The Effect of Our Hope

The Christian’s hope of the Lord’s return is a certain hope, “an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast,” a hope “laid up in the heavens”; “He that cometh shall come, and shall not tarry.” But more than this, it is a practical hope, influencing every part of the life, energizing and purifying it. It forms, in fact, an essential part of that new life imparted by the Spirit of God to the believer. One who is born of the Spirit is by Him directed to the constant expectation of the return of the Christ who died for him and rose again. With other believers he “waits for a Saviour from heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:20). It is as much a spiritual instinct for the regenerate being to lay hold on the hope set before him as it is natural for the infant to cling to something material. No one is living in the full light and power of gospel truth whose heart is not enjoying the prospect of the Lord’s coming. Nor can a preacher of the gospel be faithful to his ministry if he omits from it that which constitutes the hope of the gospel.

What are some of these effects of this hope on the Christian life?

AN INCENTIVE TO DILIGENCE IN SERVICE

Anticipation of the coming of the Lord is not indulgence in a mere spiritual luxury, nor does expectation of His return tend to make Christians impractical.

One of the most aggressively evangelical communities of the first century was the church of the Thessalonians. “From you,” says the Apostle, “hath sounded forth the Word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith to Godward is gone forth” (1 Thess. 1:8). Yet it is of these Christians that he also writes that they had turned to God from idols, not only to serve Him, but “to wait for His Son from heaven” (vv. 9-10). They evidently did not find waiting for the Lord incompatible with service to God.

Their expectancy did not repress their zeal in the spread of the gospel. They were not star-gazers. Paul speaks of their “work of faith and labor of love,” stimulated by their “patience of hope” (v. 3).

Paul, who could never be accused of effortless Christianity, testified to the practical effect the prospect had on his life. In his defense before Felix, he boldly declared his hope toward God that there shall be a resurrection, and stated, “Herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God, and toward men” (Acts 24:16).

It has been said that towards the end of his life Paul’s expectation of the Lord’s coming diminished. Yet in his letter to Titus (the last but one of those under his name in the New Testament, written shortly before his death), he speaks of “looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ,” and regards the hope as part and parcel of a sober, righteous and godly life (Titus 2:12-13).

How could the knowledge that Christ is coming hinder the work of the Church, or paralyze its efforts? Those who, like the Thessalonians, wait for God’s Son from heaven, find the expectation of the event an incentive to greater devotion in their Master’s service.

A STRENGTH FOR ENDURANCE

The apostle Peter speaks of the second advent as “a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time,” and then describes the joy-inspiring power of the prospect for the believer in the midst of trial. In this salvation, he says, “ye greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold trials: that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold that perisheth, though it is proved by fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:5-8).

Two points may be observed. First, the trials are for “a little while.” The phrase suggests expectancy of the Lord’s return. It was frequently on the lips of Christ Himself: “A little while, and ye shall not see Me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see Me” (Jn. 16:16; see also vv. 17-19 as well as 7:33; 12:35; 13:33; 14:19). The words remained with Peter, and find an echo in his epistle, both in the passage above quoted and later on when he says, “But the God of all grace, who called you unto His eternal glory in Christ, after that ye have suffered a little while, shall Himself perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you” (1 Pet. 5:10).

Twenty centuries have rolled by and the Lord has not yet returned. However the prospect is always near for the believer. It is still “a little while.” The writer to the Hebrews views the time even more briefly: “yet a very little while (literally, yet a little while, how little! how little!), He that cometh shall come, and shall not tarry” (Heb. 10:37). Paul’s way of putting it in 2 Corinthians, “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment,” is briefest of all (4:17).

Second, there is a “needs be.” Why it should be so may remain a mystery here. But the faith which itself is undergoing the testing can rest in the assurance of a loving heart and an unerring wisdom which planned the trial. Such faith awaits the Day of Christ when the Lord will make fully known the value He sets on the patient endurance of trial, and will show how all has redounded to His “praise and honor and glory.”

This patient endurance in view of resurrection glory was what characterized the faithful of the former age. Some “were tortured, not accepting their deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection”—not a different kind of resurrection from that of other saints, but a resurrection which would bring with it a reward proportionate to their faithfulness in enduring hardship and suffering (Heb. 11:33,35). Looking not at the things which are seen, they saw the eternal.

Accordingly the writer to the Hebrews, turning from these faithful ones to the Author and Perfecter of faith, and reminding them how for the joy set before Him He endured the cross, and, further, how and why He “suffered without the gate,” exhorts them to go forth unto Him, bearing His reproach (Heb. 12:2 and 13:12-13). And the inducement? The Lord Himself. “Unto Him!” He must ever be the great attraction. But with Him there is a further inducement, namely, the future glories, of which He will be the center. With those in view the Apostle speaks of the heavenly Jerusalem. “For we have not here an abiding city, but we seek after the city which is to come.” The glory of that city takes its light from the cross, and reflects it in all its spirit-strengthening radiance upon the sufferings of this little while.

AN ENCOURAGEMENT IN CONFLICT

When Paul exhorts Timothy to “endure hardship as a good soldier of Christ Jesus,” warning him against entangling himself in the affairs of this life, he points him to the reward hereafter, adding the metaphor of the crown received by the victor in the games. To be crowned he must contend lawfully. And Paul not only exhorts, he presents the example of his own life. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give to me at that day; and…to all them that have loved His appearing” (2 Tim. 4:7-8).

True, the Apostle realized that he might be near the end of his earthly course: “The time of my departure is come,” he says. But that did not lessen for him the power of the hope. Clearly, too, he implies that, looking back through his Christian life, he has joy in being of the number of those who love the Lord’s appearing. This love is more than a longing for the great event to take place. Paul evidently implies that it involves fighting the good fight, finishing the course, and keeping the faith. This had all been done in his case with the Lord’s coming and the crown of righteousness in view. The love of His appearing imparted courage in the conflict, steadfastness in the race and faithfulness in adherence to the truth.

That the Lord watches constantly, and with a view to their reward, the spiritual conflict in which His servants are engaged is evidenced in a special manner in the letters to the seven churches in Asia, in each of which He addresses the overcomer, reminding him of the time when faithfulness will receive its recompense at His hands. The present opposition is subtle, unremitting, and varied, but the promises are sure: “To him that overcometh will I give….” What seems to be the greatest reward is for the overcomer in the church in Laodicea, the low spiritual condition of which calls forth His most solemn rebuke; the church that was lukewarm, rich in this world, but wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked spiritually. In this church “He that overcometh,” says the Lord, “I will give to him to sit down with Me in My throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with My Father in His Throne” (Rev. 3:21). This is a special identification with Himself as The Great Overcomer, and the reward is that of highest authority in His Kingdom.

A COMFORT IN SORROW

This is distinctly laid down by Paul both at the beginning and at the close of the fourth chapter of 1 Thessalonians. He prefaces his divinely given assurance of the fact that those who have fallen asleep will have part in the resurrection and rapture at the Lord’s return, by stating that his object is to prevent needless sorrow. “We would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that fall asleep; that ye sorrow not, even as the rest, which have no hope.” Then, having shown how all are to be together again when the promised event takes place, and how all will be caught up to meet the Lord, he says, “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” This hope is given us not to preclude sorrow, but to mitigate it.

Grief for the loss of friends is common to all, and is not inconsistent with acceptance of the will of God, neither does it deny the hope of the Christian. The Lord Jesus Himself wept in sympathy with the mourners at the grave of Lazarus (Jn. 11:33-35). Paul, too, was apprehensive of the sorrow into which he would have been plunged had the sickness of Epaphroditus resulted in death (Phil. 2:27). The converts at Thessalonica grieved not merely for their own loss, they grieved also for the loss sustained, as the survivors supposed, by those of their number who had fallen asleep. It was to save them from grief on this account that the Apostle wrote showing them that their fears were groundless…Since, for the believer, to live is Christ, to die is not loss but gain (Phil. 1:21), sorrow on behalf of departed saints is precluded entirely. For our loss we mourn, for their gain we rejoice. —from Notes on the Epistles to the Thessalonians, pp. 129-130

The knowledge that our loved ones who have fallen asleep are “at home with the Lord” should be sufficient to satisfy us completely as to their present felicity. To be at home with Him who loved us and gave Himself for us, is to be in the enjoyment of happiness which can be exceeded only by that of reunion in the resurrection and rapture with all the redeemed, and participation in the glories that are to follow. For those who mourn the loss of loved ones, the Lord both lusters the dews of sorrow by His love, and wills that the glory of His promised return should shed its comforting light into the darkness of our bereavements, that the joy of that day should temper the sorrows of separation.

A MEANS OF MOULDING CHARACTER

Men become like the objects of their worship. The character of the idolater receives an impress from the nature of his idol. “They that make them are like unto them.” He whose heart’s affection is set on Christ, inevitably becomes conformed to His character. “We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are [being] transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18, marg.). There is first the unobscured vision, indicating heart occupation with Christ; then the transformation into His likeness. The more we learn of the Lord by means of the mirror of Scripture, the more we let the vision of His glory operate within us, the more conformed to His likeness we become.

But such devotion to the Lord is in Scripture associated with the prospect of His return, and this is definitely stated to be a means of conformity to His character. “Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that, if He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him even as He is.” There will be no defect in the image when the resurrection shout has accomplished its work. Meanwhile the transformation of character is gradual: “Everyone that hath this hope set on Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure” (1 Jn. 3:2-3). The Authorized Version “in him” is ambiguous and lends itself readily to the idea that the hope is within the believer. This of course is true, but it is not in the verse. Christ is the attraction. The hope is not merely that the event will take place, it is a hope set on Him. The immediate outgoing of the heart to Him is coupled with the joyful anticipation of what we shall find ourselves to be when we see Him even as He is, and share in His resurrection glory. We shall be satisfied, when we “awake with His likeness” (Ps. 17:15).

Peter likewise gives testimony to the power of the hope to mould character. “Gird up,” he says, “the loins of your mind, be sober and set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:13). The tense he employs is the vivid present—“is being brought unto you”——as if to make the future event immediately real. Then, presenting the same standard of holiness as John does, he continues, “as children of obedience”— suggesting the likeness of child to parent—“not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in the time of your ignorance, but like as He who called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living; because it is written, Ye shall be holy, for I am holy.” To set one’s hope perfectly on the Lord’s Second Coming thus produces conformity to His holiness in a life of obedience, with the consequent shaping of a character which is the reflection of His own.

In the second epistle, too, he points to the Day of the Lord and the passing away of the heavens, the dissolution of the elements, the destruction of the earth and its works by fire, and exhorts us, in view of that Day, to live in all holiness and godliness, and to look for and earnestly desire “the Parousia of the Day of God.” With this prospect before us we are to “give diligence that we may be found in peace, without spot, and blameless in His sight” (2 Pet. 3:10-14).

And when the Lord Himself, in the closing declaration of Holy Writ, predicts His speedy return, He gives solemn admonition as to the effects of His Advent upon character, and points to the recompense which He will administer in person:

“He that is unrighteous, let him do unrighteousness still: and he that is filthy, let him be made filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him do righteousness still: and he that is holy, let him be made holy still: Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to render to each man according as his work is…Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have the right to come to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city” (Rev. 22:11-14). —excerpted from Touching the Coming of the Lord