by David Burge

In order for anyone to live life to the full it is essential to have hope. For the Christian, hope is seizing the promise of life and salvation. We wait for the blessed hope of the appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13). Our hope is secure as no other hope can be! There are three things to remember about the Christian hope:

1. Our hope is not in ourselves. We do not trust in riches (Job 31:24) or our own personal righteousness (Ezekiel 33:13). Jeremiah 17:5 says, “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for strength.” Job 11:20 says, “But the eyes of the wicked will fail, and escape will elude them; their hope will become a dying gasp.” Even to the very core of our being we are “nothing but dust and ashes” (Genesis 18:27). There is nothing within us – no inner light, no immortal soul – to trust for our salvation. Trusting in ourselves is no hope at all (1Thessalonians 4:13).
2. Our hope is in Christ. Our hope rests not on an idea, but on the person of Jesus Christ who is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25). He alone can guarantee us an inheritance that is imperishable (1 Peer. 1:3, 4). He was dead but now is alive forever and ever! (Revelation 1:18). His resurrection laid the foundation for our hope of eternal life and delivered us from false hopes that are for this life only ( 1 Corinthians 15:19). I was he who brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel (2 Timothy  1:10). It is Christ in us which is the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).
3. Our hope empowers us to live in the present. Because we await the realization of our hope in the return of our Lord, our time of hope is also a time of watching (Mark 13:33-37). At the same time our hope should cause us to labor and strive in this world. And more than anything else we should strive for the salvation of others (1 Timothy 4:10). If we really have Christ, the hope of glory, within us, shouldn’t we share him, because he is the world’s only hope, with those who are “without hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12)?

About David Burge

David Burge was the editor of “From Death to Life” for six years and the chairperson of the Conditional Immortality Association of New Zealand from 1993 until his death in 2010 from Leukemia. He pastored the Takanini Church in Auckland, New Zealand for 12 years and he had cerebral palsy.