Here are some other Bible memory resources I have found:
My Favorite 100 Best Verses To Memorize
Navigators Topical Memory System
Top 100 Bible memory verses
Scripture Typer
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Monday, April 21, 2014
Christ Fully Man
Some have mistakenly argued that if Christ is God, He cannot be fully human. Docetism was "a Christian heresy and one of the earliest Christian sectarian doctrines, affirming that Christ did not have a real or natural body during his life on earth but only an apparent or phantom one."
Among our basic memory verses, there are two key verses that establish the humanity of Jesus. In John 1:14 it says: "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." Luke 1:37 says that "nothing shall be impossible with God." If a barren woman, Elizabeth, could be made to conceive, then the omnipotent God could also cause conception to occur in a woman who had not had relations with a man. He was the Holy One, but he was also born, just as any other of us starts our life, as an helpless baby (Luke 1:35). He displayed all the characteristics of a human. For instance:
He was born (Luke 2:6-7; Gal. 4:4)
He grew in wisdom and stature (Luke 2:52)
He slept (Matt. 8:24)
He thirsted (John 19:28)
He became hungry (Mark 11:12)
He suffered pain (1 Peter 4:1)
He was tempted, but without sinning (Heb. 4:15)
He died (1 Cor. 15:2,3)
The other key memory verse is Gal. 4:4-5, "But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons."
The reason why Jesus had to be born, and born under the Law, was that He had to fulfill the requirements of the Law, becoming the perfect sacrifice for sin, a man who could die, but as the God-Man, he was able to lay down His life and take it up again, just as it says in John 10:17-19:
" For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. 18 No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”
As an infinite Person, He could take upon Himself an infinite penalty for all the sin of mankind, for all time, yet do so in a limited time period while on the cross. As man, He could die, satisfying the penalty for sin, i.e., death (Rom. 6:23).
This concept of being fully God and fully man, united in one Person forever, neither co-mingled nor lacking in either aspect is called the "hypostatic union." You can read more about it here.
Among our basic memory verses, there are two key verses that establish the humanity of Jesus. In John 1:14 it says: "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." Luke 1:37 says that "nothing shall be impossible with God." If a barren woman, Elizabeth, could be made to conceive, then the omnipotent God could also cause conception to occur in a woman who had not had relations with a man. He was the Holy One, but he was also born, just as any other of us starts our life, as an helpless baby (Luke 1:35). He displayed all the characteristics of a human. For instance:
He was born (Luke 2:6-7; Gal. 4:4)
He grew in wisdom and stature (Luke 2:52)
He slept (Matt. 8:24)
He thirsted (John 19:28)
He became hungry (Mark 11:12)
He suffered pain (1 Peter 4:1)
He was tempted, but without sinning (Heb. 4:15)
He died (1 Cor. 15:2,3)
The other key memory verse is Gal. 4:4-5, "But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons."
The reason why Jesus had to be born, and born under the Law, was that He had to fulfill the requirements of the Law, becoming the perfect sacrifice for sin, a man who could die, but as the God-Man, he was able to lay down His life and take it up again, just as it says in John 10:17-19:
" For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. 18 No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”
As an infinite Person, He could take upon Himself an infinite penalty for all the sin of mankind, for all time, yet do so in a limited time period while on the cross. As man, He could die, satisfying the penalty for sin, i.e., death (Rom. 6:23).
This concept of being fully God and fully man, united in one Person forever, neither co-mingled nor lacking in either aspect is called the "hypostatic union." You can read more about it here.
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Christ Fully God
There are many verses that could be used to demonstrate that Jesus Christ is fully God, and I have posted another post about that. But, there are two key memory verses to remember, John 1:1 and Hebrews 1:8.
