Believing in the Son of God

Then the Jews demanded of him (Jesus), “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days.” The Jews replied, “It has taken 46 years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in 3 days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.” John 2: 19 – 22

Some things just seem too good to be true, don’t they? They are so difficult for us to understand and believe.

We know the Gospel of Jesus Christ must have been so for the people of His day, for Scripture tells us that so many saw His power and His divinity and still did not believe. Not even His brothers recognized Him as the Messiah until after His resurrection. And they and His disciples saw His miracles and heard his teachings, and yet they could not fully comprehend that this man was the true Son of God. They had to personally see Jesus ascend into heaven to fully grasp the fullness of His divinity.

It is difficult to change beliefs that are ingrained in us, or believe a view we have never heard before. And Jesus was so different from what the people had perceived the Messiah would be.

Acts 17: 11 states: “Truth requires a willingness to hear, and has nothing to fear from investigation.”  So many still question who this Jesus is. They find it difficult to even begin to believe in this Messiah they have never seen nor heard, and they really don’t know where or how to find Him. If only they would seek Him in God’s Word and ask God to open their hearts to Him.

How grateful we can be that we know this Savior and believe in Him. We have our own stories of what He has done in our lives. We have read the Old Testament about the promise of a Messiah, the Gospels which tell about His life, and many other books in the New Testament which tell of His saving grace and of what He has to offer the world. We know His promises and His truths. And the most amazing part of all, is that we know He lives in us.

In this verse from John, Jesus is planting a seed in the disciples’ minds that He knows they will recall after His death and resurrection.

We think of Jesus dying on the cross, but Jesus, the Son of God, is very much alive. He was raised up in human form from the dead in 3 days. His human body was glorified, able to appear inside locked rooms or on a mountaintop in Galilee before His disciples. Then after 40 days, He ascended into heaven and returned to His Father.

Only God is able to resurrect life, and He will do the same for us if we believe in Him. He will resurrect our bodies and bring our new ones back to life to live eternally with Him. It seems incomprehensible. But God keeps His promises and Christ has shown us the way to believe in His power and in His glory. How we want others to know that love and grace.

Beth Moore writes in her book, Jesus the One and Only: “Christ’s willingness to continue to draw us to belief totally astounds me. . . Unlike His first disciples, you and I have never looked upon Christ’s touchable hands and feet. At first, it may seem the disciples had such an advantage over us. After all, they saw the risen Christ with their own eyes. Christ, however, announced that we are the ones with a special advantage. Of us, Jesus proclaimed, ‘Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’ (John 2o: 29)  We who believe, yet have never seen, are blessed because it is faith that pleases Him so. We have often seen His hands through constant provision and glorious intervention. We have often seen His feet as He’s gone before us. Surely we have beheld the hands and feet of Christ with eyes of faith. . . Behold Him as the Son of God and believe.”

  Prayer

Dear God, your ways are so great and unfathomable to us. Increase our faith, and open our eyes to your truths. Thank you for the promise of eternal life and for your Son who made it all possible. In your most holy name. Amen