LESSON SIXTEEN – THE HOPE OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

Eph. 1:18—The eyes of your heart having been enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.

Because of man’s fall there is no hope for the fallen human race. The only expectation unbelievers have is death. Death is their destination. Day by day, they are living with a view toward their death, and they are on the way to death. Thus, death is their future.

As those who believe in Christ, we have a life full of hope. Our hope is the Lord’s coming back. Furthermore, our hope includes resurrection and rapture. Resurrection is not only a matter of life but a matter of life overcoming death. When life overcomes death, that is resurrection. Rapture is something that goes even beyond resurrection. A person may be resurrected and yet not be raptured.

RESURRECTION AND RAPTURE

The holy life for the church life is a life with a future, a life with hope. This hope is not merely the Lord’s coming; it is the Lord’s coming with resurrection and rapture. The coming back of the Lord Jesus will cause the resurrection and the rapture to occur. As we have just pointed out, resurrection and rapture are both in addition to life. Today life is our possession. We have life, we are in life, and we are enjoying life. However, we are awaiting the Lord’s coming, and His coming will bring resurrection and rapture. Resurrection, of course, is for those who have died. Today we are living a holy life for the church. If the Lord delays His coming back, we all shall eventually “sleep,” that is, die physically. All the believers who have died are waiting for resurrection. If we live until the coming back of the Lord Jesus, we shall not need resurrection. However, we shall still need rapture. Furthermore, those who have died will need to be resurrected and raptured as well. All believers, the dead as well as the living, need rapture. Rapture, therefore, is actually the end of our life on earth. This means that the conclusion of our life is neither death nor resurrection— it is rapture. (Life-study of 1 Thessalonians, pp. 139-140)

KEEPING AND BOASTING IN HOPE

The unbelievers, being without Christ, have no hope (Eph. 2:12; 1 Thes. 4:13). But we, the believers in Christ, are a people of hope. The calling that we receive from God brings us hope (Eph. 1:18; 4:4). We have been regenerated unto a living hope (1 Pet. 1:3). Our Christ, who is in us, is the hope of glory (Col. 1:27; 1 Tim. 1:1), which will issue in the redemption, the transfiguration, of our body in glory (Rom. 8:23-25). This is the hope of salvation (1 Thes. 5:8), a blessed hope (Titus 2:13), a good hope (2 Thes. 2:16), the hope of eternal life (Titus 1:2; 3:7); it is also the hope of the glory of God (Rom. 5:2), the hope of the gospel (Col. 1:23), the hope laid up for us in the heavens (v. 5).  We should keep this hope always (1 John 3:3) and boast in it (Rom. 5:2). Our God is the God of hope (15:13), and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we can have hope (Rom. 15:4) all the time in God (1 Pet. 1:21) and can rejoice in it (Rom. 12:12). [The book of Hebrews] charges us to hold fast the boast of hope firm to the end (3:6), to show diligence unto the full assurance of our hope until the end (6:11), and to lay hold of the hope set before us (v. 18). (Heb. 11:1, footnote 2, Recovery Version)

References: Life-study of 1 Thessalonians, msg. 16; Heb. 11:1, footnotes 1—4, Recovery Version

CHRIST IS THE HOPE OF GLORY, MY VERY LIFE IS HE

Hope of Glory—Christ as the Glorification – 949

• Christ is the hope of glory, my very life is He,
  He has regenerated and saturated me;
  He comes to change my body by His subduing might
  Like to His glorious body in glory bright!

He comes, He comes, Christ comes to glorify me!
My body He’ll transfigure, like His own it then will be.
He comes, He comes, redemption to apply!
As Hope of glory He will come, His saints to glorify.

• Christ is the hope of glory, He is God’s mystery;
  He shares with me God’s fulness and brings God into me.
  He comes to make me blended with God in every way,
  That I may share His glory with Him for aye.

• Christ is the hope of glory, redemption full is He:
  Redemption to my body, from death to set it free,
  He comes to make my body a glorious one to be
  And swallow death forever in victory.

• Christ is the hope of glory, He is my history:
  His life is my experience, for He is one with me;
  He comes to bring me into His glorious liberty,
  That one with Him completely I’ll ever be.