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What Is Known “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.” ( Mark 13:24–27 ) “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come.” ( Mark 13:32–33 ) What is known about “that day” can be summarized under five headings. First, Jesus’s second coming will be obvious.  When Christ returns, all “the powers in the heavens will be shaken” ( Mark 13:25 ): the sun (“The sun will be darkened”) and the moon (“The moon will not give its light”) will turn off, followed by the stars’ “falling from heaven” ( Mark 13:25 ). These are all obvious indications that something important is afoot. So too is the new and spectacular light show that will fill the universal dark void: “And then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds” ( Mark 13:26 ). The darkness is set in contrast to the heavenly “sign” of the Son of Man ( Matt. 24:30 ). We are told that Jesus will descend from heaven (“coming in clouds”) and that this coming will be “with great power and glory” ( Mark 13:26 ). Mark states, “And then they will see” ( Mark 13:26 ); Matthew tells us that the “they” are “all the tribes of the earth” ( Matt. 24:30 ), everyone from every nation who is alive on that day. But how will everyone alive then, from different parts of the globe, see Jesus at the same time? Perhaps our Lord is speaking metaphorically. If so, the point still stands. His return will be obvious. No one will miss it. But if he is speaking literally, then the scene is more remarkable. Think about it. How will everyone see him in the dark—without the light of the sun, moon, or stars? The answer is that the “light of the world” ( John 8:12 ) needs no lesser lights to line his way (cf. Rev. 22:5 ). Second, Jesus’s second coming will be awesome.  Notice that Jesus uses his favorite title for himself in relation to his second coming. It is the “Son of Man” ( Mark 13:26 ) who will be riding upon the clouds. This title is linked to Daniel 7:13–14  and relates to Jesus’s divinely bestowed authority. In that chapter the Ancient of Days grants the Son of Man a glorious and everlasting kingdom. That is awesome. Jesus will return as the Son of Man, the one who has been granted all authority over all creation ( Mark 2:10, 28 ; cf. Matt. 28:18 ). Other details also highlight the awesomeness of Christ’s return. In fact, nearly every phrase of Mark 13:24–27  is brimming with this theme. When Jesus says, in verse 24, “But in those days . . . the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light,” he is not talking about a double eclipse; when he mentions in verse 25 “the stars . . . falling from heaven,” he is not talking about a divine firework show that starts with a few shooting stars. Rather he is talking about all the great lights created on day four of creation turning off for good. They will turn off because, as I said, a new and spectacular light show fills the universal dark void: “The Son of Man coming in the clouds” ( Mark 13:26 ). Whatever that awesome cosmic upheaval will look like, it will make Haley’s Comet look like two Boy Scouts rubbing sticks together to make a spark. The second coming will be awesome. Third, Jesus’s second coming will bring relief to the righteous; it will be a day of vindication for God’s people.  The image of God’s messengers’ (“the angels”) gathering God’s people (“his elect”) from the whole earth (“from the ends of the earth”) and throughout the highest heavens (“to the ends of heaven,” Mark 13:27 ) is an image not only of God’s power but of his grace. For those who have persevered through persecution (see Mark 13:9–13 ) final vindication will come with the coming Son. My first sermon as a pastor was on September 16, 2001, five days after 9/11. My preselected passage was Revelation 19:11–21 . I preached a sermon on Jesus’s coming as savior and judge, and I began the sermon like this: Vengeance has its place in the Christian faith. And it holds not an insignificant, unnecessary, or minor role in our salvation. It is as foundational and as crucial as the biblical concepts of grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness because at its center stands our Lord Jesus Christ. When most of us think of Jesus we rarely picture him, as the book of Revelation does, as a holy king, righteous judge, and victorious warrior. In our minds, we have little trouble imagining him as a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, as a child teaching in the temple, as a man miraculously walking on water, and as a dying savior. But we struggle to envision Jesus as a mighty conquering king—muscular, fierce, relentless, and vengeful. One reason we may have this difficulty is due either to our ignorance or to our misunderstandings concerning Christ and his second coming. On the one hand, we may simply be uninformed of the details of Christ’s return; on the other hand, we may be able to recite some of the facts of the second coming, yet fail to comprehend its ultimate objective. The objective of Jesus’s second coming is salvation. Jesus comes to save his people, and he does so in part by judging those who are not his people. Salvation and judgment are linked. We need to know that Jesus’s second coming will bring relief to the righteous, and we need to praise God for that. Fourth, Jesus’s second coming is certain, as he makes clear in Mark 13:30–31 :  “Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” In the immediate context (see Mark 13:5–23 ) Jesus predicts the destruction of the temple emphatically (“Truly, I say to you,” Mark 13:30 ), and sure enough the temple is toppled. Of course, what Jesus says in verses 30–31 we can apply to every word Jesus said. A number of times in the last five years I have given a talk titled “Why I Am a Christian.” I give four reasons. I talk about Jesus’s irresistible call on my life, the alluring paradox of Jesus’s claims and character, and how Jesus has dealt with and will deal with the three universal problems humans face: sin, death, and injustice. I also talk about the power of his words. Nearly two thousand years ago Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” ( Mark 13:31 ). What does history make of this bold statement? Is it true or false? It is true. It is historically verifiable. Let us say there are forty million local churches around the world where over two billion Christians gather each Sunday. In most of those churches, even the unorthodox ones, the words of Jesus are being read and taught. Christians, and some non-Christians, each Sunday morning seek afresh to understand and apply what Jesus said. Can we say this of the words of Socrates, Cicero, Julius Caesar, or Winston Churchill? No! This is not true of any philosopher or politician, and it certainly is not true of celebrities. People are not gathering together each week to try to understand and apply what John Lennon sang or said. Back to the point. If Jesus’s words are more permanent than the ground below or the sky above (“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away,” Mark 13:31 ), and if Jesus has a proven track record on a massive prediction in world history—the destruction of the temple (“This generation,” that of his apostles, “will not pass away until all these things take place,” Mark 13:30 )—then we can trust that what he says about his return, and the events surrounding it, will likewise occur. That certainty takes us to the fifth fact. We know the second coming will be (1) obvious, (2) awesome, (3) a day of vindication for God’s people, and (4) certain. The fifth fact follows: (5) since the temple has been destroyed, we must know that Jesus’s return is imminent.  