After Jesus' resurrection, the disciples were in a closed room, huddled together in fear of the Jews who had been responsible for the death of Jesus. To their surprise and joy, Jesus suddenly appeared to them. He showed them His wounds and gave them instructions for the future. Thomas, one of Jesus' disciples, wasn't with the rest during this appearance. When the others were with him and telling him they had seen the Lord, he refused to believe it unless he saw for himself and was able to touch Jesus' wounds.
After eight more days, they were all again in a closed room together, this time with Thomas. Once again Jesus appeared to them. After greeting them, Jesus spoke directly to Thomas and said, "Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into my side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing." Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" Then Jesus said, "Because you have seen Me, you've believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed."
Perhaps Jesus wasn't rebuking Thomas. Perhaps Jesus was simply pointing out that Thomas had needed to see in order to believe while those who do not need to see to believe are blessed. Regardless, Jesus seems to be rebuking Thomas and commending those who believe despite their lack of visual evidence.
This story got me wondering. Could Thomas have done anything differently? Could he have believed without having seen the physical evidence first? IE, was his believing or not a choice that he had made? And that leads to the broader question, can anyone choose to believe something that they hadn't formerly believed?
In my opinion, since all mankind is called to repent and believe in Jesus, this question is a "crux of the matter" question. Can someone who does not believe be changed by his own will into someone who does believe? If the answer is "yes", then the next question is "how"? If the answer is "no", then how can people be held responsible for what or whom they believe? And why would Jesus rebuke Thomas for not believing the other disciples?
These thoughts brought me back to my own experience, 47 years ago. I've written about it on another post so will zero in on one part of that experience that I had one night. I was an unbeliever at the time who had become desperate to know the truth. I was watching TV, flipping through the channels, when I flipped to one that had an evangelist by the name of Billy Graham talking. I flipped just in time to hear him say, "All you have to do is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved." I immediately changed the channel in anger. I was thinking, "That's all I have to do? Great all I have to do is change my mind from not believing something that seems completely unbelievable to, simply, believing it! Wow, I didn't know it was so easy." In case I'm not making it clear, this was said in sarcasm.
But I did get up out of my chair that night and go outside where I looked up at the stars and said to the God I did not believe in, "If you're real, and what that guy on TV said is true, I don't believe in you. But if you're real, and you're listening to me, I want to believe in you. If you're real, please help me." And that was that. Nothing happened and I was still an atheist. But some time later, my little sister challenged me to go to a men's Bible study at her church where I could show them how smart I was (she was tired of my sarcasm). I agreed to go, with the plan that I was going to show them how smart I was and how dumb they were. When I got there, the leader was taking them through some passage in the Bible. As I started listening something miraculous happened. I simply started believing.
Looking back, I could see that God had answered my prayer asking for help. And that's where I think our responsibility lies. I believe that God will meet us where we are. If we don't believe, He'll help us with that. Whatever the barrier, God can remove it. So Thomas could have done that. He could have approached God with his unbelief and asked for help.
This all brings me to another point. It is that we are all dependent on God. We want to be self-made, self-sufficient, and in control. We don't like admitting weakness and inability. Another name for those sentiments is pride. We are, by nature, proud creatures. But Peter and James both say the same thing about that... "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (1Peter 5:5-6 and James 4:6-7).
This is an essential ingredient in salvation. We must humble ourselves and seek God's help. If we try to go it alone, as Thomas did, we aren't going to get anywhere. And while this is true about unbelievers becoming believers, it's also true of the Christian who wants to grow. In Galatians 5:25 Paul says, "If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit." We live (spiritually) by the grace of God. He gives us revelation and he gives us faith. As we came to life by His grace and help, so we also must grow in the same way.
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