In recent days I’ve attended two funerals. One of a dear friend and the other a father of a friend. Praise the Lord, both were Christians. Even so, regarding attending funerals, there comes a time to ponder and consider how short our earthly lives really are. Therefore, I have three questions I think every Christian should have answers to.

Question number one is, what is our Christian hope? My mind always runs to the very first question of the Heidelberg confession (1563), “What is the only comfort in life and death? The answer is this: that I, with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful savior Jesus Christ, who with His precious blood, has fully satisfied all of my sins, and delivered me from the power of the devil, and so preserves me that without the will of my Heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head, ye, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by His holy spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready henceforth to live unto Him.” 

What an amazing statement the church penned so many years ago about our Christian hope. According to this answer, and what scripture reveals, the future is never a wishful thought or empty hope that has no guarantees. Therefore hope is a confident expectation. It is a firm assurance regarding things that are unclear and unknown (Romans 8:24-25, Hebrews 11:1, v. 7). Hope is one of the essential realities that a Christian has. Without it, life loses its meaning.

Secondly, how does a Christian best explain the details of our hope? Our hope is the fact that God promised us Christ and then He delivers Him. We have hope because Christ has come! Hope is the recognition that in Christ we find the fulfilment of the Old Testament promises (Matthew 12:21, 1 Peter 1:3). We have a confidence that God does not break His promises (Galatians 5:5). The resurrection is our hope!

When Christ was raised from the dead, it assures us of a right standing before our holy God. Why? Because he defeated sin, Satan, and death by His resurrection. We have confident hope in eternal life with our Savior. Christian hope is rooted in faith. Hope is manifested because we have faith in Christ.

The very essence of faith is hope and trust, the hope and trust we have in Jesus Christ our Savior. Eternal life is the inheritance of the saints. It’s our guarantee, it’s our ultimate hope in this life. To bring it close to home, in thinking of the two believers that I recently attended funerals for, they left their human bodies and were awaiting redeemed bodies. They both had confident hope that God would redeem their bodies!

Lastly, the third question is, how do we move forward now knowing that we have this rock-solid Christian hope? The certainty of this is the result of the indwelling of the Spirit (Romans 8:23-25). We are not self-sustaining and this is not man-made motivation. This hope and perseverance to march on is given to us by God through the Holy Spirit.

God uses suffering, even in these recent days of watching someone I love die, to produce an endurance and increase my hope (1Thessalonions 1:3, Hebrews 6:11). Those who hope in Christ will see Christ exalted in life and in death.

So how do we move forward with this hope? We move on knowing that God uses our suffering to further our hope! Those who do not know Christ have no hope in this world. To them, it is a wishful thought! To those who know Him, it is a guarantee (Ephesians 2:12). We must only believe in the promises God has made. He will deliver us from evil.

What should our final takeaway be? God has given us hope that our death is not the end as a Christian but is our hope realized in the presence of Christ. It’s an encouragement to me and an assurance that they have been delivered into eternity as will all of those who trust in Him. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints!