Later on today I will say the words that I have said countless times in my ministry.  “I don’t want you to be ignorant brethren concerning them that have fallen asleep, that you sorrow not as others that have no hope”. Paul said it first and I have repeated them many times but they are so important we should think about them deeply.

The New Testament hope is the prospect of a condition that will satisfy all needs, supply all wants, liberate from all restrictions of life, all consequences of sin, since over against the uncertain present actually satisfying future beckons, on the basis of faith in the promises and facts of salvation”.[1]  Those words come from a theological word book of the Bible. They tell us something fascinating, and that is that the Christian hope is really based in the future. It’s based nn the end of the age when Christ will return  and create a new heaven and a new earth. All the facts of this life, all the problems, all the trials, all the tribulations, all the seeming failures are looked at by Christians through the lens of Christ’s coming again at the end of the age.  Thus there is a fascinating commentary that Paul makes about the life that we live in this world.  “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most to be pitied”. 1st Corinthians 15:19. Luther said that the world is so hostile to us; it begrudges us our very life on earth. Daily we must be prepared for the worst that the devil and the world can inflict on us. In the face of this, who would be stupid enough to be a Christian if there is nothing to a future life?

[1] Cremmer, H. Biblico-Theological Lexicon of New Testament Greek. Edinburgh, Scotland: T. & T. Clark.