John 20:29 " Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed".
Those who saw and believed not, were far from being blessed. Those who saw him, and believed, were undoubtedly blessed. Those who have not seen, and yet have believed, are emphatically blessed. There remains the superior degree of blessedness in seeing Jesus face to face without need of believing in the same sense as now. But for now this is our blessedness, this is our place in the gospel history, we have not seen, and yet we have believed. What a comfort to know that such a high degree of blessedness is available to us. This blessing is linked for ever with the faith that our Lord accepts. God deserves such faith of us, as he tell us just only believe.
But why are we so specially blessed? Because the holy spirit has brought this faith into our hearts. We are blessed in having a believing heart; we are blessed in the instrument of our belief; blessed in having the evidence that we will pass from death to life:" whom, having not seen, we love". It is more blessed to believe than to see, because it puts more honor upon God's word. We are blessed because we who can trust in an unseen savior, may trust him in all circumstances: shut us up in a dungeon, separate us from sight and light, it don't matter, for we will always have a heart to believe unto righteousness, and our soul rests upon a rock that shall never be moved. The same faith that takes hold of an unseen risen Savior, takes hold of every other truth in the gospel. With man we try first then to trust; but with God it is opposite. Faith makes invisible things visible, the absent things present, and things which seem far off, are very near to the soul.
O think of this, Christian, again and again, when we don't believe, we bear false witness against God! And if we are children of God, we must through faith present him to the world. We have not seen yet we believe, don't distort the truth of our faith by making picture, and graven images to give the world something to look at and believe in. Our believing is in fact our seeing. Let us be to the world the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen.
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