Jesus is Our Hope

Man cannot live without hope. We cannot live without hope. Hal Lindsay, author of the Late Great Planet Earth once said, “Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air…but only one second without hope.” Loosing hope can be dangerous because hope is always what we are searching for. We hope to find love, we hope to find peace, we hope to find happiness and stability in our lives, and so on. Without hope we can become lost and confused. Without hope can become depressed and despairing. When we lose hope, we can be overcome with sadness, grief and anxiety. In fact, troubles, disappointments, losses and uncertainties of this life can cause anyone to lose hope. Broken relationships can destroy our hope. Our failures can wreak havoc on hope. We cannot live without hope. That’s why it’s so important to keep our eyes on Jesus, for Jesus is our hope.

In fact, as we return to the letter of Hebrews today, we’re going to look at three ways Jesus is our hope. So, if you brought your Bible with you today, I’d like to encourage you to find Hebrews 9:15-28, where we’re going to see why holding onto the hope, we have in Jesus is essential for living by faith today. So, if you’ve found Hebrews 9, let’s begin by seeing how Jesus is our hope for the future. Look at verses 15-17 with me:

Jesus is our hope for the future: For this reason, Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that He has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. Hebrews 9:15-17 If you have faith in Jesus as your Savior, then God has called you to one day receive His promised eternal inheritance reserved for you in the New Covenant. This is our hope of a certain future with God. Now to make sure we understand this promise of our eternal inheritance is a sure thing, the writer of Hebrews introduces this concept of a will. His point is that the new covenant may be viewed as a last will and testament, particularly in that its benefits are disbursed only in the event of the death of the one who made the will, saying “a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living.” Hebrews 9:17

We all know how a will works. Someone lives out their years and accumulates a certain amount of wealth. Some of it is in money, some may be in stocks or bonds, or other portions may be in property or possessions. The purpose of the will then, is to arrange for the distribution of this wealth after death. This is one of the reasons Jesus had to die for us. For by his dying, Jesus made it possible for us to receive all the riches, all the wealth of His inheritance that is now promised to us. As God’s Word says, The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory. Romans 8:16-17
Because Jesus died for you and rose again and is seated at the Father’s right hand today – the moment you put your trust in Him, your promised eternal inheritance was secured. Because at that moment you became God’s child, and you became His heir – a coheir with Christ, since you were adopted into God’s family through Christ. This is another example of God’s amazing grace to us in Jesus. We deserved nothing, but now that we believe, God gives us everything in Christ. This is the promise of His eternal inheritance for those He has called to trust in Jesus.

Now, you may be wondering what’s included in your eternal inheritance. Well, there’s a lot. Here’s just a few things: According to Ephesians 1:4-14, your inheritance in Christ includes being chosen in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In other words, God is going to completely transform you into the image of Christ. As John wrote: “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!… Beloved, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” (1 John 3:1-2) Right now, God is in the process of transforming you from the inside out, so that on the day Christ appears, you will be transformed to be like Him. Jesus is our hope. He’s not done with you. He’ll never stop changing you. What a hope!

Your inheritance in Christ includes your redemption. Right now, you have been redeemed. God has given you a new life in Christ. You have a new heart, a new purpose and a new nature, Christ’s nature living in you. But you still struggle with sin. You are not yet holy as He is holy. But on the day of redemption, that will all change. On that day, you will be completely free of sin, guilt, shame, and the power of sin. Right now, we still struggle with all these things, but when we receive our eternal inheritance, we will be completely righteous and full of the peace and joy of Christ.

Your inheritance in Christ includes having every access and privilege the Son enjoys today with the Father. You will enjoy the love and acceptance of God as your Father completely. You will know what it is to be the apple of His eye, His beloved. This is one of the greatest blessings of our inheritance. And this is not just a future inheritance but a present reality. Our God is not an over-busy Father who sends down gifts but does not share Himself. No, His greatest gift is Himself. So, if you’ve trusted in Jesus, your sins will be forgiven, you will escape the penalty for your sins, and you will enter heaven with all the blessings in Christ, but all that is really so little compared to this: you will gain God himself.

