October 22 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"Jesus said to him, 'Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed' " (John 20:29).

Devotional

The circumstances of the Savior's resurrection were in harmony with its lonely and solemn grandeur. No human witness was privileged to behold it. The mysterious reunion of Christ's soul with his body was an illustrious event, upon which no mortal eye was permitted to gaze.

There is a moral grandeur in the resurrection of Christ being unseen. The fact is not an object with which sense has so much to do, as faith. And, doubtless, the fact that no human eye was permitted to witness the stupendous event is designed to teach us that it is with the spiritual, and not with the fleshly, apprehension of this truth that we have especially to do.

What eye except that of faith can see the illustrious Conqueror come forth, binding hell, death, and the grave with unyielding chains? What principle except the spiritual and mighty principle of faith can enter into the revealed mind of God, sympathize with the design of the Savior, and interpret the sublime mystery of this stupendous event?

Therefore it was proper—no, it was worthy of God and in harmony with the character and the design of our Lord's resurrection—that a veil should conceal its actual accomplishment from the eye of his church. It is better that the great evidence we should have of the truth of the fact should be the power of his resurrection felt and experienced in our souls.

Oh yes! the only power of the Savior's resurrection which we desire to know is that which comes to us through the energy of an all-seeing, all-conquering, all-believing faith. Oh, give me this, rather than to have witnessed with these eyes the celestial attendants clustering around the tomb, the rolling away of the stone that was upon the tomb, the breaking of the seal, and the emerging form of the Son of God, bearing the emblems and the tokens of his victory.

The spiritual so infinitely transcends the carnal, the eye of faith is so much more glorious than the eye of sense, that our Lord himself has sanctified and sealed it with his own precious blessing: "Jesus said to [Thomas], 'Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed' " (John 20:29).

Blessed Jesus! Then in faith I would follow you each step of your journey through this valley of tears. In faith I would visit the manger, the cross, and the tomb. For you have pronounced him blessed above all, who, though he does not see, yet believes in you. "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief" (Mark 9:24).

Jesus, these eyes have never seen
that radiant form of thine;
the veil of sense hangs dark between
thy blessed face and mine.

(Ray Palmer, 1858)

Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.

Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2025.