“Because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel.” -Colossians 1:5
“Then, thirdly, the Bible, after laying down this great fundamental principle about the fleeting nature of life and the importance of the soul and its eternal destiny, then gives us a very realistic view of life in this world. And this is what proves to me, if nothing else did, that this is the Word of God, because it tells me the truth all along. I read other things, my newspapers and the philosophers and so on, and, with their great idealism, they try to tell me that this world is a wonderful place! The world outside Christ says, ‘Isn’t life wonderful?’ Is it? Have you found it wonderful like that? Is it thrilling? Is it marvelous? Is it just one round of pleasure and happiness? Is that how you have found it? To believe that, to believe that the world has ever been like that or ever will be like that, is to believe a fairy tale.
If you want realism, come to the Bible. It tells you that this world is a place of sin, a place of sorrow, a place of sighing, of bitterness, enmity, fighting, selfishness, greed, malice; that is what the Bible says. And even worse, it tells us that there are times when men and women are so sunk and steeped in sin and iniquity that they become perverts. It is all here. There is nothing you can produce to me in a book or newspaper but that I will show it to you here, described in stark realism. That is life, says the Bible. It is a place of tribulations – ‘In the world you will have tribulation,’ says the Son of God (John 16:33). He does not promise anything better. He never promised anybody a life of ease.
A man came running after Him one afternoon and said, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’
Wait a minute, my friend, He said. ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ Are you ready for that? (Luke 9:57-58).
No. Our Lord never painted a rosy picture of life. He said that it is a vale of woe. And why? Well, the Bible has its explanation: it is all because of man’s sin and disobedience. The world is as it is because it has sinned and rebelled against God and because, in its folly, it is trying to live life apart from Him. “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked” (Isaiah 57:21), and there is not. You can become wealthy and learned; you can split the atom; you can organize the Common Market; you can do a thousand and one things, but there will never be peace while you continue to be wicked and live a life apart from God. That is what the Bible says.
Christianity is not a fairy tale; the fairy tale is everything else. The Christian faith is real; it stands up to life & looks at it as it is. It says: That is the sort of world it is; and it is because of human rebellion and arrogant disobedience of God, and it will never be better until human beings are changed. There is no hope of reforming the world; there is no hope that the world will ever grow naturally into perfection. Believe me, men and women are not gradually evolving into something better; they remain exactly where they have always been because they and the world are under the wrath of God.
Now that does not mean for a moment that we should be unconcerned about our world; that we should not do our best to make it as good as we can. Of course, go and do that for all you are worth, but what I mean is this: Do not tell me that Christianity is out to make the world perfect; it is not. It tells you that the world is under the wrath of God and is doomed. The sentence has already been promulgated and it will be carried out, though I do not know when (it may be sooner than some of us think).
There is an end coming because man is sinful and because the world is in rebellion against God: that is what the Bible teaches; that is what Epaphras preached at Colosse. And then he went on to say: Now there is the position. You are moving through this world; you will only do it once and you will never come back again. You have a soul and you decide its eternal destiny while you are here. Do not talk about making the world a better place but make certain that you are somehow delivered from this doom that is coming.
And then, Epaphras said, I can tell you how that can happen. And he began preaching the message of the gospel – Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, who came down from heaven to earth and lived and died and rose again. What for? To lift up humanity? To give a fillip to the human march of progress? No! He came in order that ‘whosoever believes’ – individuals – might be delivered. He is the one who, when he was thronged by a great crowd of people, felt a poor woman tugging at the hem of his garment and had time to listen to her and to heal and to cure her. He is interested in individuals, thank God! That was the message of Epaphras. He said: You can be delivered out of this. Salvation is a personal salvation. The world is under the judgment and the wrath of God but believe this message of Christ, the Son of God, and you will be delivered out of that doom.
But, he said, your salvation even in Christ in this world is only partial – you do not get it all here. Epaphras did not say: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will never have another problem. You will go marching down the highway with a new step and a new thrill. You will never meet another temptation; all your problems will be solved.
That is a travesty of the gospel; do not believe it; it is not true. The New Testament has never said that, never! We only receive a little installment of salvation in this world, but, thank God, it is enough."
- Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Love So Amazing: Exposition of Colossians I,
The hope
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