John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
The Gospel of John focuses upon the Divine nature of Christ. It starts with a verse that harkens back to Genesis 1 with the parallel phrase, "In the beginning was the Word." This was the beginning of all things, just as "in the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth." But, what is seen here is that the past progressive form of the verb, translated, "was," shows that when the heavens and the Earth came into being, the "Word" already was in existence. "In the beginning was the Word." What is this "Word" that was already in existence in the beginning? The "Word" is the "Lógos," the word
"Lógos" embraces an exceptionally wide semantic field, including the ideas of account, proportion, explanation, principle, reason, thought, as well as continuous statement (e.g., narrative, story, speech, history), individual utterance (e.g., proverb, maxim, command), discussion, debate, and, as a grammatical term, phrase or sentence. (from International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, revised edition, Copyright © 1979 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. All rights reserved.) All these concepts imply an active expression of truth, logic, and thought.
We find that this pre-existent "Word" was both "with" God and "was" God. How could one be God and "with" God simultaneously? Theologians struggled with this concept for centuries. What was concluded was that there was only one God, just as the great "shema" from Deuteronomy 6:4 says, "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one." There is only one God. Yet, John 1:1 says that the Logos was also God. Was the Logos the same Person as the Father? No, because the Logos was also "with" God. The resolution that Christian theologians reached is that there is one Spirit "essence" of God, but there are three subsistence "Persons." The Logos is one of those three Persons, the others being the "Father" and the "Holy Spirit."
We find that in John 1:14, it says, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us..." and in verse 18 is says that "No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him." Jesus was the result of the Word taking on human flesh. By that act, the express thoughts of God were revealed in bodily form to the world, so if one wonders what God is like, they need only look to Jesus and they will find the expression or explanation of God's unique nature. Jesus was fully God, but.....He was also fully man, united in one Person.
There are some who have mistranslated John 1:1 because their Greek language skills are deficient, and it has led to the false doctrine that somehow Jesus is "a god" but not "the God." The reason for this mistranslation, they claim, is that there is a definite article in the phrase "the Word was with God" before the word God, pedantically translated, "the Word was with the God." But, they note that there is no definite article in the phrase "and the Word was God" before the word "God". So, they conclude that the word God is indefinite, and should be translated "a god," implying that somehow the Son of God is not quite God, that He is something like a demi-god. This mistranslation is indeed unfortunate, and is the result of poor scholarship. The fact is that there is a grammatical rule in Greek that when an anarthrous (lacking the definite article) predicate nominative appears prior to the verb "to be," that it is ALWAYS definite; in fact, it is not only definite, but it is emphatically so. This is exactly the case in this verse. So, what the writer is saying is exactly opposite to what the Jehovah's Witnesses, and others like them, try to make the text say. The text may be pedantically translated, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with THE God, and THE God was the Word." In fact, John is emphatically identifying the Word as fully God, but he is also distinguishing the Son as a separate person as the Father. Both Father and Son are fully God, one essence, but subsisting of two persons. It is a mystery, but not less true. The grammar fully supports it. It could not be stated any clearer.
Hebrews 1:8 says something similar.
Here, we see the righteous God, but in verse 9 it also says, "therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy companions." So, we see two persons, one who has an eternal throne and a righteous scepter, but that same person has been anointed by "God" with the oil of gladness. The only way to resolve this is to conclude that both are God, but there are two persons, the Son and the Father, who anointed the Son. This reinforces the deity of Christ.
Heb. 1:8
John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
The Gospel of John focuses upon the Divine nature of Christ. It starts with a verse that harkens back to Genesis 1 with the parallel phrase, "In the beginning was the Word." This was the beginning of all things, just as "in the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth." But, what is seen here is that the past progressive form of the verb, translated, "was," shows that when the heavens and the Earth came into being, the "Word" already was in existence. "In the beginning was the Word." What is this "Word" that was already in existence in the beginning? The "Word" is the "Lógos," the word
"Lógos" embraces an exceptionally wide semantic field, including the ideas of account, proportion, explanation, principle, reason, thought, as well as continuous statement (e.g., narrative, story, speech, history), individual utterance (e.g., proverb, maxim, command), discussion, debate, and, as a grammatical term, phrase or sentence. (from International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, revised edition, Copyright © 1979 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. All rights reserved.) All these concepts imply an active expression of truth, logic, and thought.
