What We Hope For

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Week 3:  What We Hope For

The Big Question: What Happens When We Die?

Some day everyone who is a follower of Jesus will be reunited with God in that original state for which we were created.  This is called “glorification.”  While God is eternal and is not bound by time, we are still bound in our spatial/temporal condition and it is difficult, if not impossible, for us to imagine what that state will be.  Yet, God has promised that those who have entered his kingdom in this life will be with Him forever.  Somehow, in some glorious way, we will be reunited fully with God, and restored to the original design.  As a child grows and matures to adulthood, the goal of that parent/child relationship is for the child to become a friend with the parent.  So to, as with the betrothal of a man and woman, the goal of the betrothal is the wedding day where man and woman become husband and wife.  Our ultimate goal in life, that thing that inspires us and motivates us to press on, is that some day we will be friends with God and that we will be united with God as his glorious bride on her wedding day.

There will be an end

It is very difficult for us to imagine concepts like “eternity,” “glory,” and “union with God.”  Let’s get one thing straight.  No one really knows exactly what it’s all about.  No one has been to “the other side” and come back to tell us about it.  One thing we do know is that it is awesome and is beyond anything that limited, human language can describe.  The pictures that are painted by words in the Bible regarding Heaven and the afterlife are simply comparisons to things that we know on Earth.  There are no literal descriptions of what it will be because there is no possible way to describe it.

Read Matthew 13:47-50.  What will happen at the end of the age?

Read Hebrews 9:27-28.  What happens after we die?  What will Christ bring when he returns?

Read 2 Peter 3:8-14.  What will happen when the Lord returns?

Read Revelation 21:1-5.  How is the New Jerusalem described in this passage?

Key Word - Glorification

Read the following passages and write down how life after death (or, more accurately, our glorified state) is described

2 Corinthians 5:1-10
1 Corinthians 15:51 -55
1 Thessalonians 4:13 -18

According to these verses, what does the believer have to look forward to?

Glorification is the theological term for what happens to us after we die.  The scriptures we studied indicate that our bodies will be transformed into something beyond our physical existence.  We will be caught up into the glory of the Lord -- we will be glorified, and be made to live in His realm forever.

The truth is that no one really knows exactly what that means.  All we know is that it will be awesome!

Analogies

Last week we discussed two analogies that help us to understand what it means to be “saved.”  The first was the image of being born again in the Spirit.  The second was that of being engaged to be married to God.  Last week, as we discussed what we have, we saw that placing trust in Jesus was the beginning point of our relationship with God.  This week we will take those same two analogies and discuss the ultimate objective of each of these types of relationships and see how it applies to our relationship with God.

Child becomes Friend

Read John 15:12-14.  What transformation was taking place in the relationship that the disciples shared with Jesus?  Why?

Read Galatians 3:26-4:7.  What transformation is taking place in the disciples’ relationship with God?

The goal of parenting is to raise a child so that she becomes a mature adult, able to sit across the table as a mature, independent person.  At this point the parent and child can become friends and share a level of intimacy that was otherwise not possible.  The parent will always be the parent, but the mature adult child can grow close to the parent in a special way.

In the same way God does not desire for us to remain spiritual infants, always whining and complaining, and always in need of discipline.  God desires for us to grow and mature to a point that we can experience intimacy and freedom in our relationship with Him.  God did not create Law to keep us in oppressive submission for eternity.  God created rules to train us, so that, eventually, our heart would be transformed, and we would become so much like him, as mature people, that we would no longer behave out of external motivation, but, without thinking, walk in the same manner as God, loving him authentically.  In this state of freedom we can grow close with God and eternally deepen our intimacy with Him, more as a friend than as a child.

The Wedding Day

Read Ephesians 1:13-14.  What role does the Holy Spirit play in the life of a person who has believed in Jesus?

Read Revelation 19:6-9.  What metaphor is used in this passage to describe the end?

In the tradition of the first century betrothal, the couple was legally bound to one another until the day of their marriage.  On the wedding day they would be able to move past an external, legal, and mental relationship and be able to consummate their covenant with physical union and intimacy.  They could share each other in the emotional/spiritual/physical union of the marriage bed.  On this day their relationship is actually just beginning.

So it is with our relationship with God.  In this life, bound by the darkening effects of sin and limited by our fallen state, we can know God, but only partly.  We can grow in our relationship and intimacy with God more and more each day, but until that glorious wedding day we will not fully know him.  On that day we will enter into the wedding chambers with the lover of our souls and know Him in a way that surpasses our ability to understand.  On this day our relationship will actually begin.  C.S. Lewis said that, in this life, we are merely standing on the outer courts of the magnificent palace of eternity with God.  As the bride of Christ, we eagerly await the day when He will return to take us to the wedding and begin the life for which we were created.

Another Key Word -- Inspirational

We said that “What We Have” is the positional aspect of salvation.  It has been given to us and there is nothing we do to earn it.  This week we see that “What We Hope For” is the inspirational aspect of salvation.  If all we had was this life, and when we died we ceased to exist, there would be very little motivation to live a moral life.  In fact, without the existence of eternity, there is no basis for morality.  We would simply live by the saying, “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.”

The hope of our salvation is that someday, whether it is when we die or when Jesus returns, we will be with God in eternity, in a state of existence that is beyond our comprehension.  Knowing that we have this promise inspires us to press on through the difficult times in life.

Coming Home

Read Hebrews 13:11-14.  How are we to view our current circumstances?

Read 1 Peter 2:11-12.  How are we to view ourselves in relationship to this world?  How should that self-image affect our daily living?

In John 14:1-4, what did Jesus promise?

Perhaps you have taken a trip to a foreign country.  While the experience was nice, you never quite felt comfortable.  Remember how it felt when you arrived home and heard your own language, ate your own food, and slept in your own bed?  The apostle Peter said that we are pilgrims and strangers in this world.  It is not our home.  We are simply passing through.  When we become too complacent in the creature comforts of this life we run into risky territory.  We must always view our lives as a journey towards our homeland.  Someday we will be there and all will be right with our souls.  We will sleep in our own bad at last!

Building Materials

Read 1 Corinthians 3:9-15.
What analogy does Paul use to describe the church?
What kinds of materials can be used to build the church?
What kind of attitudes and activities do you think are represented by wood, hay, and straw?
What kind of attitudes and activities do you think are represented by gold, silver, and costly stones?
How will these building materials be tested?
When the test comes, which material will remain?
What kind of material do you believe you are building your life with today?

Read Romans 13:11-14.  Since we are still looking forward to the fulfillment of our salvation, how should we behave?

Knowing that we were created for eternity and that our home is not in this place, how can we waste time on pettiness and sin?  We need to be like the bride making herself ready for the wedding night with her groom.  Our eyes should be focused on the hope of our salvation.

What garbage is still hanging around in your life that is keeping the joy and hope of your salvation from igniting your heart into action today?

Spend some time journaling and ask God to show you areas of your life where you are spending a great amount of time that is having no eternal consequence.  Ask him to show you ways that you can remove the excess from your life.