When life does not turn out the way that we want it to or expect it to, we experience disappointment. Disappointment can lead to anger, discouragement, anxiety, or depression. Disappointment is not sin, but it can lead us into sin. Brothers and sisters, is life going as you expected or hoped? Are you experiencing disappointment? Failure, relational conflict or strife, physical illness, financial trouble, loneliness, business, grief over the loss of a loved one, stress on the job, not having the job you had hoped for, childlessness, prolonged singleness, divorce, your own sin, or the sin of others can all result in disappointment.
Brothers and sisters, where are you placing your hope? Some good questions to ask yourself to determine where you are placing your hope would be, "What am I usually desiring that I am not getting when I get angry?" and "To whom or what do I turn for comfort when I am stressed out or discouraged?" Hope is ultimately what we count on in life to bring us fulfillment or joy. Biblical hope is not merely wishfulness or desire, but a confident expectation. The Bible teaches that if we place our ultimate hope in anything other than our union with Christ, we will be badly disappointed. The problem with placing our hope in anything other than our union with Christ is that nothing else lasts. As the apostle John wrote, "the world is passing away and the desire of it" (1 John 2:15-17). Jesus said, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Jesus made it clear that our possessions and worldly treasures will not last. We may be tempted to place our hope in our marriage, our family, or in other relationships, but our relationships with our spouses, our parents, our children, and with other people will not last in this world because eventually death will bring an end to these relationships. Jesus also informs us that even if we are together with our loved ones in heaven, the nature of these relationships will not be the same after death. In Matthew 22:30, He said, "For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven." While we can look forward to seeing some of our loved ones again in heaven and being united with them in Christ, it will not be our relationship there with them that will bring us everlasting joy.
There are times that we wish that the good things in our lives would never change, but only Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). The opposite of Biblical hope is uncertainty, but our union with Jesus is certain because He does not change, and our union with Him is everlasting because Christ is everlasting.
In Genesis 21:33, He is the Everlasting God of Abraham. Although the wells that Abraham dug did not last because Abimelech's servants seized them, Jesus Christ is the living water, and all who drink from His fountain will never thirst again (John 4:10-13). In Proverbs 10:25, He is the Everlasting Foundation. If we build our houses or our hopes on anything but Him, we are building on sand (Matthew 7:24-27). In Isaiah 9:6, He is our Everlasting Father, who will never leave us nor forsake us, but will be with us always even until the end of eternity (Hebrews 13:5; Matthew 28:20).
The hope that protects us from the snare of disappointment is in our present union with Christ, in our progressive union with Him, and in our future union with Him. Biblical hope is a confident expectation that looks forward to things in the future, but there is a present element to that future hope in that we have the confident expectation that certain realities of our union with Christ will continue in the future.
There is a sense in which our union with Christ is already accomplished, but also a sense in which it is not yet fully accomplished. In our present union with Christ, we the bride await our wedding with Christ, our bridegroom and the celebration at the marriage supper of the lamb.
According to Ephesians 1:4-6, we have been united with Christ in our adoption, having been chosen in Christ and predestined by the Father to be adopted sons by Jesus Christ to himself. It is by Jesus Christ that the Father adopted us to Himself. We became sons of God the Father through our union with Christ. Since He is already the Son of God, when we were united with Him, we also became sons through our union with Him. To use an analogy, when a daughter is married, her husband becomes a son-in-law. In a similar way, when we united with Christ, whether we are a male or a female, we became sons-in-law because the one to whom we are united is the Son of God, and the Beloved of God the Father. We are accepted by God through our union with Christ. This is why we are considered heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.
We have been united with Christ through His blood, which was shed for our sins. Through His sacrificial death, we have redemption and forgiveness of sins. We are bought out of our slavery to sin, and we no longer have to suffer the penalty for our sins because He suffered the penalty for us on the cross (Ephesians 1:7; 1 Peter 3:18). The Lord's Supper is the remembrance and celebration of our union with Christ through His sacrifice of His body and His blood for our sins and that we have partaken of this sacrifice through faith. Jesus said, "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him" (John 6:56).
Not only are we free and forgiven. Since Christ became sin for us, taking the guilt of our sin on Himself on the cross, we have become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthains 5:20). We are united with Christ in that His righteousness has been imputed to us. We have been justified, or declared righteous or perfectly good before God, not because of our own righteousness, but because our sins were placed on Jesus on the cross and we have been clothed in His righteousness (Romans 3:21-26, 4:25, Job 29:14, Isaiah 61:10, Zechariah 3:4). Though our sins were like scarlet, they have become as white as snow. Though they were red like crimson, they have become as wool (Isaiah 1:18).
In Romans 6, the apostle Paul shows us that through our spiritual baptism, we are united with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. Through our union with Christ in His death, our old man was crucified so that we are no longer the slaves of sin. We are free to not sin. Through our union with Christ in His resurrection, we are free to walk in newness of life. We are free to be obedient servants of God or slaves of righteousness. In Christ, we are not our own. We belong to Him having been bought by Him with His blood. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
We are united to Christ in and through the Holy Spirit, which Christ sent to us. Through the Spirit, Christ indwells us, and we become His own body and the temple of God. Through His Spirit, Christ lives in us and carries out His work in and through us. The Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession (Ephesians 1:13-14; 1 Corinthians 6:15-20; Galatians 2:20).
There is not only a present element to our hope, which protects us from the snare of disappointment. There is also a progressive hope in that we are growing or progressing in our union with Christ. Our union with Christ becomes stronger and closer as we become conformed to His image. What a wonderful hope we have from Romans 8:28-29, that God is working all things together for good in our lives. He is using both the good and the bad for good in us. He uses both the joys and the disappointments. He uses both our good works and even our failings and sins. He uses the trials and temptations and the mistreatment of others for our good. And what is the good that He is working through the all things? He is conforming us to the image of His Son. He is making us more and more like Christ (Romans 8:28-29). One of his tools that God uses to chisel the character of Christ in us is suffering through trials and tribulations. God uses our trials to test our faith. This produces patience or perseverance, which leads to perfection of character or Christ-likeness, and this perfection of character leads to hope (James 1:2-4; Romans 5:3-5). Through our union with Christ, we have become partakers of the divine nature and we will partake in this nature more and more as we grow in Christ-likeness (2 Peter 1:4).
Finally, we are protected from the snare of disappointment by the hope of our future union with Christ. Colossians 3:1-3 says, "If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory." We can rejoice in our hope of appearing with Christ in glory--of being united fully and forever with Him in heaven. In John 14, Jesus said that He was going to prepare a place for His followers, and that in His Father's house are many mansions, but the best thing about heaven is not the place but the Person. Jesus said that since he was going to prepare a place for us, He would come again and receive us to Himself so that where He is there we may be also. In other words, the purpose of the place He is preparing for us is so that we can be with Him. Heaven can be defined as our future union with Jesus Christ or the place where our ultimate union with Him will occur. In the fairy tales, the princess usually ends up living in a castle, but it is not the castle that makes the ending happy. The princess lives happily ever after because she gets to be with the prince. As wonderful a place as heaven will be, it will be our union with Christ there that will make that place heaven. John wrote, "Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." Because we will be perfectly pure in heaven and because we will be like Christ, we will see Christ in all of His glory. Not only will we be free from the presence and even the temptation to sin. We will have new resurrected, imperishable bodies. And in this state of perfection and Christ-likeness, "we shall always be with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:17).
