Christ's Doctrine of Faith: A Study of "Believing" in John's Gospel (John 20:25)

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The ninety-fifth occurrence of faith in the Gospel of John is John 20:25. The text reads: “The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe” (KJV). Now, let’s examine the immediate context and the facts about faith, shall we?

First, the immediate context. Back at the ninety-fourth occurrence of belief, in John 20:8, we are told that the other apostle (that is, the apostle other than Peter who rushed to Jesus’s tomb) went into the tomb after Peter entered it, though this disciple reached the tomb first. For, the text goes on to tell us, they did not yet know the Scripture that Christ must rise again from the dead. The disciples then left for their homes. Mary Magdalene, however, stood weeping outside the tomb. Stooping down and looking into the tomb, she saw two angels sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where Jesus’s body was laid. They asked her why she was weeping, and she answered that it was because (as she perceived it) they had taken away her Lord, and she doesn’t know where they laid him. When she said this, she turned back and saw Jesus standing, but not knowing that it was Him. He asks her why she is weeping and who she seeks, and she answers Him, thinking He is the gardener, that, if He has carried Him away from there, to tell her where He laid Him, saying that she will take Him away. Jesus addresses Mary by name, which causes her to turn and address Him as Rabbi, or Master. Jesus tells her to not touch Him [1], because He has not yet ascended to His Father. He tells her to go to His brethren and inform them that He ascends to His Father and their Father, and to His God and their God. Mary then comes to the disciples and tells them that she had seen the Lord, and that He spoke these things to her. Later that day, which was the first day of the week, in the evening, when the doors were shut where the disciples were, because of the disciples’ fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, saying peace to them. When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side, and the disciples are glad upon seeing the Lord. Jesus again says peace to them, saying that, as the Father has sent Him, so He sends them. And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them “Receive you [i.e., you all] the Holy Spirit,” which He immediately follows with the declaration that, whosoever’s sins they forgive, those sins are forgiven unto them, and, conversely, whosoever’s sins they retain, they are retained. The narrative then transitions to Thomas, who was also called Didymus, a member of the Twelve who was not with the other disciples when Jesus came. We see the other disciples therefore telling him that they have seen the Lord, to which Thomas responds by telling them that, unless he sees the print of the nails in his hands and puts his finger into the print of the nails, he will not believe. This is the immediate context of John 20:25!

Second, the facts about faith. First, faith is believing a testimony. Because the other disciples give Thomas the news about seeing the Lord, but Thomas responds by saying that he will not believe, meaning he will not believe the testimony of the other disciples. In other words, he does not accept their testimony as true. Second, we see here that faith is a choice. Thomas is presented with the news the other disciples bring him, and he clearly states that he withholds his belief. He is clearly confronted with the choice to either believe or disbelieve the apostles’ testimony, and he chooses disbelief in this instance because of the standard of evidence he has set up in his heart by which to judge such a record as true or false. And that brings us to the third and final fact about faith from this passage that we will cover here: faith is dependent upon what the one exercising faith judges to be the standard of proof or evidence by which to verify and falsify claims. Since I have already mentioned how this is the case, I will only give one final, but important, note here: for Christians, the Standard of proof and evidence is God’s Word. Because Christians recognize that God is truth, they subsequently recognize that His Word is pure and unadulterated truth, untainted by even the slightest error or falsehood. These are some facts about faith from John 20:25!

[1] I remember hearing in my Gospel of John class, either from my professor or the textbook (maybe both), that what this text literally means is to “stop touching me,” implying that she already was. I also remember hearing that this is not a stern command from Jesus to Mary, but rather a comforting reassurance to her, which seems likely because of the reason that Jesus Himself gives for telling her this.