We have all heard of the expression, “Seeing is believing.” Ralph Hodgsen adds a new level of insight when he says, “Some things have to be believed to be seen.”
Many people during Jesus’ ministry did not recognize him for who he was because they did not believe on him. They witnessed wonderful miracles such as healing the blind and the lame, or when he raised Lazarus from the dead, and still did not believe. Jesus speaking of them said, “For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.”
People thought that they were seeing, but since they did not believe, their eyes were blinded. Jesus commented, “For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.” The unbelieving Pharisees were suspicious that Jesus might be targeting them, so they asked him, “Are we blind also?” Jesus replied, “If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see, therefore your sin remains.”
Others saw Jesus long before he was born because they believed. Jesus tells us about Abraham, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.” Abraham saw Jesus through the eye of faith even though Abraham lived some 1900 years before Jesus was born.
When the infant Jesus was brought into the temple, the old man Simeon said, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy Word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation.” Most onlookers didn’t see anything unusual about the new baby with the couple in the temple, but Simeon saw what others missed because he believed what the Spirit had revealed to him.
So some things are only seen because we believe. What do we see? Do we see God’s hand in the beauty of nature? Do we see God’s mercy and goodness in providing Jesus to be our savior? Unfortunately the world around us does not see Jesus. Jesus chided his followers by saying, “Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember?” We cannot remember anything we have not already learned. We need to learn in detail about the Lord Jesus and the salvation he made possible so that we can develop the faith to see him and love him.
We read that after Jesus had risen from the dead his disciples joyfully told Thomas, “We have seen the Lord!” But he answered, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”
A week later Jesus came and stood among his disciples and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas responded, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
We are among those who have not seen and yet believe. How do we get the necessary spiritual glasses to see clearly what the world does not see? We need to study the life of our Lord that has been recorded for us so that our faith in the risen Lord is so strong that we really do see that which we believe. If we believe in the coming kingdom, then we should be able to see it with the eye of faith as clearly as Abraham saw the coming of Jesus. We need to focus on the glorious future while recognizing our present world as fading and temporary. Paul tells us, “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
Let us see beyond this present world to see those things that have to be believed to be seen. The writer Augustine once said, “Faith is to believe what you do not see. The reward for this faith is to see what you believe.” We have faith that it is the Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom. The more we love our Lord, the more plainly we see him, and if we keep this vision strong in our minds through faith, very soon we shall see him “
“Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One