Gems in the Gospel of John
Part 93 - John 20:29
Encouragement
This is my favourite verse in all of scripture. 20: 29, “Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’” I find that hugely encouraging. I hope you will too.
The beloved disciple believed when he saw the empty tomb and the folded grave clothes. Mary believed when she heard a familiar voice calling her name; the disciples did when they met the Lord behind closed and locked doors; Thomas was particularly blessed when he saw the scars close up. Many Christians since then have seen some remarkable event or had a striking dream.
But many, like me, have had no such experience, no excitement or enormously compelling event has ever come their way. Are we then second-class citizens of heaven, never quite sure of our standing before the Lord? No! With this one brief sentence he puts all our fears to rest. He makes sure that we know we are, in his eyes, as good as any saint who ever lived.
Perhaps you, like me, are a rather boring, quiet, ordinary believer, who can lay claim to no wonderful experience, no amazing healing, no great gift that clearly marks you out as one of the chosen ones, - just an ordinary plodding sort of believer. So what! Love this word, “Then Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’” Be sure that your true basis in faith is in the written, unchanging, word of the Bible. That is a far better foundation than any experience, excitement or human based teaching.
John goes on in the last two verses of this chapter to say, “ Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” it is not clear whether this is referring to all the signs that Jesus performed throughout his ministry, the ones he has recorded, those the other Gospel-writers have recorded, and all the rest, or whether he is really referring just to the special signs Jesus did after his resurrection. Although that is much argued about, as is the question whether this was originally the end of the Gospel until John decided to add one more chapter, it doesn’t really matter. The one and only purpose of it all is that ‘by believing you may have life in his name’. make sure you do!
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