Recently I have been studying biblical hope and now I will attempt to give a brief overview of my thoughts on hope. I severely compressed my thoughts, but is till ended up being much longer than I expected it to be. So just skim over it.
Before I jump into this, you must understand that biblical hope is the hope that there is a King coming with His kingdom. He will return and establish perfect justice on the earth. It is the hope of the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:23). It is the assurance that the corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality (1 Corinthians 15:54). It is the desire to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven (2 Corinthians 5:2).
This is the hope I speak of. With that in mind I will continue sharing my ideas. The more I study hope, the more I realize that hope is not just something to sustain and comfort us in the midst of the struggles of this life (although that is definitely a part of it). A less thought of view of hope is that it is one of the things that God has established as motivator for holiness. In this post I will mainly focus on that view of hope.
The hope of a believer is a living hope (1 Peter 1:3). It is a living hope because it does not leave our hearts stagnant and passive. It is a hope that ignites us, a hope that moves the hearts of those who have it into a greater measure of righteousness. It is alive and actively changing us day by day. But how? What is it about hope that brings about a profound change in the ‘hopers’?
1 John 3:2-3 says, “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” The evidence of hope is a life of purity. The hope of a future glory and the realization that that future glory is going to be lived in complete purity (for we will be like Him and He is pure) inspires us to live lives that would taste of that coming age. It inspires us to purify ourselves, just as He is pure. This first step into righteousness on these grounds catapults us into a lifestyle of continual purification and increased holiness. The more we set ourselves apart, the more we realize how vastly superior the life of the age to come is to this present evil age. This in turn causes us to hunger for more holiness in our life. And thus the cycle begins!
2 Peter 3:11-12 says, “Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God…” If we really believed that the way we live our lives today can hasten the day of the Lord, then we would live radically different. This verse is evidence that we live lives of intercession, not just with our words, but in deed as well. Do any of us really believe that we can hasten the day of God? Do we really believe that we can make it come sooner by the way that we live moment by moment? It almost sounds like heresy!
Yet it says that our desire for Jesus to return is the ‘instigator’ for holy conduct and godliness. Our blessed hope and our longing for the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ should be the motivator for living soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age (Titus 2:12-13).
That we would allow our pale and tainted, yet precious vision of eternity to thrust us into a lifestyle of radical obedience. That we would let our weak and faint, but real desire to see Jesus return drive us into a place of sobriety, righteousness and godliness. I want to live a life that screams, “Jesus, come back!” I want to have every minute of everyday be a declaration of my dependence on the hope of Jesus’ return.
Do we really want Him to come back? Do our hearts really cry, “Make haste, my Beloved!” (Song of Solomon 8:14) Do the Spirit and the Bride really say ‘come’? (Revelation 22:17) This is the hope that we were saved in! (Romans 8:24) It is one of the foundational principles of the gospel of the kingdom. Do we really desire it like a bride desires her wedding day? Do we really eagerly wait for it? Are we excited? Is it really on our minds day in and day out?
Sometimes I just want to trample the time lines, chuck the charts and kick the commentaries (I hope you appreciated the alliterations) and run around the IHOP parking lot yelling at the top of my lungs, “Jesus! Won’t you come back?
How about you, do you want Him to come back too?
