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One thing that troubles me…one thing that frustrates me about the Church’s message today is that it is, for lack of a better word, misleading. Deceptive, even. Christians are being fed a false hope. A hope that says Christ came to make life easier, to fulfill all our dreams, to give us a good life here on earth. A hope that says if we just turn our lives over to Christ, He will give us our best life now. But upon reading the Bible, one quickly discovers that misleading hope is found nowhere amongst the pages of Scripture. In fact, speaking of “this life now”, look at what 1 Cor. 15:19 says, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men”. Would you like to know what God says our hope is? This verse says it so clearly. There can be absolutely no dispute! Check it out…Titus 2:11-14. “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say NO to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed HOPE-the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a people that are His very own, eager to do what is good.”
Ok…let’s get this clear. According to this passage, what are we to strive for in “this life now”? Verse 11 says we are to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions, to be self-controlled and upright and godly. According to this passage, what is our hope? Verse 13 says that our hope is the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ. According to this passage, why did Jesus come to this earth? Verse 14 says to redeem us and to purify us for Himself. This passage of Scripture sums up our entire life here on this earth, and it blows that health, wealth, and prosperity stuff right out of the water!
Friends, I’m not trying to insult, offend, or discredit anyone. But the truth is that our hope is completely set upon the day that we see His face. Our hope is in nothing else.
“Oh blessed be the day, when all will see Your face.”
Thanks for reading.
Joy
Good post. I’ve also been troubled by the comfortable and easy Christianity being promoted today. It’s indeed a false hope that many have plunged in to.
John Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, profoundly speaks to this misunderstanding of our HOPE: “Would you be satisfied to go to heaven, have everyone there in your family that you want there, have all the health and restoration of your prime, and everything in this life about yourself fixed, have every recreation you’ve ever dreamed of available to you, and have infinite resources of money to spend, would you be satisfied? If God weren’t there?”
On this journey, I’ve found that this “God-less” heaven is appealing to many. But let’s pray that eyes will be open to see “our hope is completely set upon the day that we see His face”, as you’ve affirmed.
grace and peace.
It is a false hope when we ever tell anyone Christianity makes life easier to lead. My life for is a picture of that. No could look at my life and think that God has made my road easy, but He has given me a hope regardless of my circumstances in this temporal state because I have been adopted as a child of God through the blood of Christ.
Our hope lies not in any earthy thing, but in something we cannot see. As Romans 8:23-25 says “23Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” (Rom 8:23-25 NIV)
We are waiting for what we know we will receive because of who we are in Christ, not because of who we are on earth. That is where our hope lies, and that is the hope we must be giving to others, the hope they can only get when they becomes sons and daughters of the King.
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