“that… we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast”
Hebrews 6.18-19
The local newspaper’s weekend edition always contains a lengthy article on a particular topic of personal interest. As such, the January 1-2, 2022 frontpage was entitled “Hope”, and contained interviews with local residents expressing, as they face a new year, “what they’re looking toward during this challenging period of history.” Some, about 86%, were hopeful for the future while around 22% for the most part were simply discouraged. Some pollsters would probably find those percent numbers to be, well, “hopeful.”
Also included was a quote from a mother from Cameroon with a 6-year-old who said, “We’re grateful, we’re alive, and when we're alive, there's hope." That sounds like a worthy sentiment. But what is it to be alive, and what is that hope that being alive points to?
Some, somewhat jokingly say that being able to get up from bed and take nourishment is enough to qualify as being alive. Some cynically say they start their days by checking the obituaries. If they don’t find their names, they assume they must be alive. But in general (and seriously), being alive for many is to experience purpose in life and to enjoy quality relationships. And it is those qualities, or characteristics of life being accessible and attainable that bring them hope.
For Adam and Eve in the garden, being alive was to believe and act on God’s warning regarding eating from the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2.16-17). God made it clear that if they ate from that tree, they would “surely die.” If their faith in God’s word had resulted in corresponding obedience, then it would be a “working faith” in that it would be the manifestation of their love for God, and they would have continued in that blessed state of truly being alive.
One does not even have to read the record of Adam and Eve’s encounter with the tree in chapter 3 to find out if they obeyed. We simply turn a page and see in the fifth chapter, “So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died” (v.5). “And he died”, that says it all. Can we use the quote of the young mother above, “when we’re alive, there’s hope”, and apply it to Adam? Adam died spiritually and eventually died physically. As such, the entirety of his being died and he was helpless to do anything about it. From outward appearances, it would seem that he died without any hope.
As it is, a hopeless death awaits all of mankind who inherited not only the guilt of Adam’s sin, but additionally, his corresponding corrupted nature. The Apostle Paul’ description of fallen mankind is as valid today as it was when he first wrote Titus with these words, reminding true believers what they once were before coming by faith to Christ Jesus, “For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another” (3.3). This state of selfish and hateful behavior is certainly not the state of the abundant life Adam and Eve enjoyed before the fall. That life was more than just surviving. It was life that flowed from the fountain of God’s love whereby there was peace, unity, purpose and quality of relationship. All of that was lost in the fall and man can do nothing to restore it.
Thankfully, as we face this new year as God’s people, we have the unchanging reality of God’s gracious and merciful intervention into our hopeless condition. Gloriously, that intervention was fundamentally an act of love, God’s love. The Apostle John put it this way, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (or satisfaction) for our sins” (1 John 4.10).
What John was saying is that when it comes to sin, which means lawlessness, God does not just look the other way, or indulge us when there have been these breaches of His law. God is a holy and righteous. Therefore, in order for God to forgive sin, He must forgive in a way which is consistent with His holy, righteous and just character.
The good news is that Christ, in His obedience and His paying of the debt due for sin on the cross provided “propitiation”, or legal satisfaction to God so that He can forgive sinners justly. All the repercussions of sin have been overcome in the life, suffering death, resurrection and ascension of Christ Jesus. And all the blessings of Christ’s atoning work are now in the possession of the one who has true faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (John 11.25-26). That means there’s hope, hope of life everlasting!
In this life, however, we are not yet experiencing the fullness of that hope. But, “we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance” (Romans 8.24-25). That’s it, persevering hope which means we exercise belief in, and live in the light of what God has promised for true believers in the future.
We read in Hebrews regarding faith, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the confidence of things not seen” (v.1). In commenting on this verse, John Calvin wrote, “Promised to us is eternal life, but it is promised to the dead; we are assured of a happy resurrection, but we are as yet involved in corruption; we are pronounced just, as yet sin dwells in us; we hear that we are happy, but we are as yet in the midst of many miseries; an abundance of all good things is promised to us, but still we often hunger and thirst; God proclaims that he will come quickly, but he seems deaf when we cry to him. What would become of us were we not supported by hope, and did not our minds emerge out of the midst of darkness above the world through the light of God's word and of his Spirit? Faith, then, is rightly said to be the subsistence or substance of things which are as yet the objects of hope and the evidence of things not seen.”
Therefore, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10.23).
And may God grant us all that persevering hope, confident of God’s gracious promises secured through our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus.