This is what our Lord says with his parabolic teaching in Mark 13:28–29 : “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates.” Here either Jesus is talking indirectly about his second coming, saying in effect, “As soon as the temple falls, know that there is a possibility, at any time, for my return.” Or, more likely, in these verses Jesus returns to speaking directly about the destruction of the temple and what his earliest followers should do. As soon as they hear the rumble of the Roman troops as they shake the foundation of the holy city (a sign as obvious as a fig tree in spring spouting leaves), they need to do everything Jesus has taught in verses 5–23. So here is how I understand verse 29: “When you see these things taking place [the desolation and destruction of the temple], know that he [or “it,” i.e., “that tribulation”] is near, at the very gates.” Whatever the case, what Jesus is doing throughout the Olivet Discourse is what scholars call “prophetic foreshortening.” What that means is that Jesus, like the prophets, speaks of two events—one in the near future and another in the distant future—as though they will happen close to each other. For example, Isaiah speaks of the destruction of Babylon in the same breath as he does the final day of the Lord, as though there were one day of divine judgment (“the day of the Lord”) when we know there will be two. The analogy often used to explain this teaching technique or unique genre is that of a mountain range. If we looked at a mountain range from a distance, it might appear that two peaks were close to each other when in fact they were miles apart. Likewise, Jesus speaks of two mountaintops—the destruction of the temple and his return—as though they were close together when, in reality, they are thousands of years apart. What to Do in Light of Such Knowledge In light of those five facts, especially the last one, what are we to do? Jesus tells his disciples and us in Mark 13:33–36 . He begins with two similar exhortations: “Be on guard” and “Keep awake” ( Mark 13:33 ). He then says why, reiterating the point of Mark 13:32 : “For you do not know when the time will come” ( Mark 13:33 ). Next, he illustrates, “It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake” ( Mark 13:34 ). That story then morphs into an admonition, one we have heard before: “Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning—lest he come suddenly and find you asleep” ( Mark 13:35–36 ). This admonition is universal, given to both Jesus’s first followers and all since: “And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake” ( Mark 13:37 ). Here then is the logic to Jesus’s call to vigilance: if no one knows the time of Christ’s return (“Concerning that day or that hour, no one knows,” Mark 13:32 ; “You do not know when the time will come,” Mark 13:33 ), then the hour-by-hour application should be readiness (“Be on guard,” Mark 13:33 ) and wakefulness (“Keep awake,” Mark 13:33 ; “Stay awake,” Mark 13:34, 35, 37 ). The objective of Jesus’s second coming is salvation. This article is adapted from   Expository Reflections on the Gospels, Volume 3: Mark   by Douglas Sean O’Donnell.

Sola Fide No Christian denies that justification is by faith. That is an obvious biblical teaching. The controversy is about whether justification is by faith alone ( sola fide ). In Roman Catholic theology, justification is a process begun at baptism, after which we are obliged to cooperate with grace in hopes of receiving a favorable verdict from God at the end of our lives. “The Protestant doctrine of justification by faith alone contradicts Scripture,” writes Peter Kreeft, a winsome and articulate spokesman for Catholic theology. Nevertheless, argues Kreeft, Protestant theology reminds us “that none of us can deserve heaven” and that if God were to ask us why he should let us into heaven, “our answer should not begin with the word ‘I’ but with the word ‘Christ.’ ” Don’t overlook the word begin in that sentence, because works do eventually enter into the equation. Later Kreeft writes, “To the world’s most practical question, ‘What must I do to be saved?’, God has given us clear answer: Repent, believe, and live in charity.” That’s what Kreeft means when he says that justification is not by faith alone. By contrast, the Bible stresses that we are justified by faith apart from works of the law ( Rom. 3:28 ). “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight” ( Rom. 3:20 ). “We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ” ( Gal. 2:16 ). “It is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith’ ” ( Gal. 3:11 ). In short, the righteousness by which we are acquitted comes through faith in Christ, not through the law on account of our own righteousness ( Phil. 3:9 ). It is important to note that faith is not itself virtuous. Faith is not the basis or the ground by which we are justified, as if the righteous act of believing outweighs all our unrighteous deeds. Faith has value because of the object to which it connects us. Think of skating on a frozen pond. Faith is the means by which we get out on the ice, but it is not the reason we do not sink. We are kept out of the dangerous water below by the object of our faith. It is the thickness of the ice that saves us. To put it in Aristotelian terms, faith is the instrumental cause of our justification. “We compare faith to a kind of vessel,” Calvin writes, “for unless we come empty and with the mouth of our souls open to seek Christ’s grace, we are not capable of receiving Christ.” Faith is the outstretched empty hand ready to receive Christ and all his benefits. The act of believing, in itself, does not save. Faith “is only the instrument by which we embrace Christ our righteousness” (BC Art. 22). Finally, we should be clear that although we are justified by faith alone, the faith that justifies is never alone. Good works do not contribute to the root of our justification, but they must be found as fruit of our justification. As Turretin observes, “it is one thing for works to be connected with faith in the person of the justified; another, however, in the matter of justification.” In other words, sinners are not justified by works, but works will always be evident in the lives of justified sinners. The book of James seems to repudiate the Protestant doctrine of sola fide . How does Romans 3:28  (“For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law”) square with James 2:24  (“You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone”)? This seems like a plain contradiction. Paul thinks we are justified by faith alone; James thinks we are justified by faith and works. No wonder Luther once called James a “right strawy epistle.” Rightly understood, however, there is no contradiction between Paul and James. Here are five reasons why. James and Paul are addressing different concerns. The foolish person in James 2:20  is not the apostle Paul. James was likely written before Paul’s letters to the Romans or Galatians. They are dealing with different issues. Paul is asking the question, “How are we right with God?” James is asking, “What does genuine faith look like?” For Paul the issue is: “How do Gentiles get into the church?” For James the issue is: “Why are people not caring for their brothers and sisters in the church?” James’s argument presupposes the importance of faith. The necessity of faith is presumed in verse 17 and in verse 20, and again in the example of Abraham in verses 22 and 24. James does not want faith to be supplanted  by works or even supplemented  by works. He wants faith to be demonstrated  by works. The equation in James is not “faith plus works equals justification.” The equation is “faith minus works does not  equal justification.” Think of salvation as F(aith)=J(ustification)+W(orks). Paul says, “Don’t you dare put ‘W’ on the left side of the equation.” James says, “Don’t you dare leave out ‘W’ on the right side of the equation.” Paul and James use “works” in two different ways. Paul is talking about works of the law, especially Jewish rites like circumcision, holy days, and food observance. Those were the typical ways, for a Jewish audience, that one would be tempted to place their confidence in something other than Christ. James is talking about the works of faith, acts of charity operative in the body of Christ without preferential treatment. Paul and James use the word justify  in two different ways. Paul is dealing with people who trust in the works of the law for their standing with God. James is dealing with people who think that mere intellectual assent is real Christianity ( James 2:19 ). Paul is talking about a forensic declaration of righteousness. James is talking about practical evidence that faith is real (2:16, 18). Paul teaches the same point James teaches. Paul speaks of the obedience of faith ( Rom. 1:5 ) and of faith working through love ( Gal. 5:6 ). Paul understands that dead faith is no faith at all ( 1 Cor. 6:9–11 ; Gal. 5:16–26 ). James is talking about the kind of “belief ” that even demons have ( James 2:19 ). Neither Paul nor James believes that such empty, untrusting belief constitutes justifying faith. In the end, there is no conflict between Paul and James. It is right to say we are justified by faith alone apart from works of the law, provided we understand, as James reminds us, that the faith that justifies will always work itself out in love. Good works do not contribute to the root of our justification, but they must be found as fruit of our justification.   This article is adapted from   Daily Doctrine: A One-Year Guide to Systematic Theology   by Kevin DeYoung.

