Is it my imagination or is life here on earth just a bit troublesome? How is the stock market doing these days? I see that the price of gasoline has dropped – to over a dollar more than it was a year or so ago. Why is it that Hank is saying that in a few months it is likely that he’ll be shipped off to the Middle East? Do you realize that for most people every dime they earn for nearly first 6 months of the year goes toward taxes? Well, that isn’t exactly accurate, but if the taxes of the average worker were all paid at the beginning of the year, he wouldn’t take home any money until sometime in late May. And yet all the various levels of government say that they don’t have enough money. Like the horseleech in Proverbs, there is constant cry for give, give, give – more, more, more. “Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward.” Around us are murders, rapes, terrorist bombings and Brittany Spears. We have wife-beaters, children deserters, and grand-parent neglecters. There is no logical reason whatsoever to believe in evolution of our race.
But, the immature Christian says, “What about God?” Why doesn’t the Lord straighten out all of this worldly mess? Why can’t we have Paradise on earth and Peace in the Garden? The answer is that God will correct the evils wrought by sin. In fact He has been doing that effectively in individuals for about 6,000 years. But the full effects of the eradication of evil will not come for a little while yet. And it will not be carried out according to our human schedules and agendas. Besides, the child of God is not supposed to yearn for this world anyway – even a righteous world. Christians, who are what they should be, groan within themselves waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of their bodies and their removal from this place. We do have something to do, right now, while we are awaiting the apocalypse – until the coming of Christ. We are to hope – We “also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?”
In what should we hope and how should we express that hope? I’m afraid that for most people, what God has intended for our hope has been seduced and carried off into the world. A ladder has been raised to the daughter’s bedroom window, and Hope has eloped.
In the Bible, hope is placed next to faith and love as the three highest Christian graces. And that means that “hope” is not “faith.” In fact, “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Part of the definition of “faith” includes a reference to “hope” so they cannot be the same thing. Let me put it this way and then try to illustrate it – Bible faith looks back to Lord Jesus Christ who gave his life that I might live. Faith looks back to the finished work of Christ, who died, rose and ascended into Heaven. But hope on the other hand looks forward with eager anticipation to the things which Christ has purchased for the person whose faith is in Him – the believer. There is no doubt about the completion of the promises of God. “All the promises of God are ‘yea’ and ‘amen’ in Christ Jesus.” I don’t have faith that my body will be redeemed, I have faith in Christ Jesus – the Redeemer. But I do have a hope – an expectation based on God’s promise – that I shall be glorified with Christ. I don’t have hope that I am a child of God by faith in Christ Jesus. I know that I am a child of God, because my faith is firmly planted in the Lord.
So here is where hope eloped and ran off with unfaithful lovers. Pseudo-Christians look chiefly toward a Paradise of some sort of celestial spot on earth. A preponderance of so-called “Christian” churches preach a social gospel, rather than the gospel of the Kingdom of God. There are hundreds of thousands of “Christians” who only have a hope of heaven on earth. They may vary their explanation how it will come about, but heaven on earth is their desire. But an earthly heaven on earth isn’t a Biblical Heaven. Then there are the Prosperity preachers – the name it and claim it people. “Poverty is sin, and wealth is the promise of God,” they hiss out of lying lips. “Disease is a part of the curse of sin, and Jesus died to remove that curse.” “The only reason that you are allergic to pollen is because you refuse to claim the promise God.” Malarkey – that is not true – at least as they teach it. We have preachers today declaring a Restoration Theology which is supposed to take us all back to the Garden of Eden. But it is not the intention of the Lord to take us back to Eden. And it shouldn’t be our desire or goal.
I have no aspirations for Eden. I have no preference for an earthly Paradise. Nor is my hope in any sort of wealth, and the end of headaches, or the necessity for exercise. My hope is more Biblical than that.
