There is only one hope; the same hope that unites us all (Eph. 4:4) — just as there is one God, one lord, one faith, and one baptism. We, as followers of Christ, all share the belief and life in each.
As we read through the Greek Scriptures, the same hope is again and again reiterated to build up the various congregations, to encourage them to continue walking with God. The hope, as we find in study, is the hope of the life of the age to come in the Kingdom, to attain the promised inheritance of the earth with Jesus and the rest of the anointed ones. This is a shared goal, the longawaited expectation of every believer.
If we take the view that we do not belong to this hope, that we are not “born again” or “anointed of God,” we lose out on the many beautiful promises of Scripture. We distance ourselves from many passages of Scripture; we distance ourselves from others who are “called”; and we deny that we are God’s children, thereby denying that He is truly our Father. By denying these promises, we also deny the spirit, we deny Christ as our mediator, and most integrally, we deny our salvation, God’s grace, His undeserved gift offered to us.
My proof of this will begin with Romans 8:14-17:
“For all who are led by the spirit of God are the children
of God.
[In Romans 8:9 we read that we are in harmony,
not with the flesh, but with the spirit, if God’s spirit truly
dwells in us. But if anyone does not have Christ’s spirit,
this person does not belong to him.]
For you did not
receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you
have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba!
Father!’ it is that very spirit bearing witness with our
spirit that we are the children of God. And if children,
then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ — if,
in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be
glorified with him.”
1 Peter 5:9-10 speaks of suffering being experienced together with the entire association of brothers in the world: “But after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His everlasting glory [the hope] in Christ, will finish your training [perfect you, establish you, strengthen you].” This beautifully corresponds with the end of Romans 8:17; see also Hebrews 12:6.
This is one of the most beautiful truths that we personally can put our faith in; we are called to be God’s own sons and daughters. At the beginning of almost every epistle, the Apostles greet their respective sharers of the faith by the loving words such as: “to the holy ones,” “to all those who are God’s beloved ones, called to be holy,” “to you who have been sanctified called to be holy ones.” This is true unity, the shared brotherhood of a single eternal Father. There is no doubt in the Apostles’ minds that those whom the letters are being written to are called by God, God’s chosen, and in union with Christ for the simple fact that they share the unifying bond of common faith.
When we get to Ephesians, written by Paul, we see this concept laid out coherently and exhaustively.
Ephesians 1:4-13: “As He [God] chose us to be in union with him [Christ] before the founding of the world, that we should be holy and unblemished before Him in love. For He foreordained (predestined) us to be adopted as His own sons through Jesus Christ, according to His own good pleasure and will, in praise of His glorious undeserved kindness that He kindly bestowed on us by means of His beloved one. By means of Him we have the release by ransom through the blood of that one (the beloved one), yes, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace. This grace He caused to abound toward us in all wisdom and understanding by making known to us the sacred secret of His will. It is according to his good pleasure that He himself purposed for an administration at the full limit of appointed times, to gather all things together in the Messiah, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth. Yes, in him with whom we are in union and were assigned as heirs, having been foreordained according to the purpose of the one who accomplishes all things as he decides according to his will, so that we who have been first to hope in the Christ should serve for the praise of his glory. But also you hoped in him after you heard the word of truth, the good news about your salvation. After you believed, you were sealed by means of him with the promised holy spirit.”
We are given this spirit as a token of what is to come (2 Cor. 5:5). What is to come is the promised inheritance of the Kingdom of God, when the powers of the spirit will be made fully manifest, when paradise will be restored on earth, where death will be no more, and when the earth will be filled with the knowledge of God.
All have sinned and deserve to die. But our hope is the gift of a new birth to a hope of life, living in an incorruptible and undefiled and unfading inheritance; life forever on earth in the Kingdom. “It is reserved, stored up in the heavens for you,” and it will never be forgotten, stolen, or corrupted, for it is in God’s perfect plan for us who are called (1 Pet. 1:3-4). Even if the world turns against us, and our bodies are slain, we know this hope is kept safe in the heavens with God, and will come to us in the age to come (see John 1:4, 12; 20:31).
How do we know if we are God’s children? If we believe Jesus is the Christ and in his Gospel of the Kingdom, we have been born from God (1 John 5:1). All who believe that Jesus is indeed the promised Messiah are children of God. Everyone. But, of course, we must put away sin (1 John 3:9; Heb. 10:26), continue in learning (John 17:3; 1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Pet. 1:3; Acts 17:11) and disown ourselves and follow Jesus, our King (Mark 10:30; Matt. 10:37; 16:24).
John in his first epistle speaks of love. If we are indeed God’s children, we then love our brothers and sisters. What could unite us more than the bond of blood? But our blood is not the blood of flesh, but the blood of Christ. It is the bond of spirit, which guarantees us the hope of eternal life together.
It is this hope, this faith in the promise of God through His Messiah, that signifies our being born from God (1 John 5:4). The promise of God goes back to the time of Abraham, before the Law. Now, because of Christ, we may be justified by our faith in him and the promise of the Kingdom. And then, as we read in Galatians 3:26-29, “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
The promises were made “to Abraham and his seed” — the promise of Genesis 12:7; 17:7; 22:18; see Romans 4:13. We are his seed, if we belong to Christ and believe his Gospel.
This promise was an oath by God, made before the Law, and not by a mediator (Gal. 3:19-20). This oath by God was a guarantee, greater than any sworn statement of men, any contract drawn by men. Jesus and his anointed ones, we who believe, will sit with Christ at the banquet table and feast with him and Abraham in the coming Kingdom (Matt. 8:11; Luke 13:28-29).
Christ, Our Mediator
“Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, He confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek” (Heb. 6:16-20).
Hebrews 9:11-28 explains how Christ is the mediator of the New Covenant, thereby a greater sacrifice than what was needed for the first covenant. Specifically we read in verse 15, “For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance — now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.”
If we are not called to receive the promised eternal inheritance, we are not set free from the sins committed under the first covenant. Christ died for those who believe in him, as it says in verse 28: “Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”
More importantly, “he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence” (Heb. 9:24). This “us” is those who are called, those who come to God through Jesus. “Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them” (Heb. 7:25).
Our Lord Messiah is now in heaven, and serves in the sanctuary not built by human hands, acting as priest for us as he intercedes for us before God. But if we deny that Jesus is our mediator of this new covenant, we deny the salvation offered to us. “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death?” (Heb. 9:14).
In Hebrews chapter 11 we read of the great heroes of
the faith, namely Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and many more. Yet the writer
solemnly declares, “they were all commended for their
faith, yet not one of them received what had been
promised.” This is because “God planned something
better for us so that only together with us will they be
made perfect”
(11:39-40).
We share this same hope with these heroes of faith. As Jesus himself says, “I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God” (Matt. 8:11). And “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out” (Luke 13:28).
He says, “Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in the kingdom of God” (Matt. 26:29).
We have this same hope with Abraham, as we are his seed. We are promised the same inheritance of land and eternal life, and to sit down at the feast with Christ and all the heroes of faith, and our brothers who believe in him together as children of the Father. November, 2021 3
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1).
The above article was taken from here