When we follow in the Savior’s footsteps and watch his life story told in the Gospels, we discover that prayer saturated all he did. Jesus prayed continually as he journeyed here on earth. Jesus is our example of all things good and beautiful. So what do we learn in scripture about his patterns of praying organically? Prayer in community Our Savior prayed in public. With a crowd of mourners gathered at the opened tomb of Lazarus, we read that Jesus lifted his face and voice toward heaven: “Then Jesus looked up and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.’ When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’” (John 11:41–43). The Gospels also relate how the power of heaven moved through Jesus as he performed many miracles. A precursor to these life-changing moments was often prayer. “Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people” (Matthew 14:19). It’s easy to miss, but notice that before the miracle of multiplying the loaves, Jesus gave thanks and acknowledged God’s provision in prayer. More than five thousand men plus women and children ate this gift of bread, and there were even leftovers. Prayer marks moments when heaven intersects with earth. Healing, too, was often accompanied by prayer. “He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, ‘ Ephphatha! ’ (which means ‘Be opened!’). At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly” (Mark 7:34–35). Jesus, with eyes open, looked upward and spoke one word and the power of heaven was released. Prayer was so important for Jesus that when a major spiritual experience was on the horizon, Jesus gathered people to pray with him. “About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus” (Luke 9:28–30). Jesus knew he would soon face the trial and pain of the cross, so he asked these three friends to pray with him. God’s answer was a revelation of his heavenly glory and a reminder of his true identity and mission in anticipation of his final days of suffering. As we survey the life of Jesus, we should notice that prayer was not something Jesus reserved only for special and sacred moments. Yes, there were times when Jesus sought to be alone and experience the face of the Father in private intimacy, and so should we. But many of Jesus’ prayers were also part of the natural flow of life, spoken in public settings and lifted to heaven with his eyes wide open. Prayer in quiet Jesus also prayed in quiet and lonely places. “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” (Mark 1:35). After the previous full and taxing day of ministry, teaching, and healing, Jesus felt the need to slip away to be with the Father. When Jesus was preparing to make a big decision, he cried out in prayer. Choosing his followers was a critical moment in the ministry of Jesus, so he made space to talk with his heavenly Father: “One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles” (Luke 6:12–13). What a beautiful model! Like Jesus, we should talk with God about every important decision before we make it. What can we learn from Jesus’ example of prayer? Jesus prayed in the most public of settings and in quiet places as he retreated from the world and sought the face of the Father. When we pray throughout the day, we too may find ourselves communing with God when we are alone and when we are surrounded by people. As you begin each day, let us seek to follow Jesus’ example. Let us pray for encounters with people—with all sorts of neighbors in the various places we inhabit, work, and live. May we pray to keep our hearts humble. Let us make sure there is room in our schedules to slow down. Then love generously and share freely. Organic prayers like these lead to organic conversations, and these in turn open the door for a powerful work of the Holy Spirit. Taken from Organic Prayer: Discover the Presence and Power of God in the Everyday .

Matthew 12:31–32   31Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. Blasphemy against the Spirit This passage functions as a warning about blasphemy. Jesus begins, “Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven” ( Matt. 12:31a ), but adds that “blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven” ( Matt. 12:31b ). Jesus does not define this ominous act, traditionally called the unpardonable sin, which cannot merely be a heinous sin (such as murder), since “every sin” can be forgiven. Blasphemy against the Spirit must have a unique feature that leads Jesus to warn the Pharisees that when they blaspheme him, they almost reach blasphemy against the Spirit ( Matt. 12:32 ). The difference hinges on the distinct work of the Holy Spirit, who convicts of sin and testifies to Jesus’ person and work ( John 16:7–14 ). To reject Jesus is not terminal, but to reject the Spirit’s testimony to him is. Sins of ignorance are pardonable. The case of Paul, blasphemer, persecutor, and apostle proves this ( 1 Tim. 1:12–17 ; Acts 8:1–3; 9:1–4 ). This implies that blasphemy against the Spirit must be a deliberate act. Hebrews 6:4–6  and 1 John 2:18–24  suggest it is a sober, measured rejection of Jesus against all the evidence, which the blasphemer has both heard and felt. Both passages describe people with extensive knowledge of the truth. They have once “been enlightened, . . . have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away” ( Heb. 6:4–6 ). They heard the facts and tasted the goodness of the truth, then spurned it. Similarly, 1 John 2:18–24  concerns people who have abandoned a community that has profound knowledge of Christ. The Pharisees sin heinously when they see Jesus’ works and judge him evil, but they do not yet blaspheme the Spirit. It is rejection of the evidence for Christ, clearly attested by the Spirit, that is unpardonable (cf. John 14:17, 26 ). It is impossible to repent after experiencing all the evidence for Christ, feeling its weight, then spurning it ( Heb. 6:4–6 ). An alternative, “soft” concept of the unpardonable sin argues that unbelief is, in itself, the unpardonable sin because while one does not believe, one does not seek pardon. But this makes the unpardonable sin pardonable as soon as one repents. This view does no justice to Matthew. The Pharisees do not believe, yet have not committed this sin. They are in danger of this great sin because one cannot trust Jesus while judging him an agent of Satan. Blasphemy is toxic but not unpardonable. These Pharisees have insufficient knowledge for that. The resurrection, for example, lies ahead, so their guilt is limited.   The warning about the unforgivable sin may inspire dread, yet it contains hope. Disciples, kept by God’s power ( 1 Pet. 1:1–5 ), cannot commit it, and rare is the unbeliever who has committed it. The Pharisees have not (yet) done it, despite their dreadful resistance to Jesus. The hope of repentance and forgiveness remains. Indeed, Acts records that certain priests and Pharisees do repent ( Acts 6:7; 15:5 ). Pastorally, let everyone learn from the teaching on the unpardonable sin. It is good news that every sin but one can be and has been forgiven. This implies that anyone who worries about committing this sin is probably far from it. Indeed, concern about the unpardonable sin may be a token of the Spirit’s work. Those who are guilty of the sin are probably so settled that this teaching will not alarm them. Therefore let every listener, every sinner, find mercy through Christ. It is good news that every sin but one can be and has been forgiven. This article is by Dan Doriani and is adapted from the   ESV Expository Commentary: Matthew–Luke (Volume 8)   edited by Iain M. Duguid, James M. Hamilton Jr., and Jay Sklar.

