This blog was originally written by Oyewole Akande and posted on TGC Africa.
If someone were to ask you to define or describe what is the hope of the Christian, how would you respond?
Two Quite Different Kinds of Hope
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines hope as “to cherish a desire with anticipation: to want something to happen or be true.” In my experience in Africa, this is how we Africans define hope. We use the word to describe things that we strongly desire to see come to pass. For example, we say ‘I hope things in Nigeria get better’ or ‘I hope I can attend that event tomorrow’ (which most times means we have no plan of attending the event). These statements are based on nothing beyond our fervent desires and wishes. They may happen or they may never come to pass. But we simply don’t know.
However, in the New Testament, this isn’t how the word hope is used. There the word expresses something certain about the future. For Christians, hope is a confident anticipation of an event that is sure to happen. The New Testament definition of hope is closer to how the Cambridge Dictionary defines hope: “to want something to happen or to be true, and usually have a good reason to think that it might.” This hope isn’t based on our desires. It’s true. And the New Testament writers had many good reasons to be very confident in what they hoped for.
The Christian’s Hope Depends on Her God
What was their confidence based on? Consider Titus 1:2. Writing to Titus, Paul says: “in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began.” Look at the reason Paul gives to Titus as the foundation of their hope. His logic goes like this: since God never lies, we have a good reason to trust he will do all he has said. God has made many glorious promises and he because he is God he never lies. Fundamental to his character or nature is that he keeps his promises. God is trustworthy. He is truth (John 14:6). Thus what Paul is writing about must come to pass, lest God stop being God. The Christian hope is more than mere desire or wishing. It’s a solid foundation to build your life upon.
Don’t Confuse Desires with God’s Promises
Unfortunately, the way we Africans talk about hope has crept into how we in the church think and talk about the Christian hope. Every Sunday morning, in many churches across the continent, pastors promise people things that God hasn’t. Breakthroughs are an excellent example. Even though the word doesn’t appear once in the New Testament, countless pulpits promise a breakthrough is coming in their lives, marriages, finances and so on. What is this ‘hope’ based on? Nothing more than fervent desires and the longings of the pastor and his congregants.
These pastors end up setting people up for disappointment and disillusionment when these things they promised them don’t come to pass. Many people in our churches are angry with God because they believe he didn’t fulfil what they consider to be his promises to them. But the sad truth is that the God of the New Testament never made that promise to them in his word, rather a pastor made a false promise to them on God’s behalf.
Don’t Promise What God Has Not
Am I saying that our desires are wrong? Am I saying that pastors shouldn’t comfort people and give them hope to sustain them in difficult times? Or is it that people should not look for solutions to their problems in the church? No, I’m not saying anything like that. Our desires, as long as they are not sinful, are valid. We must bring them before God, both in our personal prayers and corporate gatherings. Indeed, it is the duty of pastors to lift up the desires of their congregation to God in fervent prayer and intercession. We thank God that he is gracious and answers many of our prayers.
What I am saying, however, is that God remains sovereign. We cannot—indeed, should never—promise people what God hasn’t. Think back to Titus 1:2. God won’t lie about what he has promised beforehand. So, what has God promised to believers in his word? Paul tells us it is the hope of eternal life. That is, there is a life after this one; a better one than this life; a life of union with Jesus Christ, for all eternity.
Listen to how Aslan describes eternal life in The Last Battle, the final book in his Narnia series: “Your father and mother and all of you are—as you used to call it in the Shadowlands—dead. The (school) term is over; the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: This is the morning.”
C. S. Lewis continues, “The things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And as for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”
The Heart of Christian Hope
All of us are one day going to have to go on that journey of no return. On that road, we must all walk alone, without the assistance of our loved ones. You must leave behind everything you have acquired in this life, whether power or money, houses or influence, friends or family. The question we must all answer is: on that day, what will my hope be as I face death? May our song be like the words of the hymn writer:
I need no other argument,
I need no other plea,
it is enough that Jesus died,
and that he died for me.
This is the Christian hope: that Jesus died for our sins; he was resurrected for our justification; and he is seated at the right hand of the Father for our glorification. The fear of death is gone for believers. For we can know that when we cross the Jordan of death, on the other side we will find ourselves in the promised land.
Dear reader, is this your hope? Then rejoice! If it is not, my prayer is that God will open your eyes to know, without any shadow of doubt, what it means to have this biblical hope of eternal life.
