1100. The Wreckage of Thomas' Unbelief On Earth

The Wreckage of Thomas' Unbelief On Earth

"Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in His salvation" (Psa_78:22).

Thomas denied the possibility as well as the fact of our Lord's resurrection. Let us follow out the effect of his unbelief on earth, could he have had his way.

1. He would have robbed the sinner of a Saviour. Thomas would have made void the message of the Cross. The Holy Spirit bears witness through Paul: "And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins" (1Co_15:17).

Jesus Christ had staked every claim He ever made upon His resurrection. If He was not raised from the dead, He was not the Son of God. If He was not raised He was not the Bread that came down from Heaven. If He was not raised He was not a Prince and a Saviour to give salvation.

Jesus Christ left in the tomb, would have proclaimed Him no more than man–a man who had lived under hallucination that He was God; a man who had died in ignominy and shame; a man, crucified a victim of the hatred of evil men; a man left dead, to be forgotten or else to be heralded as a mere "has been." Jesus Christ dead, was a cross without the power to save; a world without a Redeemer.

2. Thomas would have robbed the saint of a Living Lord. Jesus Christ in the grave would have meant the victory of death and of hades. Jesus Christ risen is Jesus Christ with the keys of death and of hades in His hand.

Jesus Christ in the grave would have meant no one at the Father's right hand to intercede in our behalf. Christ risen and ascended, is Christ a High Priest for us; Christ managing our affairs, Christ empowering us for victory in our daily walk.

3. Thomas would have robbed Israel and the world of their coming King. The promise of Christ's reign was tied up in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. "Because He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man Whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead" (Acts 17 :

31).

Thomas would have thrown every promise, every prophecy of God as to the blessing of the millennial age to the winds. How could Christ come down, unless Christ was raised, unless Christ went up?

Thomas would, had he been right in his unbelief, have disrupted every future purpose of the omnipotent God, which He purposed in Christ our Lord. Every plan of God is to bless the world, and to bring to it an era of gladness and of song, an era of blessing and of righteousness.

Away with such blatant unbelief. Poor Thomas! Little did he realize the far-reaching wreckage that his unbelief would have wrought had his unbelief been verified, and his doubts been true.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR