Cling to the hope of the gospel
Watching spy movies are exciting. At one point or another in the movie, the hero, who is a super spy, and who has all these cool gadgets, is typically bound hand and foot, surrounded by enemies on all sides, and betrayed by his double agent ‘friends’, and there is no hope of escape. Then suddenly, he whips out this secret weapon or cool gadget, cuts himself free, kills all his enemies, gloats over the dying bodies of the double agent ‘friends’ who betrayed him, and walks away with a few bruises and may be a non-fatal gunshot wound.
Our lives are like spy movies. We’ve got enemies, and we get betrayed by friends. We’ve got situations that threaten to severely mess up our lives. And being human, we sometimes shoot ourselves in the foot too!
All we need is a secret weapon – something that we can whip out to save the day; something that will render the enemies and double agents harmless, heal our wounds, and give us a chance to survive and move on with our lives.
What is your secret weapon?
Mine is called ‘the hope of the gospel’ – it has saved the day for me many times – and I would like to tell you about it…and may be you might want to make it yours too.
The gospel is God’s message of good news to you and me. Among other things, it tells us that our sins are forgiven and that God has given us His Holy Spirit to enable us to overcome every sin that befalls us. But more than that, it tells us that in the end God is going to raise us up in a new body, one that cannot be tempted to sin.
From the eternal perspective, sin is the deadliest of all things. It is more dangerous than the most toxic toxin, more deadly than any disease, and far worse than any earthly calamity or catastrophe that you and might think of.
It is more dangerous because its consequences are eternal, whereas all the other consequences are temporal.
And as human beings, we are stuck with the ability to be tempted to sin.
As long as we can be tempted, we are in danger of succumbing to temptation and sinning and dying spiritually, and thereby being eternally separated from God.
Our hope – the hope of the gospel – is that when God raises the dead, He will raise us up in a body that cannot be tempted. This allows us to be with God forever with no danger of ever being separated from Him again. This is better than being able to vacation on a pristine beach in the Caribbean forever.
Armed with such a hope, we can face tomorrow with a smile, no matter what!
Even if we lose everything, even if we are tortured day after day, even if fail at everything, even if we have messed up every opportunity in the past, even if we are the least attractive of all, none of it goes on forever. At some point, we will die, and all these bad things will come to an end, and we will begin eternity.
If we have chosen to love God, then at the proper time, God will raise up with a body that cannot be tempted and bring us in His presence, and wipe away every tear. And there are pleasures in His hand forever.
This is better than vacationing in the Caribbean.
This is also better than winning the lottery every day.
With such a future certain, what stormy sky can keep us miserable today?
What I am saying is not new! The apostle Paul said it a lot more eloquently than me in the latter half of Roman’s chapter eight.
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