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CALLED TO HOPE

In Ephesians 4:4-6 the apostle Paul lists seven "ones" which he associates with "endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" – one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God. Alexander Campbell called them seven "facts," noting that unity between believers is based on facts and not theories about those facts. Facts in Scripture are what God has said or done, and they are particularly centered in the gospel – what God has said and done through Christ.

  We either accept (believe) facts or we do not. There is no ground for disagreement on facts. We might disagree on theories about facts, but not the facts themselves. The genius of Alexander Campbell’s plea for unity was that we unite upon the facts of the gospel – centered in Christ himself – and allow liberty on theories about the facts. We can all unite, for example, on the fact of one Holy Spirit. Through forbearing love we may have to abide scores of opinions about the nature of the Spirit and how it (he) operates.

  So, a motto borrowed by our pioneers from the Protestant Reformation could be adapted to read: In matters of fact (such as the seven ones of Ephesians 4) unity; in opinions or theories (theology) about those facts, liberty; in all things, love.

  Any theory or opinion about a fact may, of course, be the true doctrine of Christ, but as Thomas Campbell said in his manifesto on Christian unity – the Declaration and Address – it is not to be bound on another except as he comes to see the connection. That is what causes sects and divisions – imposing our opinions upon others as tests of acceptance.

  While I am herein presenting my theology of hope (not complete of course, but a beginning), I do not expect you necessarily to agree with me. I will love and accept you just the same, whether you agree or disagree. But we will all agree that hope is basic to the Christian faith, even part of its essence. Take hope from Christianity and it would lose its essence. It would no longer be Christianity. But you may disagree with me on the conclusions I draw about that one hope, even when they are based on Scripture. You may disagree with my interpretations. We are sisters and brothers in Christ because we believe in the one hope of the gospel. We may differ on precisely what that means.

  We will also agree that the one hope is based upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is a fact of Scripture, as in 1 Peter 1:3: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."

  I am, first of all, impressed, with what the Bible says hope does for us. Back to Ephesians 4. Hope is the only one of the seven facts to which "called" is affixed – "you were called in one hope." The church is a community of hope. Through the gospel we are called to be part of that community and to share its hope. In our assemblies we should enthusiastically share our hope – sing about it, talk about it, pray about it, praise God for it, teach and preach about it. Preaching should be largely about hope – which can be done in different ways. The assembly is not a time to scold the church and send it on a guilt trip. I am convinced that many discouraged souls sit in our churches hungering for even the slightest word about hope.

  Hope is the one thing the Bible says never disappoints (Romans 5:5), and that verse tells us why – "because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us." And hope – the "exceedingly great and precious promises" – makes us "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4). I take that to mean that as hope motivates our values, attitude, and behavior it makes us more like Christ. That appears to be what 1 John 3:3 is saying: "Everyone who has this hope purifies himself, just as he (Christ) is pure."

  The context of that remarkable statement shows that the hope is that the believer will one day be like Christ – We shall be like him. This must mean we will bear the likeness of Christ’s glorious body, as in 1 Corinthians 15:49: "As we have borne the image of the man of dust (Adam), we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man." And in Philippians 3:20-21: "Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to his glorious body." The "blessed hope" is not only "the glorious appearance of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ," but that in his coming he makes us like his glorious self (Titus 2:13).

  That may well be the essence of the Christian’s hope – that we are heirs of Christ, and just as he received a glorious, resurrected body, so shall we. We will be like him! "This corruptible must put on incorruption," the apostle assures us, "and this mortal must put on immortality" (1 Corinthians 15:53). When he said, "We shall be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:51), he meant that our "natural" body will become a "spiritual" body.

  Even though we have no way of even imagining a spiritual body, it is likely that this is what three apostles saw when they witnessed Jesus being "transfigured" in glory right before their eyes. Moses and Elijah also appeared "in glory" – almost certainly in spiritual bodies (Luke 9:30-31). It was a heavenly scene on earth, and it anticipated not only what we shall one day see, but also what we will one day be. Paul refers to it as "a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Corinthians 5:1).

  If we were with Paul in prison when he wrote those lines in Ephesians 4, and asked him what he meant by the "one hope," his answer might reach further than what we have quoted from him. He was farreaching when he wrote: "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us" (Romans 8:18). Here he was referring to cosmic hope – a glorious transformation of the creative order. He refers to "the earnest expectation of the creation" (v. 19), and goes on to say it "groans and labors with birth pangs" in hope of being delivered from the bondage imposed upon it because of sin (v. 22).

  The apostle says that all of nature – the creative order – shares a hope with humankind in being delivered from their "futility" (the destructive consequence of sin) into "the glorious liberty of the children of God (v. 21). This conforms to the prophetic hope of new heavens and a new earth" (Isaiah 65:17; 2 Peter 3:13), and Jesus’ promise that the meek will inherit the (new?) earth (Matthew 5:5).

  So, from one perspective Paul’s hope is universal in scope. It involves all creation, and points to a new order of things – a kind of cosmic redemption.

  From another perspective his hope is narrower and more personal, such as "I have the desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better" (Philippians 1:23). He said it in a different way in 2 Corinthians 5:8 when he refers to being "absent from the body and present with the Lord."

  A more complex dimension of this subject is the connection between suffering and hope. It begins with the Lord himself, whose hope appeared to heighten amidst suffering. Hebrews 12:2 says of him: "Look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." It was a joyous hope – that he would soon be reunited with his Father? -- that bore Jesus through the agony of crucifixion. In his teaching he related suffering to joy and hope, as in John 16:33: "In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

  This is what Paul says in Romans 5:3-4: "We glory in tribulation, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope" He gloried in suffering, for suffering produces hope! It is a remarkable truth. If Alexander Campbell is right in defining hope as "the assured expectation of future good," we can say this is especially the case amidst suffering. We are less likely to take refuge in "assured expectation" when there are no storms in our life. They say that a worm in an apple makes it all the sweeter, so the worm of sorrow and suffering in the heart can make it more joyously hopeful.

  Eleven-year old Wycliffe, gifted son of Alexander Campbell, drowned in a pond on the family farm in 1847 while his father was in Europe. While the entire family was devastated by the loss of such a promising child, his mother was rendered inconsolable for months on end. Wycliffe, a pious lad, had kept a notebook, filled with gems of wisdom. After his death they found his latest addition, a poem he had clipped from some source but not yet attached to a page. It read:

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