Simple
God’s plan for us, which He in His grace has offered to us for free, is not complicated or obscure.
Read Time: 2 minutes
Our hope is so simple, anybody can understand it. “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” (Philippians 3:20-21)
So simply stated:
- The government we’re citizens of, Jesus our Savior and the head of our government, is in heaven.
- We’re waiting for Jesus to come to us.
- When he does, we will be made immortal, as he now is.
Other passages add to this, but it remains uncomplicated and easy to grasp. You know these passages, but just look at how clear they are:
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep… But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ… We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. (1 Corinthians 15:20, 23, 51-52)
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. (1 Thessalonians 4:16)
This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. (Acts 1:11)
They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24:30-31)
When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:4)
You will conceive and bear a son, and call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. (Luke 1:31-33)
You were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. (Revelation 5:9-10)
I’ll say it again: Our hope is very simple. That’s not to say that holding onto this hope is easy. Our nature keeps tripping us up, distracting us, making things complicated. But God’s plan for us, which He in His grace has offered to us for free, is not complicated or obscure.
When life is complicated, conflicted, corrupted, confusing, out of control, we need to stop, take a deep breath, and bring our troubled minds back to the elegant simplicity of our hope. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” (Hebrews 10:23) Let it sink in: He who promised is faithful, He isn’t going to pull the rug out from under us. Whatever turmoil we experience, we have a hope that we can understand, that we can hold onto as an anchor in any storm.
Love, Paul