What's Next?

I listen to the people who get paid to talk on national TV, and I hear their version of hope. They “hope” that their political candidate gets elected. They “hope” that the economy rebounds and their 401k’s are replenished. They “hope” they don’t get the coronavirus or cancer. The crowd I run with “hope” they limit out on ducks or catch enough white perch for a fish fry.

In the end, however, their hope is nothing more than “wishing.” There’s no real expectation that what they hope (wish) for will ever come true. Wishing is a kid’s game—nothing more. Maybe it’ll happen—maybe it won’t.  But we don’t really know until after the fact.

The hope held out to us in the Gospel (Colossians 1:23) is nothing like childish wishing games. This hope, the hope of the gospel, is filled with confident expectation. Rather than throwing coins into wishing wells and hoping for the best, it’s more like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. We know where we are now, we are familiar with the struggles of living in the flesh in a sin-cursed and broken world, but we see eternity looming. And because of the heavy lifting that Jesus did for us when he hung on the cross, we are free of the condemnation of law and can approach the throne of grace with confidence right now (Hebrews 4:16). The hope of the Gospel compels us to long for the day of His appearing when we get to spend eternity with the Father and his son, Jesus the Messiah. Because our hope is real and bankable, we are actually looking forward to his return.

A few years ago, one of the brothers at church asked me what to do about an old boy that had resisted surrendering his life to Christ. I told him to bring him to me, and I would talk to him. When I saw the young fellow, I immediately noticed his bulging muscles.  He was obviously a man deeply committed to spending time in the gym. Never one to beat around the bush, I looked him up and down and said, “You have a beautiful body!” All he could do was stammer out a nervous “thank you.”  Then I lowered the hammer on him: “My question is, how are you going to get that body out of the grave?”

Now listen carefully! I knew that no matter how much time he spent in the gym working on his physical appearance, it would only be a matter of time before age and gravity would catch up to him. I knew that he would be unable to maintain the same physique as he aged, and that the day would come when his skin and flesh would sag, he would lose those muscles, and death would follow soon after.

No one escapes this, no matter what we do to prolong it. Not me! Not you! So, since life is finite and brief, it begs the question—what’s next?

And that is a very good question. In fact, it’s the only question that matters—what happens after we breathe our last breath? I would suggest to you that if anything other than faith in Christ is the reason you live and move and have your being (Acts 17:28), you have no idea what real hope is. You are only wishing; life for you is a crap shoot. It’s a roll of the dice.

You may have a few moments of reprieve from the nagging feeling that it’s going to come to an end, but you still know that it is. And you are hopeless. You can’t really answer the question, “What happens next?” Without Christ, you never win - you are hopeless.

That’s why I started out with the passage from Romans chapter five.  The kind of hope that God is offering is nothing like wishing-well hope.  It is something we can bank on because it doesn’t depend on our goodness or righteousness. It depends on the work of Christ that He performed when He died on the cross and was raised from the grave. The only thing that I can do is fall before God and admit my failure to keep the law.  But in doing what He did for us, Christ makes us right before God (something we could never do on our own) AND throws in the bonus of eternity with God.  

Ladies and gentlemen, this is hope.  It is like nothing else. Because of what Christ did for us, we place our heads on our pillows at night and sleep soundly no matter what is going on in the world around us. Deadly viruses lurking in the shadows ready to take us out? No problem—my hope is secure. Social unrest and the unraveling of our culture? I’m still good to go because all of my hope is in Jesus. Nothing has more power to enable me to live a victorious and joyful life than the hope of the Gospel.

I suggest you check it out. I promise you will never regret it!