After being nailed to the cross and being resurrected, the Lord Jesus appeared to the disciples for 40 days. During that time, various little things happened between the Lord Jesus and the disciples. For example: the Lord ate bread with the disciples, ate fish and explained the Scriptures. … But during this time, the Lord Jesus said different things to Peter and Thomas, but seldom can we find explanations of the deeper meaning within this. What intentions of God are hidden in these words to them? This is worth pondering carefully.
From the Bible, we can see that there was one disciple who did not believe the Lord Jesus’ resurrection until he saw the resurrected Lord with his own eyes and touched the Lord Jesus’ nail marks with his own hands. The person was Thomas. What did the Lord Jesus say to Thomas after His resurrection? The Lord Jesus said: “because you have seen Me, you have believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (Jhn 20:29). Before, I only understood the literal meaning of the Lord Jesus’ words. However, I did not know God’s hidden will. But when I read this paragraph of God’s words, I gradually understood His will. God says: “Before the Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross, Thomas always doubted that He was Christ, and was incapable of belief. His faith in God was established only on the basis of what he could see with his own eyes, what he could touch with his own hands. The Lord Jesus had a good understanding of the faith of this type of person. They only believed in God in heaven, and did not believe at all in the One sent by God, or the Christ in the flesh, and nor would they accept Him. In order for Thomas to acknowledge and believe in the existence of the Lord Jesus and that He truly was God incarnate, He allowed Thomas to reach out his hand and touch His rib. … The Lord Jesus’ appearance and His words provided a conclusion and a verdict on the faith of those who were full of doubts. He used His actual words and actions to tell the doubters, to tell those who only believed in God in heaven but did not believe in Christ: God did not commend their belief, nor did He commend them for following Him while doubting Him. The day when they fully believed in God and Christ could only be the day that God completed His great work. Of course, that day was also the day that a verdict was made upon their doubt. Their attitude toward Christ determined their fate, and their stubborn doubt meant that their faith bore them no fruit, and their hardness meant that their hopes were in vain. Because their belief in God in heaven was fed on illusions, and their doubt toward Christ was actually their true attitude toward God, even though they touched the nail marks on the Lord Jesus’ body, their faith was still useless and their outcome could only be described as drawing water with a bamboo basket—all in vain.” “Thomas represents a type of person who believes in God yet doubts God. They are of a suspicious nature, have sinister hearts, are treacherous, and do not believe in the things that God can accomplish. They do not believe in God’s omnipotence and His sovereignty, and neither do they believe in God incarnate. However, the Lord Jesus’ resurrection flew in the face of these traits that they have, and it also provided them with an opportunity to discover their own doubt, to recognize their own doubt, and to acknowledge their own treachery, thus coming to truly believe in the existence and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. What happened with Thomas was a warning and a caution for later generations so that more people could warn themselves not to be doubters like Thomas, and that if they did fill themselves with doubt, then they would sink into the darkness. If you follow God, but just like Thomas, always want to touch the Lord’s rib and feel His nail marks to confirm, to verify, to speculate on whether or not God exists, then God will forsake you. So, the Lord Jesus requires people to not be like Thomas, only believing what they can see with their own eyes, but to be pure, honest people, to not harbor doubts toward God, but to simply believe in and follow Him. People like this are blessed. This is a very small requirement the Lord Jesus makes of people, and it is a warning for His followers” (“God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III”).
I realized from God’s words that although Thomas believed in the Lord Jesus, saw Him perform so many miracles and listened to His many sermons, he doubted in his heart all along whether the Lord Jesus was incarnated God. Especially after the Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross, Thomas’ doubts were completely exposed. It was fully revealed that he was an unbeliever who followed Christ but did not believe in Him. After Thomas reached out his hand and touched the Lord Jesus’ nail marks, although he believed that the resurrected Lord Jesus was Christ, he had already been condemned by God. God’s words already demonstrated clearly that He did not praise Thomas’ belief, or acknowledge him as being His follower. God came among the disciples and spoke these words to Thomas first, which was a judgment to him and also to the people like Thomas. They paid lip service to belief in the Lord Jesus, but doubted the Lord Jesus’ identity all the time in their hearts. They still believed in God in heaven and in their own conceptions and imaginations. Neither did they believe in Christ coming to the world, nor did they believe incarnated God had such authority and power. So as they continued to believe in this way they could only be abandoned and eliminated by God. At the same time, I understood that God hopes that we won’t be suspicious and base our faith in the Christ on the basis of seeing with our own eyes, but instead will come to know incarnated God’s true identity and ascertain God’s appearance and work through Christ’s work and words. At this point, I thought: How many believers believe in God with their true hearts? How many believers believe in a vague God? They only acknowledge God in heaven and believe that God in heaven is filled with might, and full of authority and power. But they are full of doubts about the God on earth and the God incarnate. They do not believe the incarnate God has the authority and the ability, and can accomplish everything. The Lord Jesus warned Thomas, and also actually warned us, how to treat the reality of God incarnate. Is our faith in God full of doubts like Thomas’? These questions about believing in God, which we should be completely clear on, are indeed worth reflecting upon deeply.