The hope of many Christians is to go to heaven when they die, but biblical authors looked forward to being resurrected with their physical bodies after death, never to die again. Paul says that if believers will not be raised from the dead, then “we are of all people most to be pitied” ( 1 Corinthians 15:19 ). Christ’s resurrection proves that “those who belong to him” ( 1 Corinthians 15:23 ) will one day rise, too. Jesus’ Resurrected Body Not yet aware that Jesus had risen from the dead, the disciples are terrified when he suddenly appears in their midst, thinking they see a “ghost.” The Greek word translated here as “ghost” is pneuma , which is typically translated as “spirit” but is sometimes used in Luke to refer to demons (e.g., Luke 4:33 ; 9:39 ). Whatever it is the disciples think they saw, Jesus corrects their misperception by showing them the tangible flesh of his resurrected body. Jesus gives further evidence of his physical resurrection by eating a piece of fish in their presence ( Luke 24:41–43 ). This passage tells us a few things about resurrected bodies (both Jesus’ and ours): First, our resurrected bodies will be material, not some ghostly hologram. Second, Jesus’ request for, and eating of, food shows that resurrected bodies—like our current earthly bodies—get hungry and enjoy food. Third, the parallel passage in John 20:24–27  specifically mentions Jesus’ wounds that were still visible in his resurrected body. Some believe that this shows that while we will be healed of physical ailments in the resurrection, our bodies might still bear some evidence of our earthly experiences, perhaps even our disabilities. Fourth, the parallel in John’s Gospel also makes a point that the doors were “locked” when “Jesus came and stood among them” ( John 20:19 ), suggesting that Jesus’ resurrected body, though material, was also able to pass through walls, though John is not interested in exploring the scientific details surrounding the event. “How are the dead raised?” and “With what kind of body will they come?” ( 1 Corinthians 15:35 ) are the rhetorical questions of skeptics who think resurrection is impossible. As proof that God can in fact raise the dead, Paul points to seeds that appear to die, are buried like dead bodies and later rise from the earth. Moreover, seeds rise transformed, as different from when they were planted as various other kinds of bodies are from one another. Likewise, dead Christians will one day rise alive and transformed, their formerly frail, ignoble and mortal bodies rendered powerful, glorious and immortal. Thankfully, Christ-followers will not remain mortal forever. Whether they die and are later raised or are still living when Jesus returns, they will all be transformed. Christians need not fear death, because death’s destiny is to be destroyed ( 1 Corinthians 15:26 ), while their destiny is resurrection and immortality. Drawn from the NIV Upside Down Kingdom Bible .

The stories of the miracles Jesus performed have fascinated billions of people since they were performed thousands of years ago. They have risen to the level of general knowledge in the Judeo-Christian world, known even to millions who have never read the Bible before. For example, “turning water into wine” has become part of the cultural lexicon and is widely understood to be the first miracle that Jesus performed, to the astonishment of everyone at the wedding he was attending in Cana. To the first witnesses of these miracles, they were evidence that there was something special and divine about this humble teacher. To those who came to understand the power of the risen Jesus after his ascension, they were irrefutable evidence that Jesus himself was the one and only Son of God. As you read about these different miracles, note that many of them appear in the three Gospels that start off the New Testament. You can gain a wider understanding of the miracles themselves by reading these different accounts. As you do, imagine yourself standing alongside the disciples and witnessing the divine power of Jesus, proving to the world that the one who was present at creation ( Genesis 1:1 ; John 1:1 ) actually did walk the earth; and as he did, he demonstrated the truth of his identity for all to see. These miracles compelled thousands of people to flock to him while he walked around the Judean countryside, teaching and feeding and healing those who came to him for help. May those who read these miracle stories today feel a similar desire to learn more about who Jesus was, who he is now, and what he means for their own lives today. Here, we take a bit of the mystery out of miracles by answering four common questions asked by Bible readers. 1. How Can You Tell If a Miracle Is of God? There are at least three biblical tests for recognizing a legitimate miracle: a. The miracle glorifies God.Miracles declare that God is active in our world and that he can disrupt the activities of nature to reveal his character and accomplish his purposes. The principal test of a miracle is: Who receives the glory? Beware of people (such as Simon the sorcerer in  Acts 8:9 ) who boast of their own greatness. b.The miracle stems from a righteous source.Jesus said that in the last days false prophets will come and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect ( Matthew 24:24 ). Someone’s words may sound true and their actions may be impressive, but they are counterfeit if their lives show no good fruit. c. The miracle rings true to the Holy Spirit.According to Paul, one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is distinguishing between spirits ( 1 Corinthians 12:10 ). Paul demonstrated this gift when he told Elymas, a Jewish sorcerer, that he was a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right ( Acts 13:10 ). Through the Holy Spirit, Paul perceived the utter baseness that was in the man. Likewise, we must look to the Holy Spirit for guidance regarding the source of a miracle. 2. Why Did Jesus Perform Miracles? If miracles satisfied peoples’ craving for sensationalism, why did Jesus do them? Because they sometimes led to faith. Like many things, miracles produced both positive and negative results. Jesus’ miracles provided proof that he was sent from God ( Acts 2:22 – 24 ). Though they gave evidence of God’s victory over Satan ( Luke 11:14 – 23 ), they were never designed to be the primary focus of Jesus’ activity ( 1 Corinthians 1:21 – 25 ). Jesus pointed to miracles as signs of something deeper and more significant ( John 10:24 – 25, 38 ). Jesus’ miracles were like object lessons demonstrating the vast scope of his power. They showed his authority over nature, demons, disease and death ( Luke 8:22 – 56 ). Miracles occurred ultimately to reveal Jesus as the Messiah, the Savior, the one who came to perform the greatest miracle of all. Jesus’ miracles provided a spiritual starting point for those whose hearts were open to the things of God. But for those who resisted God, miracles were an end in themselves. That’s why Jesus refused to devalue his ministry to a kind of spiritual sideshow just to satisfy those who only wanted to see something sensational. 3. Why was Faith Necessary for Jesus to Do Miracles? God has unlimited power, but it pleases him to exercise his power in response to our faith. Jesus did not force divine blessings on people who openly rejected him. He often performed miracles for those who already believed, and sometimes his miracles led to faith in those who did not previously believe ( John 11:45 ;  12:9 – 11 ;  14:11 ). But Jesus would not perform miracles simply for his own personal benefit. 4. Will we be healed if we Have Faith? Jesus taught that faith prompts God to respond to our need. Sometimes it is the faith of friends or family that God rewards. Occasionally, God’s healing work seems unrelated to anyone’s faith — the only explanation is God’s sovereign choice. But Jesus never taught that faith automatically brings healing. Of Jesus’ 35 miracles recorded in the Gospels, no formula guaranteeing healing can be found. That said, as we go about our daily lives, miracles are happening all around us — in hospitals, schools, neighborhoods, and even in the workplace. We see the critically ill healed, at-risk students excel, addicts turn their lives around, and opportunities open up for those in the direst situations. If you experience a miracle in your life or you are blessed to witness something miraculous, let others know and be sure to give God the glory. Questions and answers are drawn from the  NIV Quest Study Bible.

