Christ had risen indeed!

Reports of the resurrection came to the disciples, and some saw the Lord. Terrified soldiers had fled from the grave that they so vainly had been guarding. Their lies and loyalty were secured with money from the chief priests.

Jesus appeared to the women, and they worshiped him and held him by the feet.

Jesus appeared to Mary. “Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended,” he lovingly told her. Mary had a misconception of the resurrection of Christ that would not have been helped by touching Christ.

John and Peter raced to the tomb, and they saw the place where the Lord had lain. They saw the undisturbed grave clothes and the napkin neatly folded and laying in the corner of Jesus’ tomb.

Two on the road to Emmaus talked with Jesus. This stranger opened to them the scriptures, showing them from Moses and the prophets that the Christ had to first suffer these things and then would rise the third day. With their hearts burning the two men had listened to the familiar and comforting voice of this stranger until at dinner—after he took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them—they caught a glimpse of him, and then he vanished from their sight. They raced back to Jerusalem to tell the disciples.

It had been a glorious—perplexing—but glorious day. The fact of the resurrection was slowly impressing itself on the minds of the disciples.

Then they gathered in the upper room that Sunday evening, the doors being locked for fear of the Jews, wondering what all those things meant.

And there Jesus appeared. He came into the room. “Peace be unto you,” he said to his terrified disciples. These were not the words of a polite and cordial greeting, but they were the gracious words of the disciples’ justification preached to them by the Lord himself that Sunday evening to soothe their troubled souls. Peace is the benefit of Christ’s cross. He was delivered up to the cross by God on account of our offenses and was raised on account of our justification, and we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. “My children, have ye any meat?” he asked the troubled group. And he ate a little piece of honeycomb and some fish. “See my hands and see my sides,” he said to the disciples. “Do spirits have flesh and blood?” he asked. He upbraided them for their unbelief because they believed not those who had seen him after the resurrection. And he caused the disciples to understand the law, the prophets, and the psalms concerning his death and resurrection.

But Thomas!

One was missing! “One of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.”

Thomas had missed the appearance of the Lord. After the other disciples told Thomas about the Lord’s resurrection, Thomas uttered those shocking words of unbelief: “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

You must have a picture of Thomas.

We are not interested in Thomas as such.

We are interested in Thomas because scripture teaches us about salvation through the salvation of Thomas.

Thomas was one of the twelve disciples whom Jesus Christ had hand-picked to follow him and to learn from him and whom Jesus commissioned to go to the lost sheep of the household of Israel.

His names, both Thomas and Didymus, mean the twin and probably also mean the smaller one of the two. He was the weaker, smaller, and lesser of the twins. We read nothing of his twin. The Lord sometimes saves one brother and not another. That is his sovereign right. He did so with Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, and perhaps he did the same with Thomas and his twin.

But these names tell us nothing of Thomas’ spiritual character.

Rather than by his names, Thomas revealed himself when he spoke. Out of the heart the mouth speaks.

Scripture says in John 11:16, “Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellowdisciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him.” After recently leaving Judea because the Jews had been ready to stone Jesus, he informed the disciples that they were going back to Judea to see Lazarus and to wake him from his sleep. Then Thomas, of all the disciples, said, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” One could say that this revealed gloomy Thomas, or pessimistic Thomas, or earthy Thomas. But his statement shows about Thomas that he was not afraid of death for Jesus’ sake. It was not death as such that was a problem for Thomas. It was not even the death of Jesus that was the problem for Thomas; he did not shy away from a good fight. The good fight as far as he was concerned redeemed the death.

Thomas’ statement also shows that as far as he was concerned, if Jesus would die, then Thomas might as well die too and that he thus saw the death of Jesus as the end. The statement shows further that Thomas believed that he would be with the Lord wherever he went, also into death. Thomas loved the Lord deeply.

It was also Thomas who had responded on the eve of the crucifixion, the night in which Jesus was betrayed, to Jesus’ instruction to his disciples: “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know” (John 14:3–4).

Thomas contradicted the Lord: “Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?” (John 14:5). The cross and the resurrection were the farthest things from Thomas’ mind as the way to eternal life, but he knew that he would be where the Lord is; Thomas would be near to Jesus, and Thomas would know the way.

And it is important to understand Thomas’ absence from the disciples on that Sunday evening when the Lord first appeared to them. For Thomas, if Christ was dead, why even gather together? The one who had been the very bond of their fellowship was gone, and so the group was done.

