Do you struggle with the word hope? Hope often seems like a wish. “I hope this would happen, then I’d be happier.” Hope rarely seems sure, true, or lasting. It usually feels like shaky ground. Some people don’t like hope at all because they are always left disappointed, unsatisfied. So, what exactly is hope? From Vine’s Expository Dictionary: “Favourable and confident expectation,” relating to “the unseen and the future.” The American Dictionary of the English Language puts it like this: “Confidence in a future event; the highest degree of well founded expectation of good.” So, hope is having a confident expectation of the unforeseeable future.
Are you confident in your future? This post is about a Person who can give us confidence in our future. His name is Jesus. In John 14:6, Jesus says that He is the way, the truth, and life. We can only get to God the Father through Jesus. Very plainly, Jesus explains Who we need to seek and what we need to do to have hope for our future. It all started with a promise…
An Undeserved Promise
Throughout the Bible, God’s promise is presented in different ways. God plans to save His people, not destroy them. He loves His children even when they continually turn their backs on Him. He is faithful to lead and guide His people back to Him. He provides for His people even when they aren’t grateful. We see this in the very beginning with Adam and Eve. After Adam and Eve chose to listen to Satan and eat the forbidden fruit, God didn’t destroy them. He punished them and clothed them out of His love (Genesis 3). Later in the Book of Genesis, we see a similar situation during the time of Noah. God could’ve wiped mankind off the planet completely because of their disobedience, but He chose to save His people through Noah and his family (Genesis 6:5-22, Genesis 8:20-22, Genesis 9:8-17). This is a pattern that we see throughout the Scripture. God is loving, gracious, merciful, faithful, patient, just, and righteous towards His wayward people.
When we come to the account of Abraham, God makes a promise that will change the world. He says to Abraham: “’I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you’” (Genesis 12:2-3). “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” How is God going to bless all peoples through Abraham? Through his Offspring or Seed (Genesis 22:18). This being a descendant, Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:16). Galatians 3:8 tells us that Abraham heard the gospel in advance through this promise. It was a promise of hope for all nations. God had a plan to save His people.
Throughout the Old Testament, we read story after story of men and women who placed their hope in this promise of a Savior, a Rescuer, a Redeemer. Here are only a few examples:
Psalm 130: “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord; O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared. I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. O Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.”
Isaiah 7:14: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”
Isaiah 9:6-7: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.”
Jeremiah 23:5-6: “’The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteousness.”
Just over 2,000 years ago, this promise of a Messiah was fulfilled through Jesus Christ. The first four books of the New Testament, known as the Gospels, describe the life, work, death, and resurrection of Jesus. He is the undeserved promise.
A Humble Sacrifice
Jesus left His heavenly throne to become a man, and laid down His life for all peoples, bearing the weight of our sin and shame. God sent His Son to earth for one purpose: to save His people (John 3:16-17). This could only be done through sacrifice. Philippians 2:6-11 describes Jesus in this way: “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!” Jesus, God’s Son, fully God and fully man, willingly came down to earth to die for our sins so we could live and have a relationship with God. That’s a humble sacrifice. And it’s this sacrifice that made God’s promise to Abraham come true.
A Sure Way
Three days after Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, God the Father raised Him from the grave. Jesus not only paid the price for all sin but claimed victory over death, making a way for all peoples to live forever in God’s presence as His adopted children. He secured a way for all nations to be with God. The Bible tells us that this is by God’s grace alone. We cannot do anything to earn this salvation or life in eternity on our own. Let’s look at Ephesians 2:8-9: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” And we know this to be true because Romans 5:8 tells us that Christ died for us while we were still in our sin. Jesus didn’t care where we were in our life. Out of love and humility, He chose to die for you and me while we were deep in our sin.
So, how do we know the Way? Thomas, one of the disciples of Jesus, asked the same question in John 14:5-7: “Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.’” Jesus is the Way! But what does this all mean? Let’s now look at Romans 10:9: “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” We are called to admit that we are wrong for choosing our own way and accept Jesus as Lord of our lives, believing the work that God the Father did through Jesus on the cross and through His resurrection on the third day. This means that we are choosing to turn away from our old lives, surrendering our all to Jesus, and now follow Jesus, allowing Him through the Holy Spirit to transform us into a new person. Simply put, we are trusting Jesus, as our sure and true way, to lead us to a better life.
A Better Life
God certainly kept His promise through His Son, whom He placed in the line of Abraham through the virgin Mary. It is a promise of a better life—one that is far more than we could ever imagine. We only get a taste of it in this life when we choose to make Jesus Lord of our lives. But when we are living in the presence of God in eternity, we will experience the full power of His love and blessing that was promised to Abraham and fulfilled through His Son. It’s a life we’ve longed for.
Here is a passage that describes life in eternity with Jesus:
Revelation 21:1-5: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’ He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’ Then he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’”
Doesn’t this sound amazing? A new earth where God lives among us. A place where there is no crying, pain, or death. Isn’t this the life we all desire? What we were made for? Jesus made this possible. Jesus was promised to us through Abraham, and He followed through, coming down to earth, paying the price for our sins and defeating death through His resurrection. Jesus is the Way to God the Father and eternal life. Jesus is our confident expectation for a better life in eternity. Jesus is our unshakable hope.
