We Can
Understand Thomas
Thomas
just could not believe the impossible.
And it’s hard to blame him! It’s
hard to fault Thomas for not believing something so outlandish as a person
rising from the dead! Thomas had been
the only one who wasn’t there that Easter evening. He had been the only one of the 11 remaining
disciples who hadn’t locked himself in an upstairs room hiding from the
Jews. But soon after that night he met
up with the disciples again and they told him how Jesus had actually appeared
to them and had proven that he was alive.
But Thomas was skeptical. Thomas
wasn’t buying it. And, truthfully, I
don’t think I would have either if I were him.
“So, let
me get this straight,” I can imagine myself saying to them. “While you guys were in a house, all crammed
into one room with the doors bolted shut, undoubtedly working yourselves up
with a bunch of conspiracy theories, after a long weekend of not getting hardly
any sleep at all, and with various people filling your minds with stories about
how they had apparently seen Jesus at different times and in different places
earlier in the day, Jesus himself - the one whom we saw crucified, the one
whose corpse was taken down from the cross, the one whose grave is within
walking distance - that Jesus somehow magically and physically appeared inside
the room you were in and talked to you?
Really? Excuse me for being a
pessimist, but I find that a little hard to believe. Look, I know he raised other people from the
dead when he was alive, but this is not the same thing. No one can raise himself from the dead. No one. That is impossible. The only way I’ll believe you is if I stick
my finger into the actual nail holes in his hands and his feet and can slide my
hand into the gash in his side.”
I
understand Thomas. I get why he wouldn’t
believe what the other disciples told him.
Because although I would like to think that I would instantly accept the
greatest of God’s miracles, the fact of the matter is, I would probably be more
like Thomas: skeptical, cynical, doubtful.
Because believing the impossible is… well, impossible. It is impossible to believe the impossible if
it is left up to us.
We Marvel at
Abraham
And so
that’s why we marvel at a man like Abraham.
Unlike Thomas, Abraham believed the impossible and seemingly without
missing a beat! The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid,
Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” But Abram said, “O Sovereign Lord, what can
you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is
Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said,
“You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my
heir.” Then the word of the Lord came to
him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will
be your heir.” He took him outside and
said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count
them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it
to him as righteousness.
Abraham
was a relatively old man by this time - probably in his mid 80s. And not only that, but his elderly wife Sarah
was physically unable to bear children.
The Bible says that she was “barren” which means that there was probably
something physically wrong that prevented her from having a child. And so you can see the dilemma Abraham was
in. He would never have a son who would
inherit everything that the Lord had blessed him with throughout the years,
including the Promised Land that he was standing on. But the Lord had impossible plans in mind. And he promised Abraham that despite his
wife’s physical condition, regardless of their age, and no matter what
experience had told Abraham was possible and probable in the past, Abraham’s physical
descendants would one day number the stars in the sky. And Abraham believed the impossible.
Abraham
believed even though it wasn’t anything Abraham could see. It wasn’t anything Abraham could touch. It wasn’t anything he could prove, logically
satisfy, or intellectually comprehend. God’s
promise was impossible. But Abraham
believed the impossible anyway. And we
marvel at that, don’t we? How could he
believe the impossible to be true? Because
he wasn’t an idiot. He wasn’t naïve or
clueless or brainwashed. Abraham was a
very smart, a very intelligent, a very experienced, and a very thoughtful
man. And so how could he possibly
believe that not only would he be able to produce a child in his old age, and
not only would his wife be able to bear a child in her old age when she had
never been able to before, but also that his descendants would rival the stars
in the sky? How could Abraham believe
the impossible? The short answer is: he
couldn’t. At least not on his own.
We are
Incapable of Believing on Our Own
No one
is capable of believing the impossible on their own. Because, contrary to popular opinion, we are
not born with faith to believe the impossible.
Faith is not like your mind or your heart that you have from the very
beginning and you can apply it to whatever you want. “I like this or I want this or I feel this
way or I’m going to decide to do this…”
Faith doesn’t work like that. I
know that’s how people talk in our society now, but it’s misleading. Because you might hear someone say, “Oh, you
just have to have faith that the weather will be good tomorrow.” Or you might hear someone else say, “Believe
in yourself; you can do it!” But that
kind of “faith” and that kind of “believing” is nothing more than wishful
thinking and self-confidence. Wishful
thinking and self-confidence is not how the Bible describes faith. Faith according to God is a sure knowledge
that something God says or does is true even though you can’t see it, explain
it, prove it, or logically figure it out.
Faith is sometimes directly contrary to your experience, your logic,
your intelligence, and your common sense.
