To Encourage You

John 20:29 “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

God has ordained that it is by hearing the Word of God that belief comes to the heart of an unbeliever, for we are told that “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17). God gave direct evidence to those men who gave us the Scriptures. We are told that these supernatural inspired writings are “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrew 4:12). There is great power in the Word of God, life-giving power. It is called the Sword of the Spirit, a powerful weapon against unbelief.

Yet there are many who refuse to believe the Word of God. It isn’t enough for them. They demand more proof than this. They question the authenticity, relevance, and truthfulness of God’s Word, and thereby take their seat with the fools who have rejected God’s Word throughout history (and that’s exactly how the Bible describes those who don’t believe it – just read Proverbs). But here’s a news flash. Every unbeliever who has ever passed from this life has now seen what he or she wouldn’t believe without seeing. They now know, to their eternal regret, that the Word that they ignored or rejected was indeed true. They’ve now seen, but they are anything but blessed. That’s how it continues today, and that’s how it will be in the future, until the Lord returns.

The rich man in Jesus’ account in Luke 16 eventually saw the blessedness of the poor man Lazarus, whom he had ignored for his entire life, but it was too late. He saw, but he was cursed, not blessed. The demons who saw Christ during His time on earth, believed, because they knew without a shadow of a doubt who He really was, but they were anything but blessed in their seeing. Then there was King Belshazzar of Babylon during the time of Daniel (Daniel 5). He mocked the God of Israel as He partied with the sacred implements of the temple. Then, suddenly, He say a supernatural hand writing on a wall, and the writing he saw pronounced his imminent death. Here he saw, but but there was absolutely no blessing to accompany it.

“Blessed are those” Jesus said, “who have not seen and yet have believed.” Blessed are those, in other words, whose believing comes before they have seen. They too, will of course see someday. These, who are “poor in spirit,” i.e., that have believed what God has said about their sin in His Word and have received God’s merciful forgiveness made possible through the death and resurrection of His Son, are the ones who have mourned over that sin, and have received God’s cleansing. It is these people and these alone that God has blessed with a pure heart. And it is only those who have this pure heart, that have received cleansing by believing though they have not seen, that will see God (Matthew 5:8), and with that sight, great and eternal blessing.