Hebrews 6.18-19
The local newspaper’s weekend edition always contains a lengthy article on a particular topic of personal interest. As such, the January 1-2, 2022 frontpage was entitled “Hope”, and contained interviews with local residents expressing, as they face a new year, “what they’re looking toward during this challenging period of history.” Some, about 86%, were hopeful for the future while around 22% for the most part were simply discouraged. Some pollsters would probably find those percent numbers to be, well, “hopeful.”
Also included was a quote from a mother from Cameroon with a 6-year-old who said, “We’re grateful, we’re alive, and when we're alive, there's hope." That sounds like a worthy sentiment. But what is it to be alive, and what is that hope that being alive points to?
Some, somewhat jokingly say that being able to get up from bed and take nourishment is enough to qualify as being alive. Some cynically say they start their days by checking the obituaries. If they don’t find their names, they assume they must be alive. But in general (and seriously), being alive for many is to experience purpose in life and to enjoy quality relationships. And it is those qualities, or characteristics of life being accessible and attainable that bring them hope.
For Adam and Eve in the garden, being alive was to believe and act on God’s warning regarding eating from the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2.16-17). God made it clear that if they ate from that tree, they would “surely die.” If their faith in God’s word had resulted in corresponding obedience, then it would be a “working faith” in that it would be the manifestation of their love for God, and they would have continued in that blessed state of truly being alive.
One does not even have to read the record of Adam and Eve’s encounter with the tree in chapter 3 to find out if they obeyed. We simply turn a page and see in the fifth chapter, “So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died” (v.5). “And he died”, that says it all. Can we use the quote of the young mother above, “when we’re alive, there’s hope”, and apply it to Adam? Adam died spiritually and eventually died physically. As such, the entirety of his being died and he was helpless to do anything about it. From outward appearances, it would seem that he died without any hope.
As it is, a hopeless death awaits all of mankind who inherited not only the guilt of Adam’s sin, but additionally, his corresponding corrupted nature. The Apostle Paul’ description of fallen mankind is as valid today as it was when he first wrote Titus with these words, reminding true believers what they once were before coming by faith to Christ Jesus, “For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another” (3.3). This state of selfish and hateful behavior is certainly not the state of the abundant life Adam and Eve enjoyed before the fall. That life was more than just surviving. It was life that flowed from the fountain of God’s love whereby there was peace, unity, purpose and quality of relationship. All of that was lost in the fall and man can do nothing to restore it.
Thankfully, as we face this new year as God’s people, we have the unchanging reality of God’s gracious and merciful intervention into our hopeless condition. Gloriously, that intervention was fundamentally an act of love, God’s love. The Apostle John put it this way, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (or satisfaction) for our sins” (1 John 4.10).
What John was saying is that when it comes to sin, which means lawlessness, God does not just look the other way, or indulge us when there have been these breaches of His law. God is a holy and righteous. Therefore, in order for God to forgive sin, He must forgive in a way which is consistent with His holy, righteous and just character.
The good news is that Christ, in His obedience and His paying of the debt due for sin on the cross provided “propitiation”, or legal satisfaction to God so that He can forgive sinners justly. All the repercussions of sin have been overcome in the life, suffering death, resurrection and ascension of Christ Jesus. And all the blessings of Christ’s atoning work are now in the possession of the one who has true faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (John 11.25-26). That means there’s hope, hope of life everlasting!
In this life, however, we are not yet experiencing the fullness of that hope. But, “we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance” (Romans 8.24-25). That’s it, persevering hope which means we exercise belief in, and live in the light of what God has promised for true believers in the future.
We read in Hebrews regarding faith, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the confidence of things not seen” (v.1). In commenting on this verse, John Calvin wrote, “Promised to us is eternal life, but it is promised to the dead; we are assured of a happy resurrection, but we are as yet involved in corruption; we are pronounced just, as yet sin dwells in us; we hear that we are happy, but we are as yet in the midst of many miseries; an abundance of all good things is promised to us, but still we often hunger and thirst; God proclaims that he will come quickly, but he seems deaf when we cry to him. What would become of us were we not supported by hope, and did not our minds emerge out of the midst of darkness above the world through the light of God's word and of his Spirit? Faith, then, is rightly said to be the subsistence or substance of things which are as yet the objects of hope and the evidence of things not seen.”
Therefore, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10.23).
And may God grant us all that persevering hope, confident of God’s gracious promises secured through our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus.