Anchored to a Sure and Certain Hope
I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love…
indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us
from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39 New Living Translation
In the struggles of life, when hope wanes and despair creeps in, we tend to look for something or someone stronger, wiser, bigger, that we can literally or figuratively hold on to. It’s not surprising that the super-heroes of an earlier Marvel and DC comic-book age are now finding new life on the big screen to say nothing of the re-running of the Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Star Wars productions on various television venues. Yes, it’s bigger than life; but when life is hard there is a need for something bigger than this life to focus on. We need to feel there is something we can count on. The only problem is that the feeling doesn’t last too long after you leave the cinema or turn off the television. Why? Because we step back into the reality that is this world which is filled with deep disappointment, unbearable loss, and excruciating pain.
This is not the world that God envisioned and first made. This isn’t the way it’s supposed to be. Sin crept into the Garden of Eden like kudzu and overran everything. Against its own will, all of creation was subjected to the consequences of sin. It’s not surprising that creation can’t wait to be set free from bondage to decay and death. This is not the world that was to be, but neither is it the world that is to be. Creation is groaning as if in childbirth because right now there is great pain and suffering, but it’s nothing compared to what’s coming. Running like a river through the pages of the Bible is the promise that all that is lacking will be filled, all that is broken will be restored, all that is wrong will be made right, and that, by God’s grace, what should be will be.
This is the hope to which creation is anchored and on which it holds tightly: There will be a new heaven and a new earth. A day will come when the words found in Revelation will come true, “Now the dwelling of God is with men and he will live with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away… I am making all things new!” (Revelations 21:3-5). All creation is looking to that day. And because all creation is looking to that day, even those who have no knowledge of the Bible, have no understanding of the love of God or of the extent that God went to make salvation possible, instinctively look to and hold on to this hope.
When I was in the local church, I gladly accepted community funerals when asked because the Holy Spirit may choose to touch the life of an individual or family through the Gospel message and ministry I offered. Often, I heard family and friends mention how their loved one who has perhaps endured a long illness or was in an accident or simply succumbed to the ravages of old age is “in a better place.” They are holding onto the same hope on which the rest of creation holds. While it is not the time or place to correct them, I am saddened for them when I have no reason to believe the person was a Christian.
The reason that creation anchors its hope in the day when all things will be made new is because of Jesus’ death and resurrection. If Jesus had not taken the curse of sin upon himself, there would be nothing for creation to look forward to. Jesus told Nicodemus, “God so lived the world (literally cosmos, all of creation) that he gave his only and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Jesus gave his life out of love for all creation, which has to endure the consequences of human sin. Paul tells us, “just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin … how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of one man, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:12-15).
But while creation’s hope may be anchored in the future event of Christ Jesus’ soon and coming return, we can receive the hope of eternal life now by believing in Jesus. Our anchor, then, is not in the hope of what lies ahead, but in the person of Jesus Christ; he is our hope as only in Jesus is that eternity is possible. Jesus gives us right standing with God and Jesus gives us the promised glory (Romans 8:30).
Where is your hope anchored? Far too often, Christians hope in religion. Instead of in Jesus, we believe in the plan of salvation and what Jesus can do. We believe Jesus will put things right and then lose our confidence when we see things go wrong. Or we decide we must believe and/or do certain things before we can really be sure we are a Christian, when, in fact, our beliefs and actions are the result of being a Christian, not the cause. There is, perhaps, no one more able to show us what this means than the hero of the Methodist movement: John Wesley.
John Wesley was raised in the church, literally. His father Samuel was the priest of Epworth, though his mother, Suzanna, had perhaps more influence on him and his faith. John received his schooling at Oxford. The term “Methodist” was given him and the small band of fellow students because they felt it important to maintain a certain lifestyle and conduct as Christians that included study, worship, outreach and social justice. This continued afterward he was ordained and was a professor at Oxford.
But John wrestled greatly with uncertainty and a sense of hopelessness that he could not overcome. Though ordained a priest in the church, teaching others who would become leaders in the church, John was uncertain of his own personal salvation: How could he be sure? Almost on a whim, John decided to go to Georgia, stating, “My chief motive to which all the rest are subordinate is the hope of saving my own soul.” Talk about a restless soul.
While on the way, great storms hit the little ship in the mid-Atlantic. John Wesley was afraid and disturbed about being afraid. In his journal, he asked himself, “Why is it you have no faith?” This was driven home by the evident faith of a group of 26 German Moravians. He noted, “In the midst of the psalm wherewith their service began, the sea broke over, split the main sail in pieces, covered the ship and poured in between the decks, as if the great deep would swallow us up. A terrible screaming began among the English. The Germans calmly sang on.”
John’s time in Georgia was, frankly, a fiasco. But it caused him to think. Upon returning to England, he met Peter Bohler, a Moravian, who helped John with his battle. Then on May 24, 1738, John attended a meeting on Aldersgate Street, where someone was reading Luther’s preface to Romans. “While he was describing the change which God works in the heart, I felt my heart strangely warmed, I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation: and assurance was given me …” Wesley understood, perhaps for the first time, that God gives us right standing and that Jesus, whose death and resurrection makes that right standing possible, is pleading on our behalf. More importantly, Wesley now had hope in Jesus. His lifestyle didn’t change much; it simply flowed from the sure and certain hope he had been trying to find.
Our anchor is not simply in something that will happen in the future, but in the one who holds the future. This does not mean we won’t have problems, but it does mean that our problems will never come in between us and our faith in Jesus. As Paul says, “I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from [God’s] love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away… nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39 nlt).
Our anchor holds, not in our own efforts, not in today, not in what is to come, but in Jesus Christ. Our anchor holds no matter what storm may try to sink our ship because our hope and trust is in Jesus. Whatever happens we can look to him and say, “Lord, I don’t understand this, but I am certain that there will be an explanation, and in the meantime, I will hang on to the fact that you are true, yesterday, today, and tomorrow. My faith and hope are in you.”
On the Journey with You – DS John