So Thomas missed the appearance of the Lord. The reason is not specifically stated in scripture, yet the reason is not hard to surmise. The offense that had caused Thomas, along with the other disciples, to abandon Christ in the garden still lodged stubbornly in Thomas’ heart. The root reason was unbelief. His unbelief is to be explained by his carnal conception of Christ, his coming, his work, and his kingdom and also by Thomas’ carnal conception of himself. In his own eyes he was not truly a sinner whose salvation consisted in God’s justifying the ungodly. Thomas seemingly understood less than his father Abraham, who had understood that God justifies the ungodly and thus that the promised seed had to die and be raised again for the justification of his people. Abraham had seen Christ’s day afar off and was glad, for through Christ Abraham had seen the salvation of himself and of all his spiritual children gathered from many nations. But Thomas was blind to all that through unbelief. The death of Christ was the end of Christ, and that death could not have come in a worse way: Christ willingly had been crucified on the accursed tree.

After Christ had appeared to the disciples, they came and told Thomas, “We have seen the Lord.”

Understand what those few words meant. The disciples told Thomas about what they had seen. “We have seen Christ’s body. We have seen the nail prints in his hands and his feet and the spear hole in his side. We have seen Jesus himself in his resurrection body and not a spirit. Jesus terrified us at first but comforted us with the gospel of peace. Salvation is accomplished. All the things spoken by Moses and the prophets have been fulfilled. We have seen Jesus alive—strangely different, otherworldly, glorious, hidden and revealed, here and there, glimpsed and gone. But Jesus is alive. He is able to appear here and there, to come into a room whose doors are firmly locked. He materializes and then is gone again. Yet he ate with us, spoke with us, and commissioned us to preach this gospel.”

And they said, “We have seen the Lord!” Not Jesus, but Lord. That word Lord is the truth of the resurrection. Jesus is absolute Lord over all. He is revealed as Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He is crowned with glory and honor. He is David’s greater son with his greater kingdom. By grace he is the Lord particularly of the church. He is the only head and king of his church, which is his body and his bride, for whom he laid down his life and about whom he said that the gates of hell cannot prevail against her.

By the resurrection Jesus was declared to be the Son of God with power: power over all things, power over death and hell and the grave, and power to justify and to save. Oh, he has power to give life to whomsoever he will and the power to withhold life, power to forgive and to bind, and power to carry out God’s eternal counsel and purpose for the salvation of his chosen church and for the destruction of the kingdom of darkness.

The gospel of the resurrection that the disciples preached to Thomas was a gospel of peace. It was the gospel that Jesus had been delivered over to the cross because of our offenses and that he was raised for our justification. Yes, that is the gospel. The gospel is Jesus Christ, the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. It is a gospel that the church, in the apostles, is commissioned to preach to every creature: Jesus is risen. The Lord lives and reigns. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved. He who believes not shall be damned!

But Thomas responded, “I will not believe.”

The disciples had seen the Lord, but Thomas had seen things too. He had seen many things. Thomas revealed to us that when the Bible says that the disciples all forsook Jesus and fled, they did not totally run away in a physical sense. John and Peter trailed Christ all the way to his trial. John was at the foot of the cross. So all the disciples had to have been near the scene. There at an appropriate distance from Christ, Thomas had seen many things. He had seen Christ be captured and give himself up! Thomas had seen the soldiers nail Christ to the cross. Thomas had seen the soldier thrust a spear into Christ’s side, for Thomas mentioned these things in his unbelief: “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

Thomas’ problem was exactly that he saw only those things and what they revealed to the eyes of man, that is, Christ had suffered a total defeat. The cross, the nail prints, and the spear thrust say nothing but total defeat to the unbelieving man. The cross is scandalous to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks.

Do not say doubting Thomas. He was not the quintessential skeptic.

Do not say pessimistic Thomas. He was not the perpetually glass-half-empty man, always looking on the bad side.

Doubting Thomas or pessimistic Thomas looks at Thomas’ problem as a natural one; he merely needed more time or more instruction. But his problem was a profoundly spiritual one.

He was unbelieving Thomas.

