FRIDAY
To close out this week, I’d like to reference two passages that speak so powerfully to the hope that we have in our destiny. The first is found in Jesus’ words to his disciples in the Farewell Discourse in John 14.
John 14:1–4 1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
These are words we need to hear today! “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” Christian, do you trust Jesus? Do you trust that though he is delayed, he is faithful to his word and he will return to take his people to be with him where he is?
Jesus later goes on to say that he, himself, is the way to where he is going. Believe him. Know him. Trust him. Live in him. He is our Savior and our God. He is “the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but through him.” (John 14:6)
Again, as we’ve been saying all week, the greatest blessing is that we will be fully with Jesus, in the presence of God. The greatest blessing is not that we will have a mansion, as this text has been interpreted to say in the NKJV. It’s not that the Father has a “Big, Big House where we can play football.” The blessing is God himself—the presence of God—being with him.
Next I wanted to touch on Romans chapter 8. In this passage Paul uses the word hope a lot—six times to be exact.
Romans 8:18–25 18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
In the face of our present sufferings and pain, we need to remember the hope of glory. God has subjected it to the curse after the fall but will liberate it fully in the end. In the end believers will be fully revealed as the children of God to take their proper place as stewards of creation, fulfilling the creation mandate from the Garden of Eden. This hope energizes us to push forward. It is the fulfillment of our ultimate purpose.
We have experienced this redemption in part in the gift of the Holy Spirit. This only furthers our longing and hope for what we will experience in full in the new creation. We hope, as Paul says, because we haven’t fully attained it yet. If we had already attained it, it wouldn’t be hope. There is greater glory ahead of us.
A couple of chapters later, Paul writes to the church of Rome:
Romans 15:13 13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Additional Content
“The gospel means that this universe is a perfectly safe place for you to be.” - Dallas Willard
“The gospel means that everything is going to be alright in the end.” - Tim Keller