“What would I have done if I couldn’t have grieved?” I asked my dad this question when we were sitting in a Chick-fil-A, watching my boys tear around the play area. I honestly don’t know what I would have done if God had not given me grief. Let me ask you this question: Have you let yourself feel the pain? Because grief is a door into something I know God wants for you: Himself. He’s the reward. Not heaven but Him. God desires that we desire Him. Heaven is not the goal, it’s the place we get to experience God. And I have never longed for God and more of what He longs for like this. I’m longing for peace. Deep, unaffected, untainted peace and delight. I look forward to laughter. I love laughing. Everything in me wants to see Randy again. But I know that my deepest longing is for someone of whom Randy was an image bearer: Jesus. I’ve never wanted this more in my entire life, and it’s because of my grief. It has drawn me to Him. I needed grief, and I think you do too. In his book Holy Longing , Ronald Rolheiser writes, What we have dreamed for our lives can never be. Thus we have a choice: We can spend the rest of our lives angry, trying to protect ourselves against something that has already happened to us, death and unfairness, or we can grieve our losses, abuses, and deaths and, through that, eventually attain the joy and delights that are in fact possible for us. Alice Miller states this all in psychological language, but the choice is really a paschal one. We face many deaths within our lives and the choice is ours as to whether those deaths will be terminal (snuffing out life and spirit) or whether they will be paschal (opening us to new life and spirit). Grieving is the key to the latter. There have been dark, hollow times when I’ve leaned toward the terminal. How could anything good come from this? I have to say “my late  husband,” and I’m in my thirties. I haven’t gotten used to that. Maybe I never will. But, because of God’s mercy, I have experienced new life through grief too. I’m longing for God like I’ve never longed for Him. My boys and I have been lifted up in prayer and materially provided for. We’ve seen miracles. Our grief has opened us up to new life and spirit. But even though this is true, it’s difficult to want grief. I can see everything that God has brought into my life through grief and still not want it. It’s a gift I never asked for. Even now, I tend toward wanting relief over grief. God Brings Purpose to Our Pain I’ll admit something embarrassing. I tried to make a grieving friend laugh while I was working on these thoughts. I’m serious. I was writing about grief, she walked into my office while grieving, and instead of just being present, of bearing witness to her sadness, I tried to shoo it away with a joke. Here’s some good news: God doesn’t ever shoo away our pain. It’s not that He doesn’t want relief for us; He just has greater plans for our pain. He wants us to get to relief, but eventually. In grief, we become more like Him. In our sorrow, we comfort others. We “get it” in ways that nobody else can. As we comfort, we find ourselves comforted too. God draws those who grieve closer to Him. “Blessed are those who mourn,” Jesus promised, “for they will be comforted” (Matthew. 5:4). Before the relief, He brings purpose to the pain. Second Corinthians 1:3–5 says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.” We want to be plucked out of the pain, but God wants to be present with us in it. The Path to Healing Goes Through Grief If we don’t grieve, we’ll look for relief somewhere else, and there’s a whole host of unhealthy options. Or we’ll get stuck at the stage we’re in and we’ll keep reacting to everyone based on being stuck in depression, denial, or anger. The truth is that we can’t heal what we are unwilling to feel. If we don’t acknowledge Him in our grief, we’ll live out of the stage we’re stuck in. I like the idea that grief is the antidote to trauma. It’s the healthy response to loss. Trauma leaves us feeling stuck. Grief has the power to move us. Either downward into our hearts or upward to lament with God, and then ideally outward toward others as we allow them to carry our burden alongside us. Many shy away from grief, fearing it traps us, but avoiding grief is what keeps us truly stuck. So talk about it. Even if it feels like you’re talking about the same thing over and over. God moves us as we talk about it. Research continually suggests that discussing trauma and grief is critical to healing and growing through it. James Pennebaker’s groundbreaking studies on the importance of talking about trauma reveal that expressive writing and verbal processing can lead to significant psychological and physical benefits, including improved emotional processing, reduced distress, enhanced immune system function, and greater overall well-being. Submitting to God in grief meant opening up the grief and letting God use others. Eventually, I did start to give to others again. And it was different from how it had been before. I felt the words of Paul’s greeting in 2 Corinthians deeply: I could “comfort those in any trouble” with the comfort I myself receive from God. If you’re willing to go there with Him, if you’re willing to grieve, He will use the pain you’ve been carrying or maybe ignoring. Adapted from Relaxed: Walking with the One Who Is Not Worried about a Thing  by Megan Fate Marshman.

