith, perhaps even greater than that similar confession of the apostle Peter for which he was commended by Christ (Matt. 16:13–17). Then, lest all this should be thought insufficient, Thomas uses the personal pronoun, saying, “My Lord and my God.” It was not enough that Jesus be both God and sovereign. He was now to be that for Thomas personally.

This is the high point of the Gospel. It is the climax. John shows here how one who began as a great doubter came by the grace of Christ to that confession with which the Gospel began: “And the Word was God” (John 1:1). The book was written to lead people to this conviction (20:30–31).

No case is hopeless. Your case is not hopeless. God took Abraham, the pagan, and made him into a pillar of faith and the father of his people. He took Moses, the stammerer, and made him into the greatest vehicle for the communication of the word of God until Paul. He made the shepherd boy David into a king; Peter “the weak” into Peter “the rock”; John the Son of Thunder into the apostle of love; Paul the persecutor of Christians into a faithful ambassador and martyr. He can do that for you. Allow him to do it. Believe on Christ. Rather than being faithless, may you be one who, like Thomas, was found “faith-full.”

Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865

Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.