#227: A Living Hope
Blessed be the God and father of our LORD Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. (I Pet 1:3)
Hope! Imagine a life with no hope. Sounds like vanity right? Hope gives us something to live for; it adds meaning to life. Hope is a general feeling that a desire will be fulfilled. But I am sure we have lived long enough to have had several hopes dashed. So, is hope dependable?
and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Rom 5:5)
Wow; a hope that does not disappoint? Is that a fairy tale? When the bible talks about hope, it is beyond mere wishes. Hope in scriptural context is founded upon God (what He has done, what He can do and what He will do). In reading sacred scriptures, we look backwards (at God's faithful consistency) in order to look forward (hope). By God's grace, through the weeks of this month, we will be studying the theme of hope from the lens of scriptures and trusting God to build a firm unshakeable foundation on hope. Amen.
The first way to understand the biblical context of hope is to see how the human condition is described - this will enable us to know why we need to have hope and why hope is important:
Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. (Eph 2:12)
This is an intense description. When you look out of your window and see people go about their activities, in biblical lenses, they are hopeless if they are alienated from Christ and without God (no matter how achieved they look). Consider this more elaborate description of human nature:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now in the sons of disobedience - among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (Eph 2:1-3)
At this point, you get the drift. By nature, we were hopeless because we were dead puppets of the prince of the power of this age and destined for God's eternal wrath. I do not know about you, but I cannot imagine anything more hopeless than this. But in this state of hopelessness, where can we find meaning to life, is there a way to break free? Yes. And the bible tells us how:
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - by Grace you have been saved - and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Eph 2:4-9)
But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Jesus. (Eph 2:13)
In other words. our hope is built on nothing less than Christ (our chief cornerstone - a solid rock upon which we stand). Our core text (I Pet 1:3) describes Jesus as our living hope. For us to have a living hope on one level points us to a rock that is not a mystical figure once upon a time. Christ is alive. He is alive to give us hope even today; which is the second level to what having a living hope means - that our hope is an active present continuous source of strength. It is a virtue we need daily.
So, whatever we go through in life, we have a living hope. We were saved into a living hope through Christ's redemption. We are not like the rest of mankind who are without hope. When we talk about hope, it begins with the new birth (which we have covered briefly today), but hope is also what enables us to call on God in times of trouble, when we wait on God for help, we do so in hope, hope is what makes us pass through challenges, hope is what makes us embrace persecutions even unto death and in the end, one of the three things that will remain is hope (I Cor 13:13)
Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope entirely on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus. (I Pet 1:13)
For in this hope we were saved. Now, hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. (Rom 8:24,25,28)
Join us every week this month as we explore the implications of Hope in our daily Christian walk. Here is an outline of the topics we will explore the theme through:
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