Read the Passage You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the LORD. — Lev. 19:28 Tattoos Sometimes people read a statement about tattoos in the Old Testament and wonder if it applies today. The Mosaic covenant has been terminated with the death of Christ, and we are now under the new covenant. Therefore, this law from the Mosaic covenant is not directly binding on us today. But the remaining question is whether the prohibition on tattoos still reflects wisdom for godly living, wisdom that we would do well to follow today, or whether it is a prohibition particular to the circumstances of the old covenant. This Command Probably Refers to Canaanite Religious Practices This same sentence in Leviticus also prohibits making “any cuts on your body for the dead,” which has nothing to do with Jewish religious commands and must therefore reflect a prohibition against Canaanite religious practices connected to the deaths of friends or relatives. Therefore, it is likely that the tattoos in question relate to Canaanite religious practices as well. But this is not certain. R. K. Harrison says, “The shaving of the hair on the temples and beard, or the incising of patterns on the skin, formed part of pagan mourning practices and as such were prohibited. The disfiguring of the skin, which probably included some emblems of pagan deities, dishonored the divine image in a person.” Jay Sklar writes, “Tattoos today—at least in Western cultures—do not have the same pagan associations as they did in ancient Israel, so believers are no longer prohibited from getting them.” Gordon J. Wenham, however, sees an additional, deeper reason for this command: “Man is not to disfigure the divine likeness implanted in him by scarring his body. The external appearance of the people should reflect their internal status as the chosen and holy people of God ( Deut. 14:1–2 ).” This Verse Is Part of the Mosaic Covenant’s Physical Purity Laws Even if Leviticus 19:28  were shown to be unrelated to pagan religious practice, the prohibition against tattoos should still be seen as part of the physical purity laws that were unique to the Mosaic covenant, such as the prohibition against cutting one’s hair or one’s beard ( Lev. 19:27 ), the prohibition against eating from a fruit tree until the fifth year ( Lev. 19:23–25 ), or the prohibitions against hybrid cattle, planting two kinds of seed in a field, or wearing garments made of two kinds of material ( Lev. 19:19 ). These laws all emphasized outward physical purity, a purity of appearance, that is no longer binding on people in the new covenant. There seems to be no reason to see any abiding moral principles reflected in these commands. Therefore, there is no biblical prohibition against tattoos for people who are no longer living under the Mosaic covenant. Is It Wise to Get a Tattoo? Beyond the question of whether there is a direct biblical prohibition against tattoos is the question of whether it is wise to get a tattoo. It is similar to buying a piece of clothing that you can never take off for the rest of your life, even if you no longer like it. Tattoos are extremely difficult and very expensive to remove, with the total cost potentially reaching $10,000, depending on the number of sessions needed, and the removal process requires several treatments that are very painful. Tattoos that are visible are a barrier to employment or are prohibited for jobs in many companies. A survey done by Salary.com found that 76 percent of respondents felt tattoos and piercings hurt an applicant’s chances of being hired during a job interview. More than one-third—39 percent—felt that employees with tattoos and piercings reflected poorly on their employers. Finally, 42 percent felt that tattoos are always inappropriate at work. Another study from Scotland’s University of St. Andrews showed that managers thought visibly tattooed workers could be perceived as “abhorrent, repugnant, unsavory, and untidy” by customers. Anyone considering getting a tattoo should at least be aware of these common perceptions. Self-Mutilation Sometimes people intentionally hurt their bodies by cutting them or wounding them in other ways. This is different from getting a tattoo, because the goal in getting a tattoo is to enhance a person’s bodily appearance (whether it does that or not is a matter of disagreement and personal taste). But with self-mutilation, the intention is to hurt  one’s body and harm  its appearance. Paul’s teaching about our bodies is appropriate here. As we have seen previously, he says that “your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God” ( 1 Cor. 6:19 ). We Christians have the Holy Spirit living within us, so we should not dishonor our bodies. In addition, it is Satan’s purpose to destroy human beings made in the image of God. Jesus says, “He was a murderer from the beginning” ( John 8:44 ). He is like the thief who “comes only to steal and to kill and destroy” ( John 10:10 ). Therefore, along with a person’s own sinful desires and self-hatred, another factor motivating self-mutilation might be a demonic influence urging a person to hurt himself or herself. The question of what motivates this behavior is very important, and will require wisdom and spiritual discernment to understand. In many cases, the help of a wise and mature Christian counselor will be needed, along with much prayer, in order to effectively address this problem. This article is adapted from   Christian Ethics: Living a Life That Is Pleasing to God   by Wayne Grudem.

Theological Emphasis Some time ago we sent an email to our church family asking what sort of topics they’d like to hear teaching on, or which parts of Scripture and theology they felt hadn’t been given enough airtime. I’m glad we did so. We were able to identify some prominent pastoral needs across the congregation and plan our teaching program with that in mind. But it can be a mixed blessing to send out such a survey. Not every aspect of Christian theology is equally crucial. And while every verse of the Bible is equally true, not all are equally weighty. So whatever responses people may submit, some things should always be given more emphasis. But it served to remind me of how many focal points exist in a typical church family. The Christian world is full of options of things to make central to our churches. We are not short of hobbyhorses, special interests, and theological eccentricities, all of which lobby for more and more prominence in our thinking and church life. Because of this, a certain amount of any pastor’s time is spent letting people down gently—disappointing them at a rate they can absorb, as one older pastor friend put it. So it is common for people to want particular theological truths or cultural matters to be put front and center. All of this can make it difficult, therefore, when we are presented with a theological issue that genuinely is of crucial importance. The doctrine of our union with Christ is a case in point. To say so is not to force into the center something that deserves to be kept at the side. It truly does matter this much. The simple fact is this: without our union with Christ, Christianity is nothing . We’re not left with a diminished Christianity; we’re left with no  Christianity at all. It’s not the difference between original Coke and Diet Coke but between any  Coke and no drink at all. This becomes clear when we consider this doctrine’s prominence, importance, and significance. 1. Prominence Even a cursory glance through the pages of the New Testament reveals a startling truth: its main way of talking about a follower of Jesus is different to ours. Our default term is “Christian” and sometimes “disciple” or “follower of Jesus.” These are all terms we can find in the Bible, but the overwhelming descriptor of what we mean when we talk about being Christians is the phrase “in Christ” and “in him.” Front and center isn’t just our relationship with Jesus but the particular shape that relationship takes. We do indeed follow him and are disciples of him, but more fundamentally we are united to him—so closely that we can be said to be in him (and he in us). Paul can write that “he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him” ( 1 Cor. 6:17 ). Jesus says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit” ( John 15:5 ). Faith in Jesus unites us to him. We are one with him such that we now abide in him and live in him. This relationship is so all-encompassing of our Christian lives that the terminology of being united to Jesus comes up a staggering amount in the New Testament. In contrast, the word “Christian” is found only three times. This alone should make us consider what we might be missing if Scripture’s main way of talking about those who belong to Jesus is different to ours. 2. Importance It is not just that the language of union with Christ is ubiquitous in the New Testament; it is theologically pivotal too. Consider the following texts: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ  with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. ( Eph. 1:3 ) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ , he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. ( 2 Cor. 5:17 ) For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him  we might become the righteousness of God. ( 2 Cor. 5:21 ) For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him . ( Phil. 3:8–9 ) For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ . ( Rom. 12:4–5 ) If Christian theology is an ecosystem, union with Christ is like a vital keystone species; if it is a house, union with Christ is a load-bearing wall. There are no blessings to be received from Jesus without being one with him. No union, no blessings. Not a one. With that union, we have all blessings, missing nothing. Through union with Christ we have justification. Apart from it, the righteousness of God would be forever beyond our reach and hope. But in Christ, what is his can properly become ours, just as in marriage what belongs to one properly belongs to the other. 3. Significance In addition to its theological importance of union with Christ is its practical and pastoral significance. I can think of no other doctrine that has been such a powerful balm for my soul. All of us ache for deep friendship and connection which no human relationship can ever fully provide. We have it in Christ. We can enfold ourselves in him. He will never let us down or fail to be enough for us. He will never tire of us or be too preoccupied to notice us. We each have his full attention all of the time. His union with us is how he fulfills the promise, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” ( Matt. 28:20 ). All of us make pledges to those near and dear to us to “always be with them.” But we can never truly live up to those words. I can’t be there fully for anyone, however much I mean to or try to. But Christ can be. We need not experience any moment of life apart from his presence. And the more we get to know his goodness, the more that presence means to us. All of us ache for deep friendship and connection which no human relationship can ever fully provide. We have it in Christ. Sam Allberry is the author of   One with My Lord: The Life-Changing Reality of Being in Christ  .