After His resurrection, in addition to talking to Thomas, the Lord Jesus also made demands of Peter and commissioned him to do some things. The Lord Jesus said to Peter on more than one occasion, “Simon, son of Jonas, love you Me? …” This gives us food for thought: Why did the Lord ask Peter the question so many times, but did not ask the other disciples? Why did the Lord speak completely different things to Peter and Thomas? What’s on earth is the deeper meaning here? What did the Lord want to tell us from these words that He said to Peter? I saw God’s word saying, “Compared to the following words, which the Lord Jesus said to Thomas after His resurrection: ‘Reach here your hand, and thrust it into My side: and be not faithless, but believing,’ His thrice repeated questioning of Peter: ‘Simon, son of John, love you Me?’ allows people to better feel the sternness of the Lord Jesus’ attitude, and the urgency He felt during His questioning. … The question was thought-provoking and meaningful, a question that cannot help but cause every follower of Christ to feel remorse and fear, but also to feel the Lord Jesus’ anxious, sorrowful mood. And when they are in great pain and suffering, they are more able to understand the Lord Jesus Christ’s concern and His care; they realize His earnest teaching and strict requirements of pure, honest people. The Lord Jesus’ question allows people to feel that the Lord’s expectations of people revealed in these simple words are not merely to believe in and follow Him, but to achieve having love, loving your Lord and your God. This kind of love is caring and obeying. It is humans living for God, dying for God, dedicating everything to God, and expending and giving everything for God. This kind of love is also giving God comfort, allowing Him to enjoy testimony and to be at rest. It is mankind’s repayment to God, man’s responsibility, obligation and duty, and it is a way that people must follow for their entire lives. These three questions were a requirement and an exhortation that the Lord Jesus made of Peter and all people who would be made perfect. It was these three questions that led and motivated Peter to follow his path in life to the end, and it was these questions at the Lord Jesus’ parting that led Peter to start on his path of being made perfect, that led him, because of his love for the Lord, to care for the Lord’s heart, to obey the Lord, to offer comfort to the Lord, and to offer up his whole life and his whole being because of this love” (“God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III”).
I know from God’s words that the reason why the Lord asked Peter the question is that He had expectations of, and commissions for, Peter, and that Peter was an honest and innocent person, unlike Thomas who was full of doubts about the incarnate God. Peter paid more attention to listening to the words of the Lord Jesus all along, and practiced and experienced His words. He denied the Lord three times, but the Lord Jesus knew it was a temporary weakness of his flesh and did not represent his nature, unlike Thomas’ doubting of God. God sympathized with his weakness and did not condemn him. The conversation between the Lord Jesus and Peter after His resurrection showed God’s expectation that people could love God like Peter. God wanted to let him know to not be satisfied with following God, and suffering and expending himself. More importantly, in the process of following God, he needed to pursue love of God, bear testimony to God and walk in God’s way for life. This is the main duty that should be performed as a creature of God. Peter was very inspired by the commissions from the Lord Jesus, deeply felt God’s earnest intentions, and understood his responsibility and duty. Afterward, Peter took the Lord Jesus’ commissions as his duty, pursued the goal of satisfying the Lord’s demands, and offered up his whole being to undergo countless trials and refinements and all manner of suffering for his whole life. In the end, he was nailed upside down on the cross for the Lord and bore a wonderful testimony of his supreme love of God and obedience unto death, becoming the one who is most deserving of God’s approval throughout the ages and an exemplar for the people of the future.
Seeing God’s expectation of Peter and condemnation of Thomas, we should make a right choice. Do you want to believe in a vague God in heaven, and be like Thomas, full of doubts about the practical God incarnate? Or will you be like Peter, an innocent and honest person that will practice and enter when listening to God’s words, follow God faithfully, love and satisfy God, carry out God’s will with one’s whole heart and mind as a lifelong pursuit? Which type of person do you want to be?