20:26
“Eight days later”. Jesus was going to appear to Thomas, but left a gap of just over a week, allowing Thomas to ponder on his doubts. Maybe he had become more convinced than ever that his arguments were reasonable and that there was no way that Jesus was alive, or maybe he was beginning to doubt his doubts. We don’t know. What we do know is that Thomas is about to change. Again the doors were locked, so the disciples were still full of fear. By the way, this indicates that 20:22 was not actually a filling with the Holy Spirit. As before, Jesus declares peace to them.
20:27,28
Jesus knew what Thomas had been saying and so He addressed Thomas directly, showing him His hands and side and inviting Thomas to touch the wounds. This is followed by the command “stop doubting and believe”. Thomas responds immediately with the words “My Lord and my God”. Doubts can act as a barrier, but when they are overcome faith can come flooding in. Our natural state is actually to believe, we were created to believe. Now sin has changed all that, and the natural state of sinful man is to be unbelieving, but we need to realise that our God given state is to believe.
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