Believe and Live

John 20:30–31

It is a great blessing to come to the close of John's gospel and find, in his own words, the reason he took up the pen at all. He tells us plainly that Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, things not written in this book — and yet, out of everything he could have recorded, John chose these, for a specific and loving purpose: that we might believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, we might have life in His name.

I love that John is honest about what he left out. He is not trying to give an exhaustive account. He is a shepherd choosing carefully, the way any faithful under-shepherd does, what his people most need to see so that their faith will hold.

Just before this, Thomas had said he would not believe unless he could put his own hand in the wounds. And the Lord, in His kindness, met him there — but then turned and spoke a blessing over everyone who would come after: blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. That blessing is for us. It is for the men and women of this church who were not there in that upper room, who never touched the wounds, and yet whose faith is no less real, no less precious in the sight of God, for having believed on the strength of His Word alone.

That is what belief in Christ has always looked like for His people. It is a faith that works itself out with fear and trembling, not because we are uncertain of Him, but because we take seriously what has been entrusted to us. John did not write so that we would admire Jesus from a distance. He wrote so that we would lean the whole weight of our lives on Him — the way a son leans on a father he has come to know is faithful.

In a world that wants proof for everything, it's easy to feel that our faith is somehow lesser because we did not see what the disciples saw. But John anticipated that. He wrote for us — for the ones who would come to believe not by sight, but by hearing, and hearing through the Word. And he tells us that this is enough. Not a lesser way of coming to Christ, but the very way God ordained, so that trust would not have to wait on sight, and life in His name would be within reach of every generation that would ever read these words.

So, I would ask you, as I would ask my own heart: where are you still waiting to see before you are willing to believe? I want to commend to you, wholeheartedly, the sufficiency of what has been written. It has been tested, it has held up the faith of the saints across every generation since, and it is more than able to hold yours. If your belief wavers this week, I would count it a blessing to sit with you and walk through it—that is, after all, what we are for one another in this body.

"These are written so that you may believe... and that by believing you may have life in his name."

Loving God and loving others,

Pastor Peter