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We believe that the Christian hope is the confident expectation that God will complete the saving work He has begun. This hope rests upon the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, the promises of God, and the certainty that Christ will return.
Jesus ascended bodily into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He is Head of the Church and serves as the Advocate and continuing Intercessor for those who belong to Him. The same Jesus who ascended into heaven will return personally and bodily.
When Christ gathers His people to Himself, believers who have died will be raised, and believers who are alive will be transformed. All who belong to Christ will be glorified and freed forever from sin, suffering, decay, and death. They will be with the Lord forever.
Christ will defeat every enemy and judge evil with perfect justice. He will complete God’s plan of redemption, free creation from corruption, and dwell with His people in a renewed creation where righteousness lives.
This hope is not an excuse to withdraw from present responsibilities. It should produce comfort in grief, endurance in suffering, courage in witness, holiness in daily life, and faithful service while believers await Christ’s return.
Supporting Scriptures
Hope Grounded in Christ’s Resurrection
John 11:25-26; I Corinthians 15:20-26; I Peter 1:3-5
Christ’s Ascension, Present Ministry, and Return
John 14:1-3; Acts 1:9-11; Romans 8:34; Ephesians 1:20-23; Hebrews 7:23-25; I John 2:1-2
The Resurrection and Transformation of Believers
I Corinthians 15:42-58; Philippians 3:20-21; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; I John 3:1-3
Hope in Death and Grief
Philippians 1:21-23; II Corinthians 5:6-8; I Thessalonians 4:13-18
The Defeat of Death and the Renewal of Creation
Romans 8:18-25; II Peter 3:10-13; Revelation 21:1-5
Living in Hope
Romans 5:1-5; Romans 12:12; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 6:17-20; I Peter 1:13
Layman's Terms
Christian hope is not wishful thinking. It is confidence based upon what God has already done through Jesus Christ and what He has promised to complete.
Jesus physically rose from the dead and returned to the Father. He now represents believers before the Father and will one day return. Because Christ rose, death will not have the final word over anyone who belongs to Him.
Death does not separate believers from Christ, and their bodies will not remain in the grave forever. When Christ gathers His people, those who have died will be raised and those who are alive will be changed. Every believer will be free from sin and will receive a body no longer subject to weakness, disease, or death.
The Christian hope includes more than leaving this life and going to heaven. God will finally defeat evil, judge with perfect justice, raise His people bodily, and renew His creation. Believers will live forever with Christ in the world God restores.
This future hope changes how Christians live now. We can grieve without despair, endure suffering without concluding that God has abandoned us, and serve faithfully because our labor in the Lord is not wasted.
Further Study
Hope Founded on the Resurrection
The Christian hope begins with the historical, bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. If Christ did not rise, Christian faith would be empty and believers would remain in their sins. Because He did rise, those who belong to Him can be certain that they also will be raised.
Christ’s resurrection was not merely a return to ordinary mortal life. He rose in a glorified body no longer subject to death. His resurrection is the beginning and guarantee of the future resurrection of His people.
Christian hope therefore rests upon an accomplished event rather than human optimism. God has already acted decisively in history, and Christ’s empty tomb assures believers that death will ultimately be defeated.
The Ascended Christ and His Promised Return
After His resurrection, Jesus ascended bodily into heaven. His ascension did not end His care for His people. He reigns at the Father’s right hand, intercedes for believers, and serves as their Advocate.
The angels told the disciples that the same Jesus who ascended would return in the same manner. Christian hope is therefore centered upon the return of a living Person, not merely upon improving conditions, escaping difficulty, or determining a prophetic timetable.
Christ’s present ministry gives believers confidence while they wait. The One who will return is already representing them before the Father and ruling over all things for the good of His Church.
Bodily Resurrection and Transformation
The final hope of the Christian is not an eternal existence as a disembodied spirit. God created human beings with bodies, and Christ came to redeem the whole person. Believers who die will be raised bodily, and believers alive at Christ’s gathering will be transformed.
The resurrection body will remain genuinely human while being made imperishable and glorious. Believers will be freed from sin, and their resurrected bodies will no longer experience corruption, disease, weakness, or death.
This truth gives dignity to the human body and meaning to present faithfulness. What God created and Christ redeemed will not be discarded but restored and glorified.
Grieving with Hope
Christians experience real grief when someone dies. Scripture does not require believers to deny their sorrow or pretend that death is harmless. Death is an enemy and a painful separation.
Christian grief, however, is not hopeless grief. Believers who die are with Christ, and their bodies will be raised when He gathers His people. Separation is painful, but it is not permanent.
This hope does not remove every question or lessen every immediate sorrow. It provides a firm promise beneath the sorrow: Christ has defeated death, and everyone who belongs to Him will live with Him forever.
Hope and the Order of Future Events
Scripture clearly teaches that Christ will return, believers will be raised and transformed, evil will be judged, and God’s redemptive purposes will be completed. Christians who affirm these truths have nevertheless reached different conclusions about the timing and order of future events.
These differences include the relationship between the gathering of the Church, the period of tribulation, Christ’s visible return, the millennium, the final judgment, and the renewal of creation. These questions deserve careful study rather than dismissal, but the certainty of Christian hope does not depend upon agreement about every point in the sequence.
The detailed order of these events belongs primarily under The Second Coming. The purpose of this page is to state the shared foundation: Christ is risen, Christ reigns, Christ intercedes for His people, Christ will return, the dead in Christ will be raised, living believers will be transformed, and God will make all things right.
Hope That Changes the Present
Biblical hope does not encourage passivity. Scripture connects the expectation of Christ’s return with holiness, perseverance, comfort, worship, witness, and service.
Believers do not know the day or hour of Christ’s return. They are therefore called to remain watchful and faithful rather than attempting to calculate dates or interpret every event as a certain prophetic sign.
The promise of Christ’s return should direct attention toward Christ Himself. The goal is not merely to escape suffering or obtain answers about the future. The Christian hope is to be with the Lord, made like Him, and able to worship and serve Him without sin forever.
Memory Passage
Titus 2:11-14
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