Hope
Certain hope?
Yes. The words might not seem to go together at first, but in this case they do.
Of course, if it’s true – as most religions teach – that the afterlife is determined by a weighing of the good things you’ve done in this life versus the bad things, then there can be no such thing as certainty – only a “hope so”, “maybe so”, “trying my hardest” sort of affair. But that’s not the message of the Bible.
The Bible says this in Romans 3:23
[A]ll have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. . . (this and following quotations from the New American Standard Bible)
and in Romans 6:23
[T]he wages of sin is death. . .
So where’s the hope in that? If that were all, there would be no hope, but let’s finish the verse:
but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Is certain hope within your price range? Sure it is! God wouldn’t have said, “free gift” if He didn’t mean it. How can it be free? The rest of the verse answers that by saying “in Christ Jesus our Lord”. To purchase eternal life for you instead of the death that our sins demand cost Jesus Christ a great deal. We read this just a couple chapters over, in Romans 5:6-8
For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
And that is the reason that you can have certain hope. It isn’t based on your fulfilling the terms of a “good” life. The penalty for all the damage caused by your sin has been paid by the Lord Jesus Christ, and eternal life is offered you as a gift. How do you get it? The apostle John answers for us in the Bible, in John 1:11,12,
He [Jesus Christ] came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name. . .
There it is! “As many as received Him” – if you see yourself as the sinner Jesus Christ died to save, and are willing to take Him as your Lord and Savior, then God says He’s willing to save you. But that’s not all the verse said, is it? No, it said, “He gave the right to become children of God”. God says He will adopt you – out of slavery to sin and the devil, into His family. And that’s another reason that the hope is certain. God will see to your eternal safety.
What is involved in becoming a child of God? Well, a great deal of good things, but going back to Romans 6:23 we see that Jesus Christ is called “our Lord”. We might use the word “Master”, though not because He sees us as slaves, because He doesn’t at all. The idea, though, is that we are His because He made us, and because He died for us. For those reasons He has a right to be in charge, to say what is right for us and what is wrong for us, and we should want to please Him! The Bible uses the word, “repent” to describe a person who sees their sin taking them to hell, who turns from doing their own thing their own way and turns to God. It’s a complete change of heart and mind to say “for me it will be God’s way and not my own way”.
If you are willing to be a child of God, willing for Him to change you from the inside out from a person who loves sin to a person who loves God, then certain hope is yours when you take Jesus Christ as your only way to God.