OUR BLESSED HOPE
By Pastor Ted Palaroan
Early this year, while driving down the highway, I noticed a billboard with this message: Jesus is coming (Matthew 24). The statement is certainly true; the Lord Jesus Christ will one day come back to this earth to establish His kingdom, and He will rule and reign for a thousand years. However, the message conveyed by this billboard seems to indicate a misunderstanding of what we, as believers today, should be looking forward to. The hope, or expectation, of an earthly kingdom belongs to the people of Israel, just as God promised them in the Old Testament Scriptures (Exo. 19:5-6, 2 Sam. 7:8-16, Ezek. 37, etc.). When Christ returns, they will rule and reign with Him on the earth (Rev. 1:5-7, 20:4-6).
During this present dispensation of grace, God is no longer dealing with Israel as a nation, but with the Church, the body of Christ. The hope of believers today cannot be found in the Old Testament Scriptures, or even in the teachings of Jesus, such as is found in Matthew 24. Our hope is found only in the writings of the Apostle Paul, Gods spokesman for this present age. In Titus 2:13, Paul refers to our hope as a blessed hope ... the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. This appearing does not refer to His coming back to the earth to establish His kingdom, but to His appearing in the air, to catch His church up into glory (1 Thess. 4:17-18). Paul makes mention of this blessed hope in writing to the saints at Philippi as he describes what believers should be eagerly waiting for.
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself. (Phil. 3:20-21)
In these verses we find four important aspects of our blessed hope, a hope that is distinct from that of Gods earthly people, Israel.
Our Hope is Laid Up in
A PLACE
For our citizenship is in heaven
To begin with, the place of our hope is heaven. We are not looking forward to Christs return to earth to establish His kingdom and rule and reign. This is Israels hope; a hope that will one day be realized just as Jesus taught His disciples in Matthew 24. The Apostle Paul plainly declares our citizenship is in heaven. God the Father has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 1:3). We have been identified with Christ in His death, His burial, His resurrection, and even more, in His ascension, for God has raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6). Our hope is not an earthly hope or an earthly kingdom, as so many Christians seem to be focusing on today, but a hope which is laid up for you in heaven (Col. 1:5). We are not to be waiting for Jesus return to the earth, but for His return in the air to catch us up to be with Him in heaven, our eternal home.
Our Hope Looks to
A PERSON
... from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Sometimes we tend to focus too much on the place of our hope, and forget that our hope is actually a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ. The word hope means our expectation, that which we confidently wait for. We are to eagerly wait for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our confidence is in Him because of who He is, our great God and Savior (Tit. 2:13), and because of what He has done for us, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works (Tit. 2:14).
Currently the Lord Jesus Christ is seated in the heavenlies (Col. 3:1-2). As far as His relationship to Israel is concerned, He is waiting for His kingdom, the time when all things will be subjected to Him (Heb. 2:5-9) and all His enemies will be made His footstool (Heb. 10:12-13). This wait, this delay, is the result of Israels rejection of Him (John 1:11). When Christ came and was presented to Israel as their King, they crucified Him, declaring, we will not have this Man to reign over us (Luke 9:14). Following His ascension, they also rejected the ministry of the Holy Spirit during the Acts period, in a sense crucifying the Son of God all over again (Heb. 6:6). As a result of all this, the nation of Israel was temporarily blinded, and their kingdom hope and promises were postponed.
Today, God is calling out a new body of believers, the Church, the body of Christ, in which there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile (Col. 3:11). As Paul writes of this body, He emphasizes that we have a new relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is not particularly our King, though He is King of kings and Lord of lords; He is our Head, the Head over all things to the church, which is His body (Eph. 1:22-23). What a wonderful relationship we have with Him; a vital relationship, for we, as His body, are dependent on Him for our every need (Eph. 4:15-16). The blessed hope of the Church of this age is that when Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory (Col. 3:3-4), and thus we shall always be with the Lord (1 Thess. 4:17).
Our Hope Fulfills
A PURPOSE
who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body
Before we can be with the Lord, we must be like the Lord. We cannot enter into His holy presence in these lowly bodies, or more literally, these bodies of humiliation. Our bodies, which we have through natural birth, are received from Adam, thus we receive the same nature that he had a sin nature. If we are to be with the Lord, these bodies must be transformed; they must be thoroughly changed. This is the change that Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 15, commonly referred to as the resurrection chapter.
Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 15:51-57)
Note the use of the word must in verse 53. The Greek word used here is dei, a verb which speaks of that which is a necessity. In order for our blessed hope to be fully realized, it is necessary that our old bodies be changed. Our current bodies, which are sown in corruption, mortality, dishonor, and weakness, will be raised in incorruption, immortality, glory, and power (1 Cor. 15:42-45). They will be conformed to His (Christs) glorious body, or more literally, to the body of His glory. So that when Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. For, as we have borne the image of the man of dust (Adam), we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man (the Lord Jesus Christ) (1 Cor. 15:49).
As we consider the nature of our present bodies, we realize that we would not want to live forever in these bodies. This is why Paul refers to them as tents or temporary dwelling places (2 Cor. 5:1). God has prepared new bodies for us, not a temporary dwelling place, but a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (2 Cor. 5:1,5). What a glorious purpose God has for us, to be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom. 8:29).
Our Hope Rests in
A POWER
according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself
Gods purpose for us, to be conformed to the image of His Son, does not depend upon us, anymore than our salvation depended on us. Our hope rests upon our Lord Jesus Christ, who is able, even to subdue all things to Himself. When Christ was raised from the dead He was also seated at His Fathers right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come (Eph. 1:20-21). God put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all (Eph. 1:22-23).
When Christ returns to this earth, as described in Matthew 24, He will subdue all things to Himself: all enemies, all kingdoms, all nations, and all people. He will rule and reign over the whole earth with a rod of iron. What is even more important is that He has power to subdue all things to Himself in the spiritual realm as well. On the cross, He subdued sin, by taking it all upon Himself and paying its full penalty (1 Pet. 2:24). He subdued Satan, the one who had the power of death, rendering Him powerless (Heb. 2:14). By His resurrection, He subdued death, securing victory and eternal life (1 Cor. 15:54-57). This One who is able, who has the power to subdue all things to Himself, is the One whose working will transform our bodies of humiliation and conform them to the body of His glory. When this, our blessed hope, is realized, the last enemy, death, will be destroyed (literally: rendered powerless) (1 Cor. 15:26).
While Christs return to this earth is a wonderful event and the very real hope of the nation of Israel, it is not our blessed hope. It is not what we, as members of the Church, the body of Christ, are to look forward to, with eager expectation. It is not what is promised to us. We miss such a blessing when we try to take Israels hope for our own and ignore the wonderful hope that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is so important that we walk worthy of the calling which we have in Christ Jesus (Eph. 4:1), and understanding our unique hope is a key element in our walk for the Lord (Eph. 4:3-6).
"For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works." (Titus 2:11-14)