We find that this pre-existent "Word" was both "with" God and "was" God. How could one be God and "with" God simultaneously? Theologians struggled with this concept for centuries. What was concluded was that there was only one God, just as the great "shema" from Deuteronomy 6:4 says, "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one." There is only one God. Yet, John 1:1 says that the Logos was also God. Was the Logos the same Person as the Father? No, because the Logos was also "with" God. The resolution that Christian theologians reached is that there is one Spirit "essence" of God, but there are three subsistence "Persons." The Logos is one of those three Persons, the others being the "Father" and the "Holy Spirit."
We find that in John 1:14, it says, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us..." and in verse 18 is says that "No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him." Jesus was the result of the Word taking on human flesh. By that act, the express thoughts of God were revealed in bodily form to the world, so if one wonders what God is like, they need only look to Jesus and they will find the expression or explanation of God's unique nature. Jesus was fully God, but.....He was also fully man, united in one Person.
There are some who have mistranslated John 1:1 because their Greek language skills are deficient, and it has led to the false doctrine that somehow Jesus is "a god" but not "the God." The reason for this mistranslation, they claim, is that there is a definite article in the phrase "the Word was with God" before the word God, pedantically translated, "the Word was with the God." But, they note that there is no definite article in the phrase "and the Word was God" before the word "God". So, they conclude that the word God is indefinite, and should be translated "a god," implying that somehow the Son of God is not quite God, that He is something like a demi-god. This mistranslation is indeed unfortunate, and is the result of poor scholarship. The fact is that there is a grammatical rule in Greek that when an anarthrous (lacking the definite article) predicate nominative appears prior to the verb "to be," that it is ALWAYS definite; in fact, it is not only definite, but it is emphatically so. This is exactly the case in this verse. So, what the writer is saying is exactly opposite to what the Jehovah's Witnesses, and others like them, try to make the text say. The text may be pedantically translated, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with THE God, and THE God was the Word." In fact, John is emphatically identifying the Word as fully God, but he is also distinguishing the Son as a separate person as the Father. Both Father and Son are fully God, one essence, but subsisting of two persons. It is a mystery, but not less true. The grammar fully supports it. It could not be stated any clearer.
Hebrews 1:8 says something similar.
8 But of the Son He says,
“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
And the righteous scepter is the scepter of [a]His kingdom.
And the righteous scepter is the scepter of [a]His kingdom.
Here, we see the righteous God, but in verse 9 it also says, "therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy companions." So, we see two persons, one who has an eternal throne and a righteous scepter, but that same person has been anointed by "God" with the oil of gladness. The only way to resolve this is to conclude that both are God, but there are two persons, the Son and the Father, who anointed the Son. This reinforces the deity of Christ.
Heb. 1:8
Sin's Penalty
So, we have learned about God's nature, the He is righteous in all His ways. And we have learned that we all of us have sinned and fallen short of God's standard of righteousness. As a result, there must be a righteous and just penalty for our sins.
Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Anyone who has ever had a job understands what a wage is. After you complete your work, you are paid whatever is owed you, what has been contractually agreed upon beforehand when you were hired. It is not a gift, it is an obligation by the employer to pay you what you deserve. This illustrates the concept revealed in Romans 6:23. The consequences of sin is death. In a sense, we have "earned" death as a consequence of falling short of God's standard of perfection.
The structure of this verse is A-B:A-B, i.e., the "wages of sin" contrasts with the "free gift of God"; and "death" contrasts with "eternal life in Christ." The wages of sin are through works. But, eternal life is a free gift. How could eternal life, that which has infinite value, be offered freely? The word "in" is derived from a dative case, which could be interpreted as "through the agency of". Christ Jesus offers life freely on the basis of His substitutionary death. The debt owed for the "wages of sin" was paid. With the debt fully paid, He could offer life, and life eternal as a free gift. Only if someone rejects His offer of eternal life and insists upon going their own way could they be subject to the penalty rejecting the payment for their sins. How tragic indeed would it be should someone to reject an offer of eternal life. Yet, many choose exactly that, and experience eternal death, that is, separation from the life that is offered through the agency of Christ.
Some claim that they will get a second chance, that they may die but return to work things out in a second, third, or a string of lives. But, Hebrews 9:27 says, "And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,..." This tells us that we all have an appointment with physical death, and after physical death, we have an appointment with God where we will be judged, whether we accepted Christ's offer of eternal life through faith in Him, or whether we will be separated from that life forever.
Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Anyone who has ever had a job understands what a wage is. After you complete your work, you are paid whatever is owed you, what has been contractually agreed upon beforehand when you were hired. It is not a gift, it is an obligation by the employer to pay you what you deserve. This illustrates the concept revealed in Romans 6:23. The consequences of sin is death. In a sense, we have "earned" death as a consequence of falling short of God's standard of perfection.
The structure of this verse is A-B:A-B, i.e., the "wages of sin" contrasts with the "free gift of God"; and "death" contrasts with "eternal life in Christ." The wages of sin are through works. But, eternal life is a free gift. How could eternal life, that which has infinite value, be offered freely? The word "in" is derived from a dative case, which could be interpreted as "through the agency of". Christ Jesus offers life freely on the basis of His substitutionary death. The debt owed for the "wages of sin" was paid. With the debt fully paid, He could offer life, and life eternal as a free gift. Only if someone rejects His offer of eternal life and insists upon going their own way could they be subject to the penalty rejecting the payment for their sins. How tragic indeed would it be should someone to reject an offer of eternal life. Yet, many choose exactly that, and experience eternal death, that is, separation from the life that is offered through the agency of Christ.
Some claim that they will get a second chance, that they may die but return to work things out in a second, third, or a string of lives. But, Hebrews 9:27 says, "And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,..." This tells us that we all have an appointment with physical death, and after physical death, we have an appointment with God where we will be judged, whether we accepted Christ's offer of eternal life through faith in Him, or whether we will be separated from that life forever.
All Have Sinned
All the "seeds" verses are integrated. If you understand God's standard, it is easy to understand the verses that reveal that "all have sinned." Romans 3:23 says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." The "glory of God" is the "standards" of God's perfection, the righteousness of God in all His ways and His kindness in all His deeds. Every person has fallen short of compliance with the standard of God's nature.
Perhaps an illustration that will help us understand this verse is this. If we were to stand on the seashore and I were to ask you to pick up a rock and throw it, you might throw it farther than me, or I might throw a stone farther than you. But, if our target were to throw a stone all the way to Hawaii, we both would "fall short" of that standard. Similarly, God's standard of perfection is so unattainable by those who are living with a sin nature that we are simply unable to live up to it. We all fall short of God's perfection, either by our commission of bad deeds, or by our omission of good deeds. We all fall short of God's righteousness.
Isaiah 53:6 further explains that we have all sinned. Isaiah 53:6 says, "All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him." All of us have in our minds that our own way is right. But, left to ourselves, we all choose to go astray from God's ways and choose our own ways, the ways of our sin nature. The result is iniquity, the failure to live up to God's ways for our lives. Praise God that He has caused the iniquity of all of us to fall on Jesus, who walked in God's ways perfectly and gave Himself up as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.
In a sense, it is like we all had a cancer, the cancer of sin and iniquity. But, it is as though God took all the cancer out of us and put it into Christ. Then when Christ died, the cancer died with Him. It is in that way that He offers us new life, that He has taken all that was killing us into Himself and offered new life to us.
The next in the series of memory verses addresses the penalty for our sins.
Perhaps an illustration that will help us understand this verse is this. If we were to stand on the seashore and I were to ask you to pick up a rock and throw it, you might throw it farther than me, or I might throw a stone farther than you. But, if our target were to throw a stone all the way to Hawaii, we both would "fall short" of that standard. Similarly, God's standard of perfection is so unattainable by those who are living with a sin nature that we are simply unable to live up to it. We all fall short of God's perfection, either by our commission of bad deeds, or by our omission of good deeds. We all fall short of God's righteousness.
Isaiah 53:6 further explains that we have all sinned. Isaiah 53:6 says, "All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him." All of us have in our minds that our own way is right. But, left to ourselves, we all choose to go astray from God's ways and choose our own ways, the ways of our sin nature. The result is iniquity, the failure to live up to God's ways for our lives. Praise God that He has caused the iniquity of all of us to fall on Jesus, who walked in God's ways perfectly and gave Himself up as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.
