Faithful to His Word

"Then the other disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also; and he saw and believed. ⁹ For as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead."

John 20:8-9

After the disciples of Jesus heard the body of Jesus was no longer in the tomb, some ran to investigate.  Peter and John are described as looking into the empty tomb, saw the graveclothes lying there with the headcovering folded neatly by itself, and they believed.  They believed the body of Jesus was not in the tomb based upon what they saw, yet John 20:9 shows the scripture had already revealed the truth of Christ's resurrection from the dead.  God has given us eyes and physical senses we are to use wisely and can confirm the truth of what God has already said.

I love that God's work is not dependent upon the perfect knowledge of God's people.  God is sovereign and rules over all, able to accomplish His plans despite the ignorance of those who fear and trust Him.  The disciples did not at the time know the scripture, yet the passage is clear they would come to know and believe it.  The Bible has many examples of people who needed to see to believe, and others who believed without seeing.  Both groups can have genuine faith that brings honour and glory to God.  Our gracious heavenly Father knows what is required to convince mankind of the truth, and using both our senses and the word of God we are brought to greater understanding.

Women who visited the tomb reported the body of Jesus had been taken from the tomb, and later Mary Magdalene reported she had seen the risen LORD Jesus.  The disciples did not act like Jesus had risen from the dead, for they assembled behind locked doors for fear of the Jews.  Suddenly Jesus stood in the midst and proclaimed peace to them.  From then on they ascribed belief in the resurrection of Jesus and told Thomas, who was not with them the first night of the week, that they had seen the LORD.  It was not until Jesus personally appeared to Thomas and bid him touch His wounds Thomas gladly proclaimed, "My LORD and my God."

How good is the word of God to prepare us by revealing Jesus is LORD!  Consider how valuable the revelation by the word of the LORD was to the virgin Mary when she was told the Holy Spirit would cause her to conceive and bring forth a Son.  She believed the word of God spoken to her and did not assume her morning sickness was indigestion or had concern her abdominal swelling could be a tumour!  Belief in what God has said and revealed in the scripture gives us understanding and a basis for personal faith in the LORD.  May the word of God and His wisdom direct us to reliance and dependence upon Jesus as LORD, our risen Saviour who is worthy of all trust.