Good Hope through Grace
Dearly beloved of God, in Christ we have a living, true hope of glory that does not fade away that is reserved in heaven for us. It stings when a beloved one falls asleep, but the sting is nothing compared to the pain of those who have no hope. God our Father has given us good hope through His great grace.
My heart aches for the families of those who have lost loved ones, but there is nothing we can do but to love, pray, and help them as they mourn and cope with the emptiness of their loss.
We are all mortal, and we must face that reality. Those who do not have Christ in them, the hope of glory only have this life, but we will live again when God sends His Son for us on the Day of Redemption.
The Lord Jesus Christ will come to rescue us from the state of death, or from this evil world if we are living at that time.
God planned for our salvation in Christ beforehand. He determined that all who are in Christ will be conformed to the image of His Son.
We will all have glorious bodies like Christ’s glorious body that dies no more. We will acquire the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ at his coming. The Father will freely give us all things with His Son; all of them!
God our Father has given us glimpses of the glory that awaits us, but we do not yet see it clearly. Even though eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for them that love Him, we do know what He has revealed for our believing in His Word.
He says that it will take Him the ages to come to display the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
Not only the extent of time is conspicuous, or the quantity and quality of these riches, but the Father’s loving kindness and tender mercies with which He will demonstrate these riches of grace is also striking.
We have eternity to live in His loving care and provision as His dearly beloved children.
The Lord Jesus Christ will deal with every enemy before the new heaven and new earth begins. In that world to come there will be no devil, and none of his kingdom to trouble us. There will be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, nor pain; only glory and that forever.
David wrote that God would show him the entrance into life; there will be fullness of joy, and pleasures forevermore at His right hand, and beloved, we will share in that reality.
Peter quoted Psalm 16 when he spoke of Christ’s resurrection out from among the dead people. He was the first born from the dead, but we will follow at his coming, and we will share in his victory over sin and death. Our victory is in his victory.
All that the adversary has stolen from us in this life will be restored a hundred fold…fullness of joy, and pleasures forevermore.
According to the revelation God has given us in His Word to comfort us, there is no mental activity of any kind in death. The very next thing we will know after we fall asleep will be awakening to see the Lord face to face.
Dearly beloved, God will fulfill every last Word of His promise to us in Christ. We will realize the fulfillment firsthand. It is coming. Until then, we have the comfort of what He has revealed, and we can love one another.
God our Father has given us the proof of the resurrection of the dead in Christ, and that the living will be changed. Every time we speak in tongues, the new birth spirit witnesses to our inner being that we are the children of God, His heirs, and joint heirs with Christ.
The sting is real, but so is the hope of glory in Christ. The deliverance is coming. Live with the joy of the Lord in your heart, dearly beloved; Christ is coming! He has given us good hope through grace. Rejoice!