29 Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Jesus accepted worship from Thomas. If He were not God, then He would have abused truth itself.
29 Jesus said to him,
Jesus now pronounced a blessing on both Thomas and all subsequent people who believe that He rose physically from the dead. He received Thomas’s affirmation of His deity without objection. He loved this man regardless of his proclivity to doubt.
“Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed.
Genuine faith goes beyond personal experience. Thomas saw the risen Christ and then believed, but there is more to faith than that.
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Jesus here proclaimed a special blessing on those who have never personally experienced the resurrected Christ. People today have not observed the physical body of Jesus, yet they believe (2 Co 5:7).
The word “believed” carries the idea of a firm faith (perfect indicative). Those who are solid in what they believe have a satisfied faith. They are satisfied with who and what Jesus is.
PRINCIPLE:
It is important to put the Word of God over personal experience.
APPLICATION:
Believers in our generation hold a special blessing from Jesus because we believed without seeing His resurrected body. It is not necessary to obtain empirical evidence to believe in Jesus. Our Lord honors those who believe without seeing. Faith comes from response to the Word of God (Ro 10:17; 1 Jn 5:9-13).
When we render the Word of God to a lesser position than experience, we put priority in the wrong place. A growing obstinacy will come upon us; a devaluing of the Word of God will occur. God does not disallow a faith based on signs, but a more mature faith trusts what He says in His Word. This should give hesitation to those today who rest their faith solely on signs and miracles. The primary way God communicates with us today is through the Bible.
