Now Doubting, but Believing

Doubt is based on trying to hold to conflict thoughts or views at once.

Doubt in the Body of Christ, or regarding our redemption in Christ, has to do with holding onto the law and grace.

Consider this example at the end of the Gospel of Matthew:

"16Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. 17And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted. 18And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." (Matthew 28: 16-17)

The eleven disciples, the same men who were called to Jesus' ministry, who had walked and worked with Him for three years, when they saw Jesus resurrected from the dead, even some of them doubted.

Without exploring of the disciples who doubted (Thomas), let us consider why they doubted.

Like the disciples who were walking along the road to Emmaus, dejected because of Christ's death, they were holding onto two accounts, one form the Old Covenant, and then the New Covenant.

Jesus came to fulfill the Old Covenant, with the Ten Commandments and the attending statutes, to under in the New Covenant (Hebrews 8: 10-12).

Many of the Jewish believers still struggled to go away from the Old Testament and enter into the rest of the New.

Peter specifically faced this conflict:

"9On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour: 10And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, 11And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: 12Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. 13And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. 14But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean. 15And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. 16This was done thrice: and the vessel was received up again into heaven." (Acts 10: 9-16)

Peter received this vision after an angel of the Lord had visited Cornelius the Italian.

Paul had rebuke Peter openly for separating from Gentile believers when Jewish Christians arrived on the scene (Galatians 2: 11-14), thus going back to the Old Covenant, even though this separation has been done away in Christ (Ephesians 2: 10-14).

We see the example of this struggle in Acts 10, as well:

"24And the morrow after they entered into Caesarea. And Cornelius waited for them, and had called together his kinsmen and near friends. 25And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him. 26But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man. 27And as he talked with him, he went in, and found many that were come together. 28And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean. 29Therefore came I unto you without gainsaying, as soon as I was sent for: I ask therefore for what intent ye have sent for me?" (Acts 10: 24-29)

Peter doubted about the meaning of the vision, for as an observant Jew operating under the Mosaic Covenant, certain animals were claimed as clean or unclean. Under the New Covenant, the blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed all sin and uncleanness, and thus God may say:

"15And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common." (Acts 10: 15)

God did not arbitrarly change Covenants, going from law to grace, but through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus, God fulfilled the Mosaic Covenant and brought in the New Covenatn, in which He is a God to us, and we are His people because He no longer remembers our sins and iniquities, and He has provided a propitiation for our sins (Hebrews 8: 10-12; 1 John 1: 7-9)

We are called to believe that Jesus has Finished the Work, and we take Him at His Word, His testimony on this.

As long as we believe that the work is not done, if we think that our hearts can fall away, or that we have to keep ourselves saved, that we have to obey the law in order to accept God's unconditional love (read that again, do you see the contradiction there?), then we are living in doubtm we are not believing that He took care of everything for us.

Alcoholics Anonymous and Celebrate Recovery manifest an unsconscionable, insulting affront to the work of Jesus Christ, teaching Christians that they must keep themselves holy, when Christ Jesus is our sanctification as well as our redemption (1 Corinthians 1: 30)

Not our efforts, but His effort. Not our works, but His Work, not our trying, but His dying, not our striving, but His thriving, not our doing, but His done, not our finishing, but His "It Is Finished!" makes all the difference.

And that is why Jesus declared to the Jews of His day during His earthly ministry, and exhorts to us today:

"28Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? 29Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." (John 6: 28-29)

I never realized that believing would not be as easy as I thought, in that I had made it more complicated that it really is.

Today, we are called to believe, and the issue is not doubting, the issue is putting away the Old Covenant in more areas of our lives, putting aside our works, and resting in His Work.

That is what growing in grace is all about: doubting less, and believing more.