And so
when the Bible says something like: Jesus was born from a virgin girl, our
experience wants to step in and say, “What a minute! That can’t happen! That’s not physically possible so that can’t
be true!” And when the Bible says
something like: When Jesus died on the cross, he took away every sin you have
ever committed, our logic wants to interrupt and say, “No! That doesn’t make any sense! Someone else’s death cannot erase your
faults! That’s ridiculous!” And when the Bible says something like: Jesus
rose from the dead three days after he died, our intelligence wants to jump up
and scream, “Impossible! No one comes
back to life after three days in a grave!
That is nothing more than a tall tale, a myth made up by fanatics two
thousand years ago!” And when the Bible
says something like: Jesus is now in heaven, a perfect Paradise where everyone
who believes in him will one day live forever, our common sense wants pull out
its hair, “Are you kidding me? Where is
the proof that this place exists? Where
are the facts? Where is the evidence? Some ancient book can’t make an outrageous
claim like that without backing it up!”
Our minds and our hearts and our feelings - all of those things that we
have been born with - do not allow us to believe in Jesus or his Word. Because those things do not believe; they
think and feel and react. Faith believes. But we are born without faith; and without
it, we are lost.
We are Given
the Gift of Faith
So how
is it that Abraham believed? If no one
is born with faith, how could Abraham believe anything, let alone believe the
impossible? Abraham was able to believe
the impossible because he was given faith as a gift by God. That is the only way anyone receives faith:
by God’s gracious gift. And we know that
is the way it is because the Bible says this, “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not from
yourselves - it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8-9). Faith is a gift from
God. And how does he give you that
gift? “Faith comes from hearing the message” (Rom. 10:17), the Bible also
says. God gives people the gift of faith
through the message about Jesus written down in his Word. So when a person reads the Bible, hears it,
studies it, or is baptized with its word and promises, God is able to give the
gift of faith to a person’s lost soul. He
has given the gift of faith to your lost soul in the same. And so through this gift of faith, you now
believe the impossible.
Your
faith now says to your experience: I know someone can’t be born of a virgin
girl, but the Bible says that Jesus was, and so it’s true. Your faith says to your logic: I know that
someone else’s death usually doesn’t have an effect on the sins of others, but
Jesus’ death did, and so I am forgiven. Your
faith says to your intelligence: I know that the laws of nature make it
impossible for someone to rise from the dead after three days, but Jesus did,
and so I am saved. Your faith says to your
common sense: I know that I cannot prove the existence of heaven; there is no
evidence; there are no facts outside of these pages of the Bible; but Jesus
said there is such a place, and because of what he did for me, that’s where I
will one day be. The faith that God has
given you believes. It doesn’t just
wish; it isn’t merely self-confidence.
Faith believes that Jesus is your Savior; faith believes in everything
that he has done; faith believes in everything that he promises. Faith believes in anything coming from God’s
Word, even the impossible.
We are Credited
with Righteousness
And so
as Abraham looked up into the sky that night and saw the thousands upon
thousands of stars lining the heavens, he believed the impossible. With that gift of faith from his God, he knew
that what God promised was true despite with his experience, logic,
intelligence, and common sense were screaming.
But he not only believed that his descendants would grow to that
uncountable number, he also believed in another promise God had given him: that
all nations on earth would be blessed through him. Because from his descendants would come the
Christ, the Messiah, the chosen Savior of the world. This was another incredible promise that the
Lord had given to Abraham. A promise he
would never see happen. A promise he
could only dream about. But Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it
to him as righteousness.
Did you
catch that? This is the most
mind-boggling part of this entire story!
Abram believed the Lord, and he
credited it to him as righteousness.
God gave Abraham the gift of faith to believe in his impossible
promises. And because Abraham believed,
God then considered him righteous - holy, blameless, sinless, perfect - in his
sight on account of the gift God himself had given him! God gave Abraham credit for the gift God had
given Abraham! The grace of God is
astounding, is it not? Not only does God
give you the gift of faith to believe in your Savior, but then he counts that
faith as perfection so that you can be accepted into heaven! We can’t be perfect like we’re supposed to
be! We can’t be sinless, pure, holy, or righteous
on our own. But God counts the faith he
has given us as just as good.
And so
in the end we don’t do anything. We are
going to go to heaven and we didn’t do a single thing on our own to make it
happen! Jesus did it all! 1) He gave us himself as the sacrifice. 2) He gave us the gift of faith to believe
it. 3) He counts that faith as our
ticket to heaven. The Lord’s love and
his grace and his generosity seem too good to be true, don’t they? In fact, it almost seems impossible. But thanks to our Lord, we actually believe
in the impossible because, through faith, we know that really nothing is
impossible with God.
Amen.
“May the Lord
Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us, and by his grace gave us
eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you
in every good deed and word.” - 2 Thess.
1:12
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