You have to wonder about “doubting Thomas.” He gets a bad rap. In the same situation under the same circumstances I wonder how many of us would believe just because others seemed delusional and like they were hallucinating. His doubt is understandable. I mean, after all, how many times have we seen someone raised from the dead? True, they saw some like Lazarus, but it’s hardly a common or usual occurrence.
Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
1 Peter 1:8-9
Thomas has to go this whole next week without having seen Jesus. It makes you wonder what that week was like for him. What kind of heartache he still held. His world having been turned upside down. And if he didn’t believe what everyone else was telling him, what hope was there for him? What future was there for him?
Sometimes we like Thomas. In doubt. Or maybe we’re just forgetful. We forget the goodness of God; forget the grace of God; forget the miracles that we have seen time and time and time again; forget that God has given us everything. Given us an inheritance.
That’s what our passage in 1st Peter talks about in chapter one.
It reminds us that God has “caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for [us]…by God’s power…being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed at the last time,” and then it goes on, “for a little while…[we] have been greed by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of [our] faith—more precious than gold…may be found.” And it says, “though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice, that with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of [our] faith, the salvation of [our] souls” (1 Peter 1:3-9).
What a wonderful description! Thomas had these times of grieving; times of doubting; times when he wondered about what his faith and hope were going to be like.
We exist in that situation, too. We doubt. We grieve. We lose hope.
Those are times of testing of our faith.
But they are for a little while. We are grieved for a little while. We have trials for a little while. But the truth is, we have an inheritance that is kept for us through faith in Jesus. That is, through faith in Jesus, the One who has come the One who died; the One who rose the One who is living now and prepares a place for us — that inheritance is ours and is being kept for us, so that no matter what trials and heartaches we are going through now, we have an assurance that something greater awaits us; something that is far more than we can think or even imagine.
In our baptism, God makes this promise to us when he pulls us into his fold when he grants us forgiveness and faith; when He makes us His own. At that moment, he is guaranteed that inheritance for us through that faith. We realized that last week on Easter, and that fact still exists today! Through faith our inheritance is kept, no matter what doubts and trials we have — and that is something to celebrate. It is something to celebrate because “Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Hallelujah!” and amen.
Scripture
- 1 Peter 1:3-9
- John 20:19-31
