Hope in Him!

And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure. ~ 1 John 3:3

In the third chapter of 1 John, the third verse tells Believers that we are to have a purifying hope in Jesus, a godly hope that will fuel our spiritual lives till we are made whole when Jesus returns. This beautiful and brilliant verse of Scripture follows promises, that those of us who have this hope in us are already God's children, and that though we don't yet know what our bodies will be like when we are ushered by God into eternity, we will indeed see for ourselves when we see Jesus return in glory, because as He is perfect so too will we be made perfect after His likeness (1 John 3:2).

The heart of this week's blog post is hope and it's a perfect post for this year's recent Lenten journey as hope in the power of and presence of God in Christ Jesus is what it's all about. We plead the blood of Jesus and believe that it is so because we have hope, thus this year's pleading cloths were yellow (the color of hope).

What is hope and how do we grab hold of the hope that the Bible speaks of?

To better understand what hope is, let us look to the 11th chapter of Hebrews. Hebrews 11:1 says, "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen". This famous verse so excellently explains what hope is, through explaining what faith is. Faith is at the heart of Christian hope, it is the faith we have in God, in His faithful promises - things that are not seen but that by faith we believe and therefore trust to be true, more true and more real than what we do see. And that is what God encourages us to hope for continuously. Our hope is founded on nothing less than the infallible promises of God. That's a hope worth much more than earthly hope which is merely a fleeting "wish" that what we want will by chance be ours or what we want to happen will by chance happen. With earthly hope who do we have backing it up? Is there anyone behind the scenes in control of and guiding the outcome of such temperamental a thing as vain worldly affairs? If there is, they surely can't hold a candle to El Shaddai, the Almighty God that we serve, who keeps His promises and is in control of the fulfillment of each and every one of those promises unto eternity. I'd rather learn to put my trust in Him and found my hope on His eternal promises, than in things that don't have a guarantee and will inevitably have an expiration date (Luke 21:33).

So, if Christian hope is at its heart rooted in faith in the promises of God, what do we need to do to fill our lives with a lasting hope that encourages us all the way to the faithful Day we meet Jesus? We need to seek out God's promises both in study and in our lives. We can search the Scriptures for God's promises, and search for resources where others have already curated lists of God's promises; study them, understand them, know them, believe and embrace them as active and destined in our lives, and put our hope in them. Doing this ignites the fire of our hope. And there's more, these promises all point somewhere, to the One on which our hope is dependent and the purification that is promised to us (1 John 3:3), that is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and His sacrifice, so I rephrase what was said before to a phrase that is familiar to many of us; our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

The Purifying Hope

Let's return, for a moment to 1 John 3:2-3. In these verses the Christian hope, the faith filled hope that Jesus will return one day. and we will see Him and be made after His likeness, whole and imperishable creatures, no longer broken and perishable creatures (and that's a promise by the way) is declared a purifying hope. Let's try to understand that a little better.

Psalm 119:5 reads "How I hope that I shall be faithful in keeping your instructions". Here the psalmist reveals the essence of our hope; faithful obedience to God and that is so important because it leads to life. The Bible iterates and reiterates constantly that those who love God are obedient to Him (1 John 5:3), that obedience is a thing of faith (Romans 1:5), that God knows (is intimate with) the path of the righteous (Psalm 1:6) and true righteousness is obedience to God, and it's the righteous who will stand in the Day of Judgment (Psalm 1:6). The Old Testament reveals, however, that time and time again we fall short of God's glory and cannot be faithfully obedient to Him in our own strength. But oh, the grace, the mercy and the glory of the Good News of our Messiah is revealed to us in the New Testament in that we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness (Hebrews 4:15). Jesus, God Himself in His beloved Son did for us what we could not do for ourselves when He lived amongst us both as our infallible God and as a fallible man in perfect faithful obedience all the way to death on the Cross to be the only grace sufficient sacrifice to pay for all our sins and save us from spiritual and eternal death.

That truth, the Gospel truth is our hope fulfilled; Jesus did what we could not and because of Him we are saved and set free from the bondage of our sins. And because of Jesus we can now, through His strength, walk as He walked in the Christian hope that was gleaned from the Old Testament and gleaming in The New Testament - faithful obedience to God, all the way to life (Phil. 4:13). But why is that a purifying hope?

In Psalm 119:9 we can find the answer, "Where withal shall a young man cleanse his way: by taking heed thereto according to thy word." Taking heed means to not just hear but to listen carefully and obey. Here we have it again, faithful and active obedience to God, to His word, to Jesus is at the heart of our hope founded on the loving truth and guarantee of God's promises and revealed to be the way by which we are cleansed. Jesus, therefore, is the way by which we are cleansed and as it was declared in 1 John 3:3 our purifying hope.

So, as we ponder the sacrifice of Jesus, make the sacrifice of holy living ourselves (Rom 12:1), and learn to plead the blood in hope, we ought to take the opportunity to also be sure of what our hope as Christians, as God's children is and cling to that purifying hope unto life.

The hope of a Christian is hope with assurance, a guaranteed outcome that things will turn out just the way God said they would. Let us hope, therefore, to be made pure as we faithfully press onward; daily drawing ever the closer to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who will meet us on that faithful Day and make us perfect and complete just like Him.

May God's promises in Jesus be at the heart of all our hope!

Scriptures Cited

• Hebrews 11:1 (KJV) Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

• 1 John 3:2 (KJV) Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

• 1 John 3:3 (KJV) And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

• Luke 21:33 (KJV) Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.

• Psalm 119:5 (KJV) O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!

• 1 John 5:3 (KJV) For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

• Romans 1:5 (KJV) By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:

• Psalm 1:6 (KJV) For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

• Hebrews 4:15 (KJV) For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

• Philippians 4:13 (KJV) I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

• Psalm 119:9 (KJV) Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.

• Romans 12:1 (KJV) I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.