Advent is a time when the church pauses to remember the first coming of Jesus Christ while we look towards His second coming in eager expectation. This Advent, we look at the coming of peace in the birth of Jesus Christ and look towards peace’s final consummation during the final days.
The hope of Jesus Christ defeats the empire that rules over people so that we might return to God.
The hope of Jesus Christ defeats the empire that rules over people so that we might return to God.
Hope does not fear the storm but looks ahead to the promised future.
As we eagerly await the return of Christ, we look towards hope. God, coming incarnate in the flesh, provides hope for people that the sin in our lives will not be our end. Jesus is the hope that the evildoers will be dealt with on the cross and one day and sin and death will be defeated.
God, after paving a way, created a home. The new heaven and the new earth would be home for those who follow Christ. Whatever pain we feel, whatever struggles we endure, are temporary. Our true hope rests in the unchanging and everlasting God who has secured our eternity. We can hold our heads high and focus our gaze on the promise and hope of our everlasting.
God’s goal is not to merely keep us from sinning. Â This missing the grand purpose of Christ’s coming. Â Just as wiping the dirt of clothes does not make them clean, getting us to stop sinning does not mean we are sanctified. Â The purpose of Christ’s coming was to return us to Him, fully and completely. Â Our sin separated us from the holiness of God. Â The hope in our victory over sin rests fully in the work of Jesus Christ having already conquered sin.
Rather than allow mankind to remain in sin, He gave hope of a new beginning. Our old life is ending and we enter into a new story beginning when we follow Jesus Christ. We have the hope of a new life.
For whatever darkness you feel you are facing or whatever situation you feel will never change, there is hope. We are not define by our past. We take hope and come out of the darkness and into the light.
For whatever darkness you feel you are facing or whatever situation you feel will never change, there is hope. We are not define by our past. We take hope and come out of the darkness and into the light.