The Trinity is undoubtedly one of the most mysterious Christian doctrines. It can be intimidating to explain and we tip-toe carefully with our words so as not to slip into heresy. However, we would miss the point if we left the Trinity as a mere doctrinal discussion. How does the Trinity practically apply to our everyday life?   The practicality of the Trinity is clear in John 13–17. The disciples were deeply troubled at Jesus’ words about leaving them, thinking it would bring a devastating break in their relationship with God. But Jesus spoke tenderly to them, giving them guidance for continuing their walk with God after his departure. In giving this instruction, Jesus spoke about God’s Trinitarian nature. This passage of Scripture teaches that knowing God as three in one should be at the center of our daily relationship with him. Responding to the Father's Love   In light of Christ's lessons on the nature of the Father . . .       He is the fountain of divine love. He is the source of the encouragement we receive in the Scriptures, in answers to our prayers, in the grace of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and in all the other blessings we receive.       As the source of all, He is to be served as the object of all. He is the One to whom we respond with love, prayers worship and adoration. We also worship the Son and the Holy Spirit, but because even the Son and the Spirit give glory to the Father and share in his glory (e.g., John 16:14-15; 17:4-5), we worship the Three-in-One with an understanding that the Father is the ultimate object of all.       We should honor the Father with the fruits of our lives. Just as a vineyard owner plants his vines in order to receive a harvest, so the Father (the Vinedresser) rightly receives the fruits that Jesus (the Vine) brings to our lives (the branches). John 15:1-5.   Responding to the Son's Mediation   There are four main ways we are to respond to the Son's Mediation . . .       We look to the Son to bring us into favor with God. It is only in the words and work of Jesus that favor with God is provided.       We join ourselves with believers—specifically within a local church. Jesus instructed his disciples: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, your are also are to love one another. (John 13:34-35; cf. John 13:13-17; John 15:12)       We pray to the Father in Jesus' name. (John 16:23)       Jesus brings the Father's words to us, so we respond to his role within the Trinity by using the Scriptures as the standard for our faith and life. Because of the promise of the Spirit . . .       We expect the Spirit to instruct our decisions through the Word. This doesn't mean the Spirit will produce new meanings from the Bible tailored to our individual questions, but we expect the Spirit to help us as we bring our lives under the light of God's Word.       We expect the Spirit to guide Christians as a community. It is important for us to study our Bibles with confidence that the Spirit will help us, and to do so with careful attention to the counsel of others who have studied the same Scripture.       We trust that the Spirit authorizes us to serve as witnesses. Wherever Christians live, the Spirit is with them to make them witnesses to their communities.       We respond to the continual presence of the Spirit by welcoming his conviction. When we lack faith, the Spirit stirs our hearts to believe at the hearing of Scripture. When we sin, the Spirit brings conviction and draws our hearts to remember and obey the words of Scripture.   This article is adapted from Our Triune God by Phil Ryken and Michael LeFebvre.

Part your heavens, Lord, and come down; touch the mountains, so that they smoke. Send forth lightning and scatter the enemy; shoot your arrows and rout them. Psalm 144:5-6   David doesn’t want small favors from God. He begs the Lord to rip open heaven. He urges God to stretch out his hand and make mountains smoke. He wants bolts of lightning to send his enemies running. And those are just a few of the items on his list of prayer requests.   David needs an unusual brand of divine assistance to help him rule Israel. His enemies pursue him with deadly swords (verse 10). He fends off foreigners spewing lies (verse 8). He worries about enemies breaking through city walls, and he hopes he never hears cries of distress rise from the streets (verse 14). So he asks the Lord for military victory. He praises God for training him to win at war. He counts on God to make entire peoples submit to him (verses 1–2).   As David watches over the nation, he looks for God’s blessings not just for him but for every person under his care. He wants young women and men to grow up like well-fed plants (verse 12). He prays for barns full of crops and fields covered with flocks (verse 13).   David’s requests for military triumph might not resemble what you need from God. But you can make your own bold requests of the Lord, asking him to meet your real needs. He knows you’re a mere mortal. Your life is but a breath. But because he is your God, you can count on his care.   Takeaway Be bold in your requests and trust God actions and timing. We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).   Drawn from the NIV Bible for Teen Guys.

