What is Our Lively Hope?
When presented with the Biblical evidence of past fulfilment, many Christians feel threatened. The prevailing feeling that someone just stole their “hope” leaves them with an empty feeling.
This feeling of emptiness and despair hinders many people from studying exactly what the Bible does say. If only these people would take the time to prayerfully study their Bible, they would discover even a greater hope that God has given for us to possess NOW.
This hope is a lively hope that has been given to us when we obey the Gospel and are born again. (Acts 2:37-39, 1 Peter 1:3) Let’s take a closer look to what the Bible does say about this lively hope.
First, Jesus establishes the fact that His Kingdom is not of this world. (John 19:36) Jesus also states that the Kingdom of God cometh not with observation but is within you. (Luke 17:20-21)
Paul gives a specific description of exactly what the Kingdom of God is. (Romans 14:17)
Through these verses and many more, the Bible defines the Kingdom of God as a Spiritual Kingdom. Why do so many Christians today believe that Jesus is coming back one day in the future to establish a physical Kingdom on this Earth when Jesus said just the opposite?
Jesus even said that there were some standing with Him that day who would not die until they saw the Kingdom of God come. (Luke 9:27, Mark 9:1)
For us to be looking for a physical Kingdom to come is not consistent with what Jesus and the Apostles taught. To take a few isolated passages out of their original context from the Book of Revelation and build a whole doctrinal view on a physical kingdom coming at some future time is to contradict what Jesus Himself taught along with the Apostles.
Remember, it is only after all Scripture has been examined on any particular subject can true Bible doctrine be established.
We must realign our thinking to the Word of God and not on tradition.
Remember, at the beginning and at the end of the Book of Revelation, Jesus said, “…. these things must SHORTLY come to pass” and “Surely I come quickly.” (Revelation 1:1, 22:20)
When faced with the Biblical evidence that the Book of Revelation has already been fulfilled, I have heard many people make this statement:
“I see this, but what do we have to look forward to now, death?”
We, as the people of God, who have been born again of the water and of the Spirit, need to have a major paradigm shift in recognizing just who we are. We need to realize exactly what the Bible says about who we actually are and what we should be doing.
First of all, we are the Body of Christ on this Earth. (Ephesians 1:22-23, Colossians 1:18) We, the Church, are the hands, feet, and voice of God.
When we receive the Holy Spirit, He comes and lives inside us and we become His physical body.
Because He lives in us, we become the Temple of the Living God. (2 Corinthians 6:16, 1 Corinthians 6:19) When we receive the Holy Spirit, we actually have the Spirit of God living in us. (1 John 4:13, 3:24, John 14:17) We become living epistles known and read of all men. (2 Corinthians 3:2-3)
When we are born again, we become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21) We become the light of the world. (Matthew 5:14) We become the salt of the earth. (Matthew 5:13)
We are ambassadors for Christ to our world. (2 Corinthians 5:20) The word “ambassador” means “someone who serves as the official representative of a country in a foreign nation.” (Oxford Dictionary)
When we receive the Holy Spirit, we become God’s representative to our world. We are God’s ambassadors here on Earth. We actually represent the Kingdom of Heaven. We are the Sons of God, and His children. (Romans 9:26, John 1:12) When we receive the Holy Spirit and grow and fellowship with Him, we actually reflect the character of God.
We are the Bride of Christ. He has clothed us with the garments of salvation and with a robe of righteousness. (Isaiah 61:10)
John saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem coming down from God as a bride adorned for her husband. (Revelation 21:2-3) John also saw the “Lamb’s wife” which was the holy Jerusalem. (Revelation 21:9-10)
We see from these passages that the “New Jerusalem” or the “Holy City” was called the Lamb’s wife or the bride of Christ. Hebrews 12:22-23 tells us that the church is this “heavenly Jerusalem”.
Of course, the “Heavenly Jerusalem” is the “New Jerusalem”. Therefore, we the church are the New Jerusalem!
The Bible calls us a “royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9) Because He has called us out of darkness into His marvellous light, He has called us to offer up spiritual sacrifices which is the praise of our lips, giving thanks to His name. (1 Peter 2:5, Hebrews 13:15)
We are the partakers of this heavenly calling (Hebrews 3:1) For we have received a Kingdom that cannot be moved. (Hebrews 12:28) We actually become the friends of God when we keep His commandments. (John 15:14-15)
We are ruling and reigning with Jesus here on Earth right here and right now. (Daniel 7:27, Romans 5:17) We need to renew our minds and realize just who we are and what we possess. (Romans 12:2)
We need to change our perspective from waiting to doing. We need to unpack our bags and start living for God. We need to start reaching out to our world with these wonderful words of Truth.
We need to have our feet shod with the Gospel of peace to our generation. (Ephesians 6:15) We need to proclaim the whole council of God to our world. (Acts 20:27) We need to share this lively hope with our generation.
Conclusion
In answer to the question often asked, “What do I have to look forward to now?” We have a lifetime full of fellowship with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ on this Earth.
We have the privilege of being His ambassadors, of being born into the Church Triumphant, and being His voice to our world today.
We have the words that will bring Eternal Life to others. We have the wonderful opportunity to rule and reign with Him over sin in this life and to one day receive a new glorified body eternal in the heavens.
We have regained what Adam lost in the Garden of Eden, which is spiritual life. Now, we can walk with Him and talk with Him just as Adam did. The greatest promise of all is found in 2 Corinthians 5:1, “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” 2 Timothy 1:10 says this. With death being abolished, we have victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:57)
This is our lively hope!