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The Story: Faith, hope, and love are the three great abiding virtues (1 Cor. 13.13). Faith and love we can rather easily define. But what is hope? More specifically, what is the Christian’s hope? Paul says it is the “hope of glory” (Rom. 5.1, 2). Peter says we have been redeemed by the Lord Jesus so that we might believe in God and hope in Him. What does it mean to “hope” in the glory of God? As we set our minds on Jesus Christ, reigning and returning, we see a glimpse of the glory of what is yet to be. As we lay aside our old lives and take up the life of Christ, we enter God’s glory as it was lived out through Jesus and is expressed in all our conduct. Paul says that even down to how and what we eat or drink, we can bring glory to God (1 Cor. 10.31). Is this what you hope for? To knowGod in His glory and to showthat glory to the watching world? This is our great privilege and calling, and it occupies every moment and every aspect of our lives. As we hope in the glory of God, He forms Jesus Christ in us more completely, day by day.
The Structure: This has been God’s plan from the beginning (“before the foundation of the world”). In His Son, the Word of God Who became flesh in Jesus Christ, God intended to redeem from the lost world a people for His own possession (1 Pet. 2.9, 10). To them He shows His glory and, by His Word and Spirit, fits them to live for His glory in every aspect of their lives. How can we know that we belong to this God and have come to know the redemption He offers us in Jesus Christ? Simple enough: Do we hope in the glory of God and are we pursuing that glory in the fear of the Lord?
How do you engage God in His glory? How do you know when you have? How is it evident that you have?
Each week’s studies in our Scriptorium column are available in a free PDF form, suitable for personal or group use. For this week’s study, “This is the Gospel: 1 Peter 1.12-25,” simply click here.
T. M. Moore
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.