The precise character of his unbelief was that he would see and touch first and then believe, as though faith comes by seeing and touching, and thus as though faith in the resurrection of Christ is in the power of man’s investigation, in the power of man’s intellect, and in the power of man’s touch and sight. Thomas put faith in his own power, motivated by the power of his intellectual apprehension of the scene that he took in through his senses. It was as though the knowledge of Christ, the cross of Christ, and the resurrection of Christ comes by man’s ability.

“Unless I see, I will not believe,” said Thomas. Monstrous, shocking, astounding unbelief.

Unbelief is always astounding. Astounding in its boldness, ignorance, and hardness. Thomas was unbelieving in the face of that glorious gospel of the resurrection that had been preached to him by the disciples.

Thomas drove home his own unbelief. Out of that unbelief he spoke. “Unless I should see the nail prints in his hands; indeed, unless I should thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. I will certainly not believe.” Thomas was speaking out of unbelief’s understanding of a resurrection too, that is, it is a mere return or coming back. If a crucified Christ came back, he would have to bear his stigmata.

And Thomas’ adamant insistence on his own unbelief was saying that he would not believe that Christ’s death had any value whatsoever. Thomas would steadfastly maintain that Christ’s death was worthless and vain and that it was not the way to bring God’s kingdom. Thomas would deny that by his death Christ had purchased righteousness, holiness, and eternal life for his own and had opened wide the doors of the kingdom of heaven that the righteous might enter in with joy. Thomas would not believe that Christ had paid for Thomas’ sins by that death and that through Christ’s cross Thomas had peace with the living God. Thomas would not believe that the cross was God’s but believed that the cross was the work of men who had overcome Jesus, and what was worse, it appeared that Jesus had let them do that to him. Thomas would not believe that God’s righteousness, grace, and wisdom were manifested in the cross. Thomas would not believe that the cross was the victory over the world, sin, darkness, hell, death, and the grave and the only ground and foundation of salvation. He would deny what Christ himself had shouted from the cross: “It is finished!” Because for Thomas Christ’s cross was worthless and vain, Christ was also not the living Lord. Whatever became of him, Thomas knew not, but raised he was not, for he had been crucified!

Thomas had to have been utterly miserable, a prisoner of his own stubbornness and hard heart and blind to the miracle of his own salvation that the resurrection of Christ proclaimed.

The Lord had to appear to Thomas. God draws his elect irresistibly in spite of their unbelief.

Eight days passed between that outburst of unbelief and Thomas’ conversion.

Jehovah had seen all and heard all.

Thomas was gathered with the disciples in the upper room. The doors were shut, and the Lord appeared in the room and said, “Peace be unto you.”

Then he turned to Thomas and spoke.

That was Thomas’ salvation!

The resurrected Christ Jesus, Thomas’ Lord and his God, came and spoke to him. That was the deliverance of Thomas from his unbelief. It was not Thomas’ own seeing that saved him. It was the Lord through his voice who called Thomas from his unbelief to faith and who used Thomas’ sight to do so. Christ’s voice is what made the difference. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And the Word of God had spoken.

And Christ presented himself for Thomas’ inspection: “Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.” Thomas could have touched Christ, stuck his fingers into the nail holes, and put his fist into Christ’s side, so that with his hands and eyes he could have grasped the objective fact of the resurrection, and he would have remained unbelieving because the resurrection of Christ, the power and glory of that resurrection, is not received by the senses of sight and touch but by faith.

The Lord called Thomas to faith.

And what a changed Thomas!

Out of his faith he spoke as formerly he had spoken out of his unbelief. Gone were the obstinacy and the stubborn insistence on sight and touch, and a confession flowed out of his heart and mouth that indicated that he had grasped the truth and power of the resurrection by faith.

“My Lord and my God!”

So few words but so full of meaning.

When Thomas said those words, he was acknowledging not only who Christ is and what he had accomplished through his cross and resurrection but acknowledging also his profound awareness of his own sinfulness, his knowledge of the utter impossibility of salvation in himself, and that he understood that through the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ, he had died and was risen in Christ. Thomas understood at that moment that he had passed from death into eternal life, that he was a partaker of everlasting righteousness and an heir of the new heaven and new earth, and that he was being governed by the living Lord Jesus Christ through his Spirit and word.

Thomas’ confession was a declaration about the cross of Christ and Christ crucified.