Doubting Thomas? Sometimes it is hard for us to believe in life after death. The true Bible story that shows this perhaps most clearly is the story of “Doubting Thomas,” as he is usually called. I prefer to think of him as Believing Thomas, but he did have his doubts. Most of us would have shared the man’s skepticism. Thomas was not with the other disciples when they first encountered Jesus after his resurrection from the grave ( John 20:24 ), which understandably made it hard for him to believe. We don’t know why he was absent, but God surely knew that his experience of doubt would help us believe. The fact remains that Thomas had more than the fear of missing out; he did miss out! So, when the other disciples said, “We have seen the Lord” ( John 20:25 ), frankly, he didn’t believe them. This is very relatable. The man’s associates were making the incredible, world-changing claim that a dead man had come back to life, never to die again. Evidently, they told him that this was a physical resurrection—that the risen Christ had appeared to them in an indestructible body. But Thomas wasn’t there, so how could he believe? Unwilling simply to take his fellow disciples at their word, Thomas wanted Jesus to prove himself, as we sometimes do, especially in the face of death. Thomas 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 ). Thomas wanted to see for himself. He also wanted to touch the Savior’s glorified wounds. He wanted what the philosopher Thomas Paine once enviously described as an “ocular and manual demonstration.” Otherwise, the disciple declared, he would never believe. Because of his famous nickname, Thomas has the reputation for being the only skeptic of the resurrection. His fatalistic comment after Lazarus died reinforces the popular view that he was an inveterate doubter: “Let us also go, that we may die with him” ( John 11:16 ). We may get the mistaken impression from all this that none of the other disciples doubted, and maybe we think that good Christians never doubt. But, in fact, most of the disciples had trouble believing in the resurrection of the body—or at least the men did. Luke tells us in his Gospel that three days after Jesus was crucified, the eleven original disciples gathered in Jerusalem with other followers of Jesus. They were discussing the testimony of some that Jesus “had risen indeed” ( Luke 24:34 ). Suddenly, Jesus was there, standing among them, giving them God’s peace. But according to Luke, “they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit” ( Luke 24:37 ). The disciples were scared out of their minds, as we would be if someone we knew to be dead suddenly showed up standing next to us. What Jesus said to these frightened men exposes their spiritual skepticism. He said, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?” ( Luke 24:38 ). It wasn’t just Thomas: they all had their doubts. Similarly, Matthew tells us that later on, when the disciples met Jesus in Galilee, “they worshiped him, but some doubted” ( Matt. 28:17 ). Matthew’s use of the plural indicates that Thomas was not alone in his skepticism. The Greek word he chooses to describe their spiritual struggle is a form of distazō , a word that indicates hesitation, such as we sometimes experience when we feel caught between faith and disbelief. Amazingly, the first disciples had this inner conflict at the very moment when Jesus commanded them to go into all the world and preach the gospel. The Great Commission was given to doubter-believers who worshiped Jesus but also struggled to have faith, even when they were in the physical presence of the risen Christ. Christian Wiman finds this encouraging in his personal struggle to believe the biblical gospel. He writes: The Gospels vary quite a bit in their accounts of Jesus’ resurrection and the ensuing encounters he had with people, but they are quite consistent about one thing: many of his followers doubted him, sometimes even when he was staring them in the face. This ought to be heartening for those of us who seek belief. If the disciples of Christ could doubt not only firsthand accounts of his resurrection but the very fact of his face in front of them, then clearly, doubt has little to do with distance from events. Some interpreters are critical of Thomas’s demand for more evidence, but I think we should commend him for his quest to know the truth. When he had his doubts, Thomas did not stop struggling to believe. And at least he was willing to consider the evidence. The notorious atheist Richard Dawkins—who taught evolutionary biology at Oxford and advocated outspokenly for the elimination of the School of Theology—once defined faith as “the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence.” He continued, “Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.” Thomas is a good counterexample to Dawkins’s dismissive claims. Thomas believed not in spite of the evidence; rather, he insisted on evaluating the evidence fairly for himself so that his belief would be well justified. To that end, he was willing to encounter Jesus, which some skeptics aren’t. Thomas was open to the evidence, and open to Jesus. His example is especially important for anyone who is doubtful about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. Are we willing to weigh the evidence? Truthfully, it is the only intellectually responsible thing to do. There is too much at stake simply to walk away. What is at stake, specifically, is the infinitely valuable possibility of eternal life. I have tried to be honest about the doubts that most Christians have, and to grant the freedom to be honest about our doubts. It is not necessarily sinful to be skeptical. But it is wrong to shut the door on God, to have what Barnabas Piper calls “unbelieving doubt”—the perilous perspective of someone who is unwilling to believe. In his analysis of the story of Thomas, Keith Johnson explains the difference between doubts that honor God and doubts that don’t: Doubt crosses into sin when a person stops trying to address it. Thomas doubted the resurrection, but he did not sin as he did so. His doubt arose because of his limited knowledge and his inability to make sense of what he heard. He had sincere questions that prevented him from affirming that Christ was alive, and he wanted more information to answer these questions. This is the key: Thomas sought to address the causes of his doubt. He was willing to learn, and he embraced the truth immediately after Jesus appeared to him. Believing Thomas Yes, despite his doubts, Thomas did come to faith. When artists portray his famous encounter with Jesus, they often depict the disciple reaching out and touching his wounds. Caravaggio’s painting The Incredulity of Saint Thomas  might be the most famous. Caravaggio’s Thomas takes his index finger and probes the fleshy folds of his Savior’s side, trying to comprehend what happened to the body of Jesus. I am not sure Caravaggio’s rendering is totally accurate. Certainly, Thomas said  that he wouldn’t believe unless he could put his fingers in the nail marks or place his hand in the Savior’s sword-wounded side. Maybe he said this because the other disciples told him that this is what they had done when they saw Jesus after he rose from the grave: they handled the evidence for themselves, touching his glorified body. It is also true that Jesus invited Thomas to touch him. “Put your finger here,” he said, “and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side” ( John 20:27 ). His instructions are so specific that Thomas may well have obeyed them. However, the Bible never says whether Thomas took Jesus up on his invitation and touched his wounds. All that John records is the answer he gave as soon as he was convinced: “My Lord and my God!” For Thomas, seeing was believing, maybe without any touching. This is one of the emotional high points of the Gospels. At the very moment when he became an eyewitness of the risen Lord Jesus Christ, everything within Thomas bowed down and worshiped. What made this reverent response possible was our Savior’s sympathy for skeptics. Jesus did not blame Thomas for his lack of faith or condemn him for his disbelief. He did not hold himself back until the disciple showed him more trust. Instead, Jesus moved toward Thomas in love and said, “Peace be with you” ( John 20:26 ). He held out his hands and invited his friend to step forward in faith. “Do not disbelieve,” he said, “but believe” ( John 20:27 ). Jesus is always moving toward us, especially if we have our doubts. In the face of everything fearful, he says, “Peace be with you.” He holds out his hands to welcome us—hands that were pierced with sharp nails for the payment of our sins. He tells us to stop doubting and start believing instead. The best way to respond is the way Thomas did, not only by seeing and believing but also by worshiping and surrendering. Declare that Jesus of Nazareth is both Lord and God, and then start serving him, as Thomas did. By all accounts, Thomas is the apostle who carried the gospel all the way to India, founding the church that honors his memory there to this day. Keith Johnson rightly concludes: “John’s goal is not to portray Thomas as a sinful doubter whose example is to be avoided at all costs. Rather, John presents Thomas as a role model for Christians.” Jesus is always moving toward us, especially if we have our doubts. This article is adapted from   I Have My Doubts: How God Can Use Your Uncertainty to Reawaken Your Faith   by Phillip Graham Ryken.