“…which we have seen with our eyes…”

1 John 1.1

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of Life;” 1 John 1:1

You have never seen Jesus, and neither have I – yet we have believed in Him, we have believed on Him to be our Saviour by the grace of God.  That we have done this is not lost on the Lord, “Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” (John 20:29)  That’s me! The Apostle John, who God used to write both of the above verses, had the chance to know the Lord Jesus Christ in his lifetime. He knew the living, breathing Jesus in the flesh.  He saw Him!  There was certainly something special about that!  Even though the disciples and others did not fully realize what a wonderful opportunity it was until Christ returned to Heaven.  So John could say, “We have heard… we have seen with our eyes… we have looked upon…”

Yet this opportunity has not been completely lost to us: Just before he was betrayed, as Jesus prayed for His disciples He said, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;” (John 17:20) Through the past 2,000 years Christians have been faithful to share the message of Salvation so that we also have had the chance to believe… “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen…”  “blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”