What Is Our Final Hope?

Tim Davis

As a Christian, what’s your final hope? 

Is it…

a)        going to heaven when you die? 

b)        escaping this world? 

c)        getting away from your body to go to a better place?

d)        Something else? 

This is more than a theological trivia question. In fact, how you answer this question will have an immediate impact on the way you live today.

To illustrate, put yourself in the shoes of a 22-year-old girl (and who knows, maybe you are this gal). You’re dating the man of your dreams and today is your lucky day. Why? Because he proposes to you. Now because of what happened today, you anticipate a glorious future event—namely, your wedding day. That future reality energizes you today.

This is how Biblical hope works. Because of what Christ did on the cross (that’s the past), we have hope for something to come (in the future). And that future event should energize Christians today.

But this begs the question, what is that future event?

HEAVEN

Our first stop… heaven. 

As the Apostle Paul states, “to live is Christ and to die is gain (Phil 1:21). When we die, we will be with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8). This is a glorious reality and a sweet truth—especially for those who are nearing death.  

But the glories of heaven should motivate every believer. After all, everyone experiences suffering and difficult times. And during the storms, one of the sweetest truths we can hold onto is that on the other side of suffering and death, we’ll see Jesus.

But as glorious as this is, “salvation should not be reduced to a heavenly beam-up into the clouds.”[1] Or as NT Wright is famous for saying, “Our final hope isn’t life after death...” meaning, heaven. Rather, “Our final hope is life after life after death…” meaning, the New Heaven and New Earth.

A NEW HEAVEN AND NEW EARTH

The Bible is a story.

And the end of this story is eerily similar to the first few pages. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). Now flip to the end of the Bible. “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away” (Rev. 21:1).

Here’s the point: the Bible’s story takes us from creation to new creation—from garden to garden-city.

The picture Revelation paints is a New Jerusalem coming down to earth. The Bible’s final book doesn’t give us a picture of humanity escaping the body or the physical world; Revelation gives us quite the opposite. God is making all things new. He’s restoring what was lost in Eden. He’s restoring his creation. He’s reversing the curse of sin and death and he’s wiping away every tear (Rev. 21:4).

In other words, the Bible presents a redemption that’s cosmic in proportion. To use the Apostle Paul’s language, the Father is going to “unite all things in him [Jesus the Messiah], things in heaven and things on earth” (Eph. 1:9-10). And when that day comes, we will see his face and we will reign with him forever (Rev. 22:4-5).

This is our final hope. May it energize you today.