The Believers’ Hope (2) By Babatunde Olugboji
One of the Bible verses in which we find the word hope is Hebrew 11:1. “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” This verse carries with it all of the confidence that comes with knowing for sure, with no question, what God has promised us in his word. Our faith is confident assurance, for it is founded upon the rock of our salvation, our Lord Jesus Christ. All the actions of the heroes of the faith recorded in Hebrew 11 were made possible because they had this faith based in their confident assurance or hope in God. As believers, we are also called to give an answer for the hope that is within us to any who would ask (1 Peter 3:15).
Therefore, biblical hope is a reality and not a feeling or an emotion. Biblical hope carries no doubt. Biblical hope is a sure foundation upon which we base our lives, believing that God always keeps his promises. Hope or confident assurance can be ours when we trust the words, “He who believes in Me has everlasting life” (John 6:47). Accepting that gift of eternal life means our hope is no longer filled with doubt but, rather, has at its sure foundation the whole of God’s Word, the entirety of God’s character, and the finished work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The return of Jesus will be an amazing, joyful experience for the believer in Christ. We will be blessed beyond measure when we see Christ. The trials of this life will be over, and we will see that “our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8: 18). The word hope does not communicate uncertainty, as in “I hope that something might occur;” rather, it is the glad assurance that something will take place. Jesus is our hope, and no one can take that hope away. “Hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5: 5).
The “blessed hope,” then, is the joyful assurance that God will extend his benefits to us, and that Jesus Christ will return. We are waiting for this event now. Jesus said he would return (John 14: 3), the angels said he would return (Acts 1: 11), and the epistles say he will return. Jesus could come back at any time for His church, which includes all believers in Christ from the Day of Pentecost. This event is called the rapture. It will be announced by the voice of the archangel and God’s trumpet call.
The bodies of those who have died will be raised to be joined with their souls, and then the bodies of those believers still living on earth will be changed into a body like the Lord’s resurrected body. The believers raised from the dead and the believers living at Christ’s return will meet the Lord in the air and be taken to heaven. They will “fly the friendly skies united” (see 1 Thes 4:13–18). This will happen in the twinkling of an eye (1 Corinthians 15: 52).
Should this blessed hope of Christ’s any-time return have an effect on believers? John wrote, “All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as [Jesus] is pure” (1 John 3: 3). As we anticipate Christ’s blessed return, we should seek to live, with the help of the indwelling Holy Spirit, a life of purity. We will all stand before the Lord and give an account of how we lived for him on earth (2 Corinthians 5:10).
Jesus’ imminent return should motivate us to live godly in an ungodly world.
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