In a sense, it is like we all had a cancer, the cancer of sin and iniquity. But, it is as though God took all the cancer out of us and put it into Christ. Then when Christ died, the cancer died with Him. It is in that way that He offers us new life, that He has taken all that was killing us into Himself and offered new life to us.
The next in the series of memory verses addresses the penalty for our sins.
God's Standard
Two of our memory verses address the perfection of God's holy nature. The first is Psalms 145:17
17 The Lord is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His deeds.
It's such a simple, straightforward statement. In all God's ways He is righteous. There is not hint of darkness, no compromise with evil, no blemish in his thoughts or eternal essence. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God almighty. As righteous as God is in all His ways, He is also kind in all his deeds. He causes the rain to fall upon the just and the unjust. He remembers that we are but dust. And in the execution of His justice, He gave His only Son as the propitiation for our sins, the satisfaction of His righteousness and justice. God is kind in His patience. As it says in 2 Peter 3:9, "9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance." In every way, God is righteous, not punishing any who are righteous. Yet, there are none who are righteous, not even one. So, that we are not immediately consumed by God's righteous judgment, but we are given time to repent and come to God through Jesus by faith, is an example of God's kindness in all His ways.
The second verse that addresses the perfection of God's holy nature is Matthew 5:48.
"Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
Some commentators attempt to minimize the impact of this statement by saying that the word "perfect" means "mature" or "complete," so they imply that this somehow means something other than an imperative that we are to actually aspire to be perfectly righteous. But, in fact, that standard is God's nature, and as we have read in Psalms 145:17, God is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His ways. So, if we are to be "perfect," or "mature," just as our heavenly Father is "perfect" or "mature," then we should also be as righteous and kind as God is. We now, that is a very tall order indeed. In fact, that standard is perfection. And we shall see that we all fall short of that standard. In fact, if it were not for God's grace through Christ, we would indeed have no hope of standing before God on the basis of our deeds. If we fail, even in one point of God's righteous standard, then we are condemned and deserving of righteous condemnation.
It is important to know God's love, but also to understand God's standards for behavior. Without that understanding, we would not understand why we are in need of a Savior.
17 The Lord is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His deeds.
It's such a simple, straightforward statement. In all God's ways He is righteous. There is not hint of darkness, no compromise with evil, no blemish in his thoughts or eternal essence. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God almighty. As righteous as God is in all His ways, He is also kind in all his deeds. He causes the rain to fall upon the just and the unjust. He remembers that we are but dust. And in the execution of His justice, He gave His only Son as the propitiation for our sins, the satisfaction of His righteousness and justice. God is kind in His patience. As it says in 2 Peter 3:9, "9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance." In every way, God is righteous, not punishing any who are righteous. Yet, there are none who are righteous, not even one. So, that we are not immediately consumed by God's righteous judgment, but we are given time to repent and come to God through Jesus by faith, is an example of God's kindness in all His ways.
The second verse that addresses the perfection of God's holy nature is Matthew 5:48.
"Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
Some commentators attempt to minimize the impact of this statement by saying that the word "perfect" means "mature" or "complete," so they imply that this somehow means something other than an imperative that we are to actually aspire to be perfectly righteous. But, in fact, that standard is God's nature, and as we have read in Psalms 145:17, God is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His ways. So, if we are to be "perfect," or "mature," just as our heavenly Father is "perfect" or "mature," then we should also be as righteous and kind as God is. We now, that is a very tall order indeed. In fact, that standard is perfection. And we shall see that we all fall short of that standard. In fact, if it were not for God's grace through Christ, we would indeed have no hope of standing before God on the basis of our deeds. If we fail, even in one point of God's righteous standard, then we are condemned and deserving of righteous condemnation.
It is important to know God's love, but also to understand God's standards for behavior. Without that understanding, we would not understand why we are in need of a Savior.
He is Risen
The Empty Tomb
John: 20:Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
Jesus Appears to His Disciples
19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Jesus Appears to Thomas
24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus[a]), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”But he said to them, “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.”
26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 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.”
28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
The Purpose of John’s Gospel
30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe[b] that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
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