Hope is a critical ingredient
of a disciples experience. It is one a part of
our spiritual lives that seems to be seldom addressed.
ROMANS 8:
24 For we are saved by hope:
but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet
hope
for?
25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. |
The bible teaches clearly
that we are saved by our Hope. Our hope in a
resurrected Christ. Our hope that one day we
will also rise with him.
We must truly believe that
Christ rose from the dead and that because Christ
rose, we will rise again with him. We must have
a true living hope in Jesus Christ.
1 CORINTHIANS 15:
12 Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
13 But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:
14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.
16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
19 If in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. |
Paul, in this
passage from 1 Corinthians 15, was alarmed that some
where teaching ideas that was overthrowing the faith
of some. There were those that were teaching
that Christ did not rise from the dead. Paul
points out that if we were to accept this, we would
lose hope and be of all men most miserable.
We should have a
vibrant healthy Hope in the Lord. This helps to
anchor and secure our faith in God.
TITUS 1:
1 Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness;
2 In
hope of eternal
life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;
TITUS 2:
12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
13 Looking for that
blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
HEBREWS 6:
17 Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:
18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge
to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
19 Which
hope we have as an anchor of the
soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;
20 Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
1 PETER 1:
13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind,
be sober, and
hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
1 JOHN 3:
1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
3 And every man that hath this
hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is
pure.
1 THESSALONIANS 5:
8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love;
and for an helmet, the
hope of salvation. |
We can live triumphantly
because we have hope in Jesus Christ.
1 THESSALONIANS 4:
12 That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.
13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not,
even as others which have
no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose
again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
18 Wherefore comfort one another with these
words. |
|
