The Hope of all!

LUKE 19:1–10

Jesus Christ is the hope of all men, and therefore also of non-Christians, of the heathen, of the theoretically or practically ungodly. How could we limit the positive sign of life in the midst of the times to Christians? The main concern of the ongoing of the history of the prophecy of Jesus Christ which fills our time is with non-Christians. Their existence is a reminder of the darkness which resists it. It is for their sake that it must go forward, that Jesus Christ as the living Word of God is still on the way to-day. Their conversion from ignorance to knowledge, from unbelief to faith, from bondage to freedom, from night to day, is the goal of His prophetic work so far as it has a temporal goal. He wills to seek and to save those who are lost, who without Him, without the light of life, without the Word of the covenant, will necessarily perish, v. 10. He is for them specifically this light, this Word. He is their hope … Christians have many reasons to see this. In days past were they not themselves non-Christians, or sleeping and even dead Christians, and therefore in fact and at bottom non-Christians? Is it not the case that they were not for Him as He was for them? Have they not every cause to be grateful that in spite of this, without their response of love, even when they were enemies (Rom 5:10), He was for them, their hope, and the Holy Spirit was obviously promised to them in this way? (IV, 3, p. 364 f. The Promise of the Spirit.)

Barth, K., Bromiley, G. W., & Torrance, T. F. (2004). Church dogmatics, Volume V: Index, with Aids for the Preacher (448). Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark.

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Existence of Christ

The Word existed at the beginning (John 1:1); he existed before me (John 1:15; John 1:30); before Abraham was, I AM (John 8:58); when you lift up the Son of man you will know that I AM [he] (John 8:28); that when it occurs you will believe that I AM (John 13:19); unless you believe that I AM [he], you will die in your sins (John 8:24); do not be afraid, I AM [it is I] (Matt. 14:27; Mark 6:50; Luke 24:39; John 6:20); Jesus said ‘I AM [he]’ (Mark 14:62; John 18:5; John 18:8); when he said, ‘I AM [he]’, they fell to the ground (John 18:6).

He arose!

At its core, the Christian belief in Christ’s resurrection defies all natural explanations. It is not, strictly speaking, a reasonable claim, but it does not oppose reason so much as transcend it. Humans did not rise from the dead with any greater frequency in Jesus’ time than in our own; the miracle of resurrection was as astounding then as now. And while his resurrection was both prophesied centuries in advance, and contemporaneously attested to by many eyewitnesses, there is no natural accounting for the fact. It remains, millennia later, a mystery – one that has outlasted heresies and corruptions, opposition and apathy. And so this Sunday, we will again celebrate the great mystery, the omnipotent and omnipresent One who became the point on which our hope hangs and history pivots: Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.

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Faith & Hope!

John Calvin said concerning the relationship of fides and spes at the end of his great chapter Inst. III, 2 and with reference to Hebrews 11:1-4 … Where there is a living faith in the Word of God, it cannot be otherwise than that faith should have hope as its inseparable companion, or rather, that it should beget and create it. If we have no hope, we can be sure that we have no faith. Those who believe, those who apprehend the truth of God with the certainty which corresponds to it, which is demanded and imparted by it, expect that God will fulfill the promises which He has spoken in truth … Waiting quietly for the Lord, hope restrains faith, preventing it from rushing forward in too great a hurry. It confirms it so that it does not waver in its trust in God’s promises or begin to doubt. It revives it so that it does not grow weary. It keeps it fixed on its final goal so that it does not give up half-way or when it is in captivity. It continually renews and reestablishes it, thus seeing to it that it continually rises up in more vital forms and perseveres to the end. -K. Barth

The Cross of Christ!

The cross involves hardship, anguish, grief, pain and finally death. But those who are set in this movement willingly undertake to bear this because it is essential to this movement that it should finally … be crossed through in this way … It is quite in order that man … should try to ward off pain and death. Even the Christian does this. In themselves and as such, pain, suffering and death are a questioning, a destruction and finally a negation of human life. The Christian especially cannot try to transform and glorify them. He cannot find any pleasure in them. He cannot desire or seek them … He cannot be a lover of death as the natural man may easily become in a strange reversal and unmasking of his pretended affirmation of life and avid desire for it. - K. Barth

One Mediator!

Have you ever thought about how Jesus serves as the mediator between God and mankind? Paul says it like this: "For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time" (I Timothy 2.5-6).

Or John the Theologian says it like this: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. . . . Jesus answered them, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' The Jews then said, 'It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?' But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken." (John 1.14; 2.19-22)

And Thomas Torrance said it like this: "Jesus Christ is the place where God and man meet in space and time! In order to express this more positively, let us turn back to the incarnation for a moment. Jesus Christ, the man Jesus, is the place in this physical world of space and time where God and man meet and where they have communion with one another. The temple in the Old Testament was the place where God has put his name, where he kept tryst [sic] with his covenanted people and where they kept covenant with him. Jesus Christ is that temple of God on earth and among mankind where God has put his name, and where he has appointed us to meet him. It is the place where heaven and earth meet, the place of reconciliation within our historical existence in flesh and blood. Jesus Christ is himself among us God’s mercy-seat, God’s place in the world where he is really present to us in our place." (Thomas F. Torrance, “Atonement,” 287)