I was talking to a relative about a man we know who is dying of cancer, a guy who has had a really bad run in life.  This guy (and please pray for him) had to come to the realization lately that he is going to die.  Soon.  Now, I will be the first to admit that I have no idea what that must be like.  Facing your own mortality in a general way is a normal part of life, but coming to grips with the fact that you are going to do sooner rather than later must be a soul devastating experience.

During the course of the conversation the other person said something like this, “He just sits around the apartment, knowing that he’s going to die.  He knows he has no hope.”  Now, I know what this person meant, that this guy has no hope for a recovery; he is going to leave behind his wife and kids.  (I also know that every time I post about a conversation I had, it puts me in a good light.  Of course I do that, why would I post something that makes me look bad?)  But it did get me thinking: aren’t we the ones who are supposed to have hope?  Don’t we, those who are in Christ, have a perfect hope?

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.  For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 ESV)

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?  But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.  And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.  We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.  For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.  And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.  Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.  If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.  (1 Corinthians 15:12-19)

The hope we have is not in some Gnostic, neo-platonic, disembodied heaven.  No, our hope is grounded in the resurrection of Jesus.  Our hope is that these sinful bodies, so easily given to disease and sadness, will be raised like his.  Our hope is rooted in the fact that this life is not all there is, that there is an eternal life given to us by our Lord.  “[T]hanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”