The Tenacious Hope of the Gospel

1 Thes. 4:13-14 “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep.”

(I’m back! I apologize for my recent absence from the blog. Several have asked me if I am going to stop blogging and the answer is no! I have just been extremely busy and have been on the road a ton. I have just wrapped up an intensive theological German course and also recently returned from Centrifuge with my students! I am excited to be getting back to some sense of normalcy and am incredibly excited that I get to write again. )

Hope is a strange and wonderful gift. It is one of those unique attributes that all human posses. In times of plenty we have hope that the bounty will continue. In times of great lack we hope for a better future. We hope in the policies of governments, in the merits of men, and in the intellect of the mind. We find hope in everything from medicine to technology, and from finances to insurance policies. However, for most people, hope dies with death. No matter how great the medicine it is useless when the body fails. No matter how much intellect one posses, the mind is worthless when the last synapse fires. On and on we could think of a million ways that hope perishes in the face of death.

In truth, graveyards are a chilling reminder of the death of hope. We have all lost people and we all know the pain that swells on the other side of the iron cemetery gates. In the reality of the graveyard hope seems too weak and frail to matter. However, the gospel shows us, and all men, that the hope it offers is a tenacious hope. The hope that Jesus Christ offers men is not temporal or temporary, but rather it is eternal. The hope of Jesus Christ is a tenacious hope that will outlast the cemetery and the cosmos. When this world has faded away and this earth is but a distant memory, the hope of our Lord will continue.

            The gospel hope is not withered by death. Ultimately we serve the Lord of the Resurrection. Jesus Christ obliterated death through His gospel. He faced death head on and He conquered it. The King of the Resurrection is our king. Where Jesus is, death is not. Death has truly lost its sting. Does this mean that we should not grieve for those we have lost? No, that is not what Paul is telling the Thessalonians. He tells them to grieve, but with hope. This is not the end of it. Death is not the ending for us. We tenaciously hope in the Lord of the Resurrection. Since Jesus rose again, we know that we too will rise to meet Him. The glory of Easter makes the darkness of the graveyard bearable.

            I want to encourage you today to remember the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel shows us that we were dead in sin, but that Christ has given us life again. The Lord of Life endows us with a tenacious hope. In a world of uncertainty and hopelessness, the gospel shines as a beacon of everlasting hope.