But what things exactly are we talking about? Do you remember that word “groaning” in verse 22 and again in verse 23? What was that groaning all about? The manifestation of the Sons of God. But if the inanimate creation groans for the day of glorification, shouldn’t the Christian? Paul is talking about a groaning for the adoption – the redemption of the Christian’s body. Remember that on a couple of occasions even our Saviour groaned within Himself. For example, He did so at the tomb of Lazarus; He groaned and He wept. He didn’t simply groan in human sympathy for the sorrowing sisters. He groaned over their unbelief and the disastrous effect of sin, which robs people of physical life. These are the same sort of things about which Creation and the Spirit-filled saint groans.
The answer to all the problems of this world are to be found in the vicarious sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. In its personal application, we call it “salvation from sin.” And that salvation comes in three stages for every believer and lover of the Saviour. The first stage of salvation is PAST TENSE; it is completely finished. As the hymn says, “I am SAVED from the awful gulf of sin.” “There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.” I have been completely forgiven of every sin that I have ever committed. And by God’s grace I am forgiven of every sin that I shall yet commit. The law which demands my execution has been completely paid by Jesus’ blood. As another song says, “Tis, done, the great transaction’s done.” This is another way in which hope eloped with the wrong lover. There are 10s of 1000s of befuddled souls who hope to go to heaven some day. They hope that their sins will be removed; they hope that they will be good enough for God some day. That is a perverted hope which is foreign to the Bible. You are either a born-again child of God, or you are not. It was completed in Christ at Calvary, but it has lasting effects, yea, even eternal effects.
Then there is a second stage of salvation from sin: the PRESENT TENSE. Christians are people being saved from the power and pollution of sin. This is the on-going sanctification of the saint. “He that hath the true hope of Christ purifieth himself even as he is pure.” But it’s not just by his human power and strength – it is by the grace of God.
And then there is a third stage of salvation: a FUTURE TENSE. This is what Paul is talking about here in this passage. This will be our final glorification, which will include even our bodies. This is why Paul says that “we are saved by hope.” It is guaranteed, but it is not yet accomplished. It is a hope of the child of God, based upon his faith in Christ.
Out of the context of this final stage of salvation, that statement would be heresy. Clearly, sinners are rescued from sin, they “saved by grace through faith,” not hope. But when a sinner has Biblical faith towards Christ … Faith in who He is as the eternal Son of God and God the Son, and… when he has faith in what our Saviour has done on Calvary – He gave His earthly life that I might have Eternal life… When a sinner has Biblical faith towards Christ and possesses His salvation, then he should also have Biblical hope – the redemption of our body. Only in this fashion can it be said that we are saved by hope; or saved in Hope.
So again I say, this world is a sinned-up mess, but there will be a complete reclamation. Christ is coming again, to make all things perfect. Every saint of God will be completely glorified, from the top of his head down to the tips of his toes. And of course the key is the Lord Jesus, who is called “the Hope of glory.”
Is this the kind of eager waiting and anticipating that you feel? If it isn’t, then perhaps your hope has eloped with the wrong fella. Would you rather see Grandma than Gabriel? Would you prefer Hawaii over Heaven? Then your hope has eloped with the wrong man.
And one more thing: Patience is a result when this kind of hope is held in the proper sort of way. People mistakenly think that patience is passive, but that is not proper. In chapter 2 Paul spoke well of those who were seeking glory and honor from God, They were reaching for that blessing by way of “patient continuance.” This word “patience” is speaking about unwearying endurance, but not about idleness and listlessness.
The Christian starts his spiritual life with unconditional surrender and faith in Christ. When that faith begins to mature it develops into true Biblical hope. From there it moves into patience. No one can be properly patient if he doesn’t have Biblical hope. If you have nothing for which to hope how can you be patient? It is a tragedy, but only the Christian has genuine reason to hope.
So I implore you to come to Christ Jesus. Trust Him, love Him, learn of Him, grow in Him. Faith in Christ gives us grounds for hope in the midst of a corrupted world.
And Christian, I think there is an obvious application towards us: If “the world passeth away and the lust thereof,” wouldn’t it be wise to really “set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth?” Whether you live in hope or not, “the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, (And) seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of person ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness?” Peter tells us that we should be people “anxiously looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God.” Or to use Paul’s words: “We should be groaning within ourselves waiting for the adoption, to wit the redemption of our bodies.” Groaning within ourselves. That is, living in expectant, yearning, anxious hope.