Every Man That Hath This Hope

2018-04-08

Everything we do and are in this life is in preparation for eternity. Every day, we get caught up in all of the things we need to do, whether it be our work life or family life, or other obligations that we fulfill. However, Jesus Christ is coming back. We will meet Him one of two ways: We will either die and meet Him in heaven, or He will return in our lifetime, and we will be caught up to be with Him. Either way, we want to be ready, and also live our lives like we would meet Him any minute.

The Word of God reads:

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. (2) 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. (3) And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. (1 John 3:1-3)

As children of God, we will be transformed the moment Christ returns. We do not know what all that entails, but in some way, we will be like Him. How can we possibly live an impure life and live like we were never changed by His grace? Having died with Christ and living in Him now, being dead to sin, we trust Him as we live the life He has given us in this world. We do so with a great hope that we will one day be removed from the presence of sin and be with Christ forever. As we see here in 1 John 3:3, we purify ourselves even as he is pure.

After reading about the great works of many Old Testament saints, the Bible tells us:

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, (2) Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2)

A few points to take away:

  1. We lay aside every weight. This is not necessarily putting away sin, because we read about that next. There are distractions in our lives that lead us from following Christ. They might even be good things. However, if something good is keeping us from serving Christ, then we need to throw it away.
  2. We lay aside every sin. Sin keeps us from serving Him. We must flee everything that is sin and not of faith.
  3. We run with patience. We are in a long difficult race. We race with patience. There is a phrase out there that says to the effect, “If it were easy, everyone would do it!” This was quoted by my discrete math professor some years ago. The Christian life is not easy. On one hand, salvation is resting from our works and trusting Christ. On the other hand, the world system is doing everything possible to lead us into distractions and sin, or use persecution, so that we will not be “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).
  4. We look to Jesus. As the one who saved us by His grace, we look for Jesus’ coming. We do so by emulating what He did: He endured great suffering and shame on the cross, but while doing so, He saw something greater. He knew He was doing His Father’s will, and when He ascended to heaven, He sat on the right hand of God. We too endure whatever this life has for us. We look forward to something that is greater than what we have in this life: to be with Jesus.
Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. (2 Timothy 2:3-4)