The Hope of Heaven

“What was the earthly Paradise in Eden compared to that purchased by the second Adam, who is the Lord from heaven? It is a purchased possession. ‘The price it cost the purchaser every one knows. Having purchased it, He has gone to prepare it, to set it in order, to lay out His skill upon it. O what a place will Jesus make it — yes, has already made heaven. The very place should attract us.”

—NEVINS.

are dealing now, but the Christian grace of

heaven, which is hope. ‘There is much delusion in the belief of a mere fact. Such belief is sterile and deludes if the fact is not fashioned into a principle. If the cold facts of Gospel history do not become the fertilizers of the sweet graces of the Spirit, then are they dead and deadening. ‘These facts of the Gospel as they exist in pages of history, even though the pages be inspired, do not save until they enter into our experience and become the bone and blood of our spiritual life. The fact of heaven must be believed. The heaven of fact exists all glorious and enduring, but this fact of [: is not the bare fact of heaven with which we heaven must enter our experience, and then of this experience hope is born, the twin in beauty, intelligence and goodness, with faith and love.

Hope is a mighty spiritual principle. So strong is it that the apostle centers all the forces of salvation in it. “‘ We are saved,” he says, “by hope.” By it there comes into play all the energetic forces which save. ‘These forces are limp and forceless without hope. Heaven nourishes all the principles of a deep, conscious piety. The Christian never works so well, never suffers so well, never grows so well, as when heaven is in full view of his eyes. It is that which gives to hope its ripeness, richness and power. Only the saint who is after heaven with all the ardor and brightness of hope is truly saved. Doubt and fear flee away from such a salvation.

By its characteristics is this heavenly hope distinguished from all false hopes which perish. It is patient. Hope can wait, and lose none of its brightness, wait with serenity and sweetness, wait without murmuring and disquietude. It is “the patience of hope” which adds to its luster and sweetness. “But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.”

It is termed a good hope, joined to everlasting consolation. What can be better than a hope which brings in everlasting consolation, a source of perpetual, unfailing joy! It is also termed a “lively” or “living hope.” Peter is telling how this true immortal hope came out of the grave of their dead hopes, so vitalized and immortalized by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, “to an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled and that fadeth not away.”’ Our hope has the imperishable life of Jesus Christ in it. It is called a blessed hope. Blessed and happy is-this hope! It has in it all the beatitudes and all happifying qualities. It makes us happy and ineffable, perennial, sure of happiness.

True Christian hope is only seen by the heart’s eye. The Revised Version has it, “The eyes of your heart enlightened that ye may know what is the hope of your calling.” Heart eyes and heavenly light in which to see heaven. Our natural eyes and earthly lights do not show us “the calling,” neither have they vision for “the riches of the glory of that inheritance” on which hope feeds and lives.

Hope while it flourishes by the afflictions of life, yet is formed of the gentlest and mildest graces. It combines meekness with fear. It is neither arrogant, rude nor self-assertive, but is mild, retiring and reverential. It is a very patient grace. It perseveres, holds on, and is steadfast, strong to wait till its fruition comes, and saves from discontent, depression and weakness.

Hope is one of the three great elements of Christian character. It is found united with faith and love in order to give perfection, to establish Christian reputation, and to awaken thankfulness, because it is so apparent and so robust.

“We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers; remembering without ceasing, your work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope, in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father” (1 Thess. 1:2).

While faith exhibits itself in active works love shows itself in exhaustive toil, hope brightens all, and bears all, declaring her sisterhood to the other graces by patient waiting. Hope’s bright endurance mightily sustains faith, and love gives to them unfaltering and unfainting courage. They are inseparably united in Christian life.

“And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13:13).

“Faith appropriates the grace of God in the facts of salvation. Love is the animating spirit of our Christian life, while hope takes hold of the future as belonging to the Lord, and to those who are His. ‘The kingdom of God, past, present and future is thus reflected in faith, love and hope.”

How thoroughly hope impregnates the Gospel system! How essential it is to Christian character! How necessary to Christian struggles will be seen in.the many references to it in the New Testament.

“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope” (1 Tim. 1:1).

In this passage hope centers itself in our Lord Jesus Christ. He is our hope. We hang on Him, we center all in Him.

This hope of a glorious Christ and a glorious heaven, a glorious and eternal future, is not a product of man’s nature, not born of his despair, not the outgrowth of his cheerful spirit, but it is a spiritual gift, a grace in germ and in fruitage.

“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost” (Rom. 15:

13):

Hope has its spring and being in God. Founded on faith in God, it floods the soul with joy and peace. It increases by the presence of the Holy Spirit working in us. Hope abounds more and more as we are filled with all the fulness of God. The whole plan of salvation, its mystery and the glory of its riches, are summarized by Paul: “Christ in you the hope of glory.” Where Christ is, there this hope springs to its opulent fulness. Ail is barrenness, death and despair out of Christ.

The hope of heaven is not a mere emotion. It is not fitful, but ever enduring and strong. It burns with a steady, often a brilliant light. It is not an accident, an accompaniment merely, not a mere incident of the religious life, but vital, fundamental, organic. It goes into the being of vital godliness, as an essential principle. It dwells in the Holy of Holies, and is the High Priest of the inner sanctuary of the soul. It sanctifies the Lord God, and dwells where He dwells.

“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15).

In hope of that immortal crown
I now the cross sustain,
And gladly wander up and down,
And smile at toil and pain:
I suffer out my threescore years,
Till my Deliverer come,
And wipe away his servants’ tears,
And take his exile home. — Charles Wesley.