Fighting the Flesh #14: Doubt

“Unless I see in His hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into His side, I will never believe” 

—John 20:25.

We all struggle with doubt at some point in our Christian walk. We see that life doesn’t work the way we thought it would. We are assailed at every turn, bad things happen to good people and vice versa. Tragedies exist, people get sick, and prayers appear to go unheeded. Who wouldn’t doubt? And fortunately for us, doubt didn’t begin with us, and it won’t end with us either.

After Jesus rose from the dead there were two separate instances of doubt recorded concerning His resurrection. The first is from the more broadly known Doubting Thomas. Thomas was the apostle who wasn't among the remaining ten disciples when Jesus appeared to them (remember, Judas was dead at this time and Matthias had not yet been chosen to replace him). After hearing about Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, he said,

"Unless I see in His hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into His side, I will never believe”—John 20:25.

He doubted Jesus’ resurrection -- and who wouldn’t? No one had ever risen from the dead! Lazarus had come back from the dead (John 11:1-44) and so had Jairus’ daughter (Mark 5:21-24, 35-43), but in both cases it was Jesus’ power that brought them back from the dead. No one had ever brought about his own resurrection. It was no wonder then that Thomas doubted. Nevertheless, Jesus did appear to Thomas and met his challenge:  “Put your finger here, and see My hands; and put out your hand, and place it in My side. Do not disbelieve, but believe”—John 20:27.

Jesus offered Thomas physical evidence of His resurrection, earning Thomas’ emotional response, “My Lord and my God!”—John 20:28. Jesus then said, “Have you believed because you have seen Me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed"—John 20:29.

For Thomas, seeing Christ eliminated any doubt, but the same can’t be said of everyone. In Matthew 28, right before Jesus’ ascension to heaven, we read,  

“Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw Him they worshiped Him, but some doubted”—Matthew 28:16-17.

Who doubted? “Some” of the eleven—they struggled in believing, even though they had seen the risen Lord. But we know from the testimony of Scripture and church history that they didn’t remain in their doubt. They stepped out in faith.

We don’t have the luxury of seeing the risen Christ; we must rely on faith. We are the ones to whom Jesus referred when He said to Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed”—John 20:29. The answer to doubt, then, is faith. It has always been faith. Thomas saw and believed, but he still had to exercise faith—we all do. Which is why Paul wrote, “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13). Love may be the greatest, but faith is still in the top three. Faith is essential in our walk with God and it is the cure to all doubt. Billy Graham once told about a period of time when he had doubt, or as he described it, “a crisis of faith.” He wrote:

"In the summer of 1949, my team and I were preparing for the most intensive evangelistic mission we had ever attempted, a citywide outreach in Los Angeles, California. Although the press had ignored it, several hundred churches had come together to prepare and pray for the planned three-week-long event. We believed God had led us there, and many were praying He would use the meetings to bring many to Christ.

Just weeks before the mission was to start, however, I experienced a major crisis of faith—the most intense of my life. Some months before, a fellow evangelist whom I respected greatly had begun to express doubts about the Bible, urging me to ‘face facts’ and change my belief that the Bible was the inspired Word of God. ‘Billy,’ he said, ‘you’re fifty years out-of-date. People no longer accept the Bible as being inspired the way you do. Your faith is too simple.’ I knew from my own reading that some modern theologians shared his views.

For months, doubts about the Bible swirled through my mind, finally coming to a boil during a conference at which I was speaking in the mountains east of Los Angeles. One night, alone in my cabin at the conference, I studied carefully what the Bible said about its divine origin. I recalled that the prophets clearly believed they were speaking God’s Word; they used the phrase ‘Thus says the Lord’ (or similar words) hundreds of times. I also knew that archaeological discoveries had repeatedly confirmed the Bible’s historical accuracy.

Especially significant to me, however, was Jesus’ own view of Scripture. He not only quoted it frequently, but also accepted it as the Word of God. While praying for His disciples, He said, ‘Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth’ (John 17:17). He also told them, ‘I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law’ (Matthew 5:18). Shouldn’t I have the same view of Scripture as my Lord?

Finally I went for a walk in the moonlit forest. I knelt down with my Bible on a tree stump in front of me and began praying. I don’t recall my exact words, but my prayer went something like this: ‘O Lord, there are many things in this book I don’t understand. There are many problems in it for which I have no solution. ... But, Father, by faith I am going to accept this as Thy Word. From this moment on I am going to trust the Bible as the Word of God.’ When I got up from my knees, I sensed God’s presence in a way that I hadn’t felt for months. Not all my questions were answered, but I knew a major spiritual battle had been fought—and won. I never doubted the Bible’s divine inspiration again, and immediately my preaching took on a new confidence. This was, I believe, one reason why our Los Angeles meetings had to be extended from three weeks to eight.”—Billy Graham, http://www.billygraham.org/articlepage.asp?articleid=1313

Billy discovered what we all must discover—the cure to doubt is faith. There is so much we will not understand on this side of eternity, but it’s what we do understand that is important. We all must be like John Newton, the former slave trader, who penned “Amazing Grace,” and who at the end of his life said, “Although my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.” This is what is needed to cure doubt: faith in the risen Savior who gave His life for me. We may not understand all of the intricacies of this world, but we do understand this: we are sinners and He is a great Savior! Amen.