Jeff Carter
As we enter into this season of Advent, I thought it might be nice to take a look at one of the most important themes that surround the coming of Messiah.
As a systematic theologian I tend to look at things from a big-picture perspective—asking big picture kinds of questions. I’m always looking at what is going on behind the scenes. What is God up to? How does this fit in with His plan? So indulge me for a moment and let’s take a step back—in fact, try to take a few steps back and look at the plan of God in the biggest-picture kind of way.
The question is—what is the central force driving forward the story of redemption in the Bible? What is the through-line that connects God’s entire redemptive narrative together? Is it love? Many would say so. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…” (John 3:16). “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). There seems to be scriptural and theological support for this. Love is definitely the central theme in the Bible and one which seems to have inspired the divine rescue plan that God put into place all the way back in the garden.
But what I want to ask is; what is the engine that drives the story forward? What is it that keeps us going when everything around us is screaming for us to stop, to quit? What is the one force in the universe that God has designed into life and into our psyches that enables us to persevere, to persist, to endure, to take that next step when there seems to be no reasonable evidence that we ought to? I would argue that it is hope. Hope is what keeps us looking to the future. Hope is what we cling to when everything else has fallen by the wayside. Hope is literally the engine that drives mankind forward amidst oftentimes horrific injustices and suffering to take that next breath—take that next step and wait expectantly and sometimes desperately for good to come. I would argue that hope is the most basic instinct of the human heart without which we would not nor could not exist or press on.
Hope gives meaning to seemingly meaningless events. Hope enables us to look beyond our present circumstances to a brighter future that God promises. Without hope all that’s left is despair. If we think about it, we must recognize that hope really is the energizing principle that allows us to get out of bed every morning; hope that we will get that raise at work… hope that we have not messed up our kids too badly…hope that things will get better in our marriages…hope against hope that the cancer will go into remission.
Hope is the promise that God is working; the promise that God has a plan and will one day bring an end to sorrow; the promise that all things will be made right. It is our hope in God; the confidence that is inspired by a God who is sovereign that is the content of this promise. Since God is in control, we can have hope.
In fact, you can define a Christian as “one who hopes”—one who is dissatisfied with the state of the world and who works to make things better. A Christian is one who has wagered his/her eternity on the hope, the confidence, the assurance that God is…and that God is working…and that God is wise and loving and purposeful in how history is unfolding. A Christian is one who has seen the hand of God working in their own lives and throughout history and throughout the Bible and trusts, (and this really is the essence of hope)—trusts that God is unfolding and revealing to us throughout this history how things will be ultimately made right. History itself causes us to hope.
In the beginning the world was perfect and mankind was in perfect union with God (Genesis 1—2). In the end, the world will again be free from the ravages of sin and the influence of evil (Revelation 21—22). The journey between these two points is the overarching story of salvation—which centers upon the hope that God will fulfill His promise to send the world a savior. It is literally and specifically hope that pervades the story of the Old Testament as God’s people wait for the Messiah to come. Without that hope, none of the suffering they endured would make sense. All of the trials in Egypt; the struggles conquering the land; the horrible wickedness during the time of the Judges; the apostasy and idolatry that pervaded the monarchy; and the devastation of the Babylonian captivity—all of this suffering would not have been tolerable nor make any sense without the hope the coming of Messiah held out for them.
Then, after centuries and centuries of hope when the Messiah does actually come and that all-consuming hope has actually been fulfilled; in one of the most brilliant, most awe-inspiring plot twists ever imagined, the overarching narrative of salvation, and really, all of human life, continues to center upon hope—hope that Jesus will return to make all things right. Somehow, miraculously, even though the hope of mankind was fulfilled in the coming of the promised savior, God figured out a way to continue to utilize this most basic drive within us, by orchestrating the unfolding of His plan to require a second coming of Messiah.
So, we continue to hope! We continue to trust that God will provide. We continue to hope that He will return and establish that kingdom He has so wonderfully described in His Word. Hope continues to be the currency of the soul. God had to do it this way—because a life without hope is not a life at all.
(This is part one of a two-part article. Please stay tuned for the next installment.)
Dr. Ken Way
Bob Morris
Special needs
We are so grateful for your generous and sacrificial support of HaDavar. As you may know, year-end giving can prove to be a significant portion of any ministries’ budget. Please prayerfully consider if the Lord might have you partner with us financially in a special way at this time. And please pray that God would continue to bless what we are doing here at HaDavar for His glory.
-Jeff
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