Gospel Basics: The Blessed Hope

[The final part of a series on Gospel Basics. See here Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.]

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. (Titus 2:11-14)

Central to the Good News of God is the return and glory of 'our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.' The grace of God brings us salvation that causes us to wait for our blessed hope. It sets our eyes on the blessed hope: the hope of seeing and knowing and loving the infinitely beautiful God to all eternity.

There are, of course those who claim to be Christians and yet reject the personal, glorious return of the Savior. I think that their beliefs are so far from the teaching of Scripture as to demonstrate themselves to be anti-Scriptural in their convictions. What I believe is far more common and insidious is a sort of intellectual consent that does not lead to an expectant, hopeful waiting. The claims of the Gospel are not merely truths to be acknowledged. They are the words of life that the Holy Spirit uses to create new life in dead people. Those reborn people then live a new life of adoration of their Savior and expectant waiting of His return.

Someone who is unacquainted with the teaching of the Bible might fairly ask, " If Christ saves them from hell, they have escaped peril whether they die, or Christ returns. Why are they expectant?" And it is a good question! The answer is that those who have been redeemed by Christ now eagerly long for Him to be all in all. They want His perfect reign to be established over all the earth, for all nations and peoples to honor His name, and for His will to be done perfectly upon the earth. Although they may have run to Jesus from fear of hell, when they meet Him, He creates in them a new heart that has infinitely greater desires for Him.

And so it is that these people, whom He makes to be zealous for good works, expect the Holy Spirit to save others through their witness, but they do not expect the redemption of all things until the King returns in glory. So they watch, and wait, and hope.

[The Gospel Coalition has done a much better job than I have of articulating the core of the gospel, and its implications for our engagement in this world. May God multiply their efforts millions of times over.]