He who apprehends the resurrection, or rather is apprehended by the resurrected Christ, apprehends the power of the cross first of all. He is not scandalized by the cross. He glories in Christ crucified. Thomas was glorying in his crucified Lord with the nail prints in his hands and the spear thrust in his side, as the one who was the Lamb slain from all eternity in the counsel of God and manifested at the cross of Calvary to make known a righteousness that is without the law. Christ’s humiliation remains forever his glory, and the marks of his crucifixion are the marks of the victor and the conqueror. The resurrection declares that the cross was the perfect work of God to earn and merit salvation for Christ’s people. The resurrection declares that at the cross of Christ, God was in Christ reconciling his people to himself. The resurrection declares the cross to be the fulfillment of all God’s promises, the death of sin, the taking away of reproaches, and the one perfect sacrifice for sin and redemption.

Thomas’ words were a confession about Christ.

For Thomas confessed that Christ was his Lord and his God. That is the gospel of the resurrection of Christ—not only that he lives or that he is returned to this life, but also that God made him both Lord and Christ. Thomas saw Christ in a whole new light—as God who had become flesh and who had entered into death itself and arose as the conqueror of sin, death, hell, and the grave and who thus made himself Thomas’ Lord because he had purchased Thomas as his own peculiar possession. The resurrection declares Christ to be Lord: Lord of his church, Lord of the nations, and Lord of all. The resurrection declares Christ to be God: God of God, Light of Light, and true God of true God, so that it was impossible that he should be holden of death. The resurrection declares that Christ has passed beyond the possibility of death and has brought immortality and eternal life to light.

Such was the transformation wrought in Thomas by his brief encounter with the Lord, that he became an entirely new man whose sight was no longer restricted to what he could see with the eye of the body, but who saw by the eye of faith the things of God’s eternal kingdom of which he was sure that he had a part. He was saved at that moment from the terrible prison of his own unbelief, transformed in his heart and mind, justified, and glorified by the words of the crucified and risen Lord.

Thomas believed!

Not because he saw, touched, or handled the Word of Life, but because the Word of Life came to him, spoke to him, and called him to faith from unbelief, transfixing him by the vision of Christ’s glory apprehended then by faith.

This was the Lord’s rebuke of Thomas: “Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet believe.”

Understand what the Lord said to Thomas. Because you saw, you believed. The Lord worked in Thomas by his seeing. I think that Thomas did not take the Lord up on his command to touch him. I know it was a command of Christ, but I believe the Lord was rebuking Thomas and did not demand Thomas to touch him. Besides, the Lord said only that Thomas had seen. He saw. That was the Lord’s accommodation to Thomas. The voice of the Lord worked with Thomas’ seeing to give him faith, but it was faith that the Lord gave to him.

Seeing, he believed; and believing, he was saved.

The seeing of Thomas—or if you insist, the touching of Thomas—did not allow him to apprehend the power and the truth of the resurrection of Christ. The Lord gave faith to him. The resurrection belongs to that which eye cannot see and ear cannot hear and what has never entered into the heart of man to conceive. The truth, power, and glory of the resurrection of Christ is known only by faith. The power of the resurrection of Christ comes into the soul of man only by faith. Faith is salvation. Faith is joy unspeakable in the knowledge of that resurrection. Thomas saw and believed. He was ready then to be an eyewitness to the glory of Christ wherever Christ would send him.

So Christ spoke of those who have not seen and yet believe. Christ himself gave to Thomas a prophecy of the innumerable throng of his people who will hear and believe.

They will never see on this earth the risen Christ. There is no possibility of their seeing him, for Christ has passed into heaven to appear in the presence of God for his people. Christ will not be seen by human eyes again until he appears on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, and then there will be no more time to believe.

That is why they are blessed who have not seen and yet believe. They need not see the risen Lord. They need only to believe. Not by seeing but by believing is the way the resurrection of Christ and the resurrected Christ are known. And faith does not come by seeing but by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.

And that is their blessing. Blessed are they who see not and yet believe. They are blessed in their faith. Their faith is a blessing to them. Just as Thomas’ faith was to him a gift of the risen Lord, so their faith is to them a blessing. A most glorious blessing because by that faith they, as Thomas, apprehend the truth and power of the resurrection of Christ as the power of God for their salvation. By that faith they are partakers of the life and blessedness of the risen Christ. Their faith is their salvation and joy unspeakable and full of glory. Blessed are those who do not see, have not seen, and yet believe.

That is you and that is me and that is all God’s people in this dispensation. They see not and believe. Some here and some there. But they hear Christ; and hearing, they believe; and believing, they are saved.