“Jesus said to him, ‘Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.” (John 20:29)

Sometimes those of us who are alive today may wish that we had lived in Israel in the days of Peter, James, and John, when the Lord Jesus was physically walking here on earth. How amazing it would have been, to have seen Him feed the five thousand, listen to Him teach, or to raise Lazarus from the dead! But the words of Jesus in John 20:29 indicate that WE may actually be the more blessed ones:

“Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.” Here Jesus indicates that those who “see” Him are not particularly those who are blessed, but those who did NOT see, and yet by faith, believe!

This is because in God’s economy, salvation is through faith:
— Ephesians 2:8 says “By grace are you saved, by FAITH.”
— I Peter 1:8-9 says “though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you … (obtain) as the outcome of your FAITH the salvation of your souls.”

Thus it is not “seeing” that saves us, but “NOT seeing”, and yet believing, that brings about our salvation. Therefore, it should not particularly be our great wish to have been there to see Jesus — or even to aspire to have some “vision” of Him today. According to the words of Jesus here, and the teaching found later in His word, it is those of us who have NOT seen Him who are actually blessed. For NOT seeing gives us the opportunity to exercise genuine faith in a Jesus we never saw crucified or rise again. And thus believing in Him whom we have never seen, is the very method of our eternal salvation!