This is why Jesus is our hope for the future. God’s promise of our eternal inheritance is what can keep you secure in this insecure world. When you hold onto this hope, you can endure suffering, trials, grieving, and more. This is the hope we need when life is hard, and people fail you. But God will never fail you. He will bring you home one day to be with Him forever. Jesus is our hope for the future. Secondly,

Jesus is our hope of forgiveness: This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. When Moses had proclaimed every command of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.” Hebrews 9:18-20

In the same way, He sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle, and everything used in its ceremonies. In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Hebrews 9:21-22 Jesus is the hope of our forgiveness. The blood of the old covenant sacrifices could not secure our redemption eternally. Those sacrifices were temporary and needed to be repeated, over and over and over again. However, when Jesus shed His blood and died for you, He secured your redemption forever. His death made it possible for your every sin to be removed, so God could give you forgiveness. Furthermore, the old covenant could not repair man’s severed relationship with God, for the old covenant anticipated and depended on the new covenant. The animal sacrifices offered for sin and purification under the old covenant foreshadowed the fully sufficient sacrifice of Christ in the new covenant. As we saw last week, Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant, for He offered up a better sacrifice.

Here, now the writer is spelling out the purpose of animal sacrifices under the Old Covenant. Those animals were sacrificed for all the people so they might be temporarily cleansed from their sins. This is what God’s Word required. Blood must be shed for sin, for without the shedding of blood these is no forgiveness. Here’s how God spelled it out for the Jews under the Old Covenant: For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. (Leviticus 17:11, ESV) Since the penalty for sin is death, the only way to be forgiven of sin was by the shedding of blood. You cannot enter into God’s presence by self-effort to be righteous. If we could truly live a perfectly righteous life, we would not need Christ’s shed blood. We could enter God’s presence on our own. However, God’s Word is clear on this: No one is righteous, not one of us.

The only way we can enter God’s presence, the only way we can participate in the New Covenant, is through the atoning death of Jesus Christ. His shed blood is the only means that God has required to remove our sin and satisfy His judgement. So, the only way you or anyone else can receive God’s forgiveness, is by the shedding of Jesus’ blood, and that only becomes effective for you when you trust in Jesus as our Savior. God set the rules. The soul who sins will die. And the soul who is saved can only be saved through the shed blood of Jesus. That’s God’s plan. He fulfilled this plan by giving His Son to lay down His sinless life for you on the cross – so you could be forgiven.

So then, forgiveness is a costly thing. God does not forgive sin by looking down and saying, “It’s all right. Since I love you so much, I’ll overlook your sin.” No! God’s righteousness and holiness will not allow Him to overlook sin. Sin demands payment by death. And the only death great enough to pay for our sins is the death of His Son. God’s great love for us will not lead Him to overlook our sin, but it has led Him to provide the payment for our sin. And Jesus’ blood paid the price for your forgiveness. For without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

This is the hope that is found in Jesus. Nothing else can wash away your sin. Nothing else can remove God’s wrath. The moment God poured out His wrath on Jesus, the punishment for your sin was removed once and for all. Jesus took the punishment your sins deserve. This is why, when you trust in Jesus, you can be forgiven. For forgiveness means the debt of your sin has been paid in full. God no longer holds your sin against you. He’s forgiven you completely. Jesus’ blood has made you holy and blameless in His eyes. Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

This is the hope we need. The is the hope YOU need. You no longer have to fear God. You no longer have to live with quilt. The blood of Jesus sets you free. There is nothing so bad that you have done that God cannot now forgive. So, don’t carry your guilt. Don’t listen to the voice of the accuser. Rest in the forgiveness God has given you because Jesus shed His blood for you. Jesus is the hope of forgiveness. You want to be free of guilt, sin and shame. Put your hope in Jesus! Hold onto the forgiveness He made possible for you, by the shedding of His blood for you. That’s the second way Jesus gives us hope. Now, the final way we see in this passage:

Jesus is our hope of salvation: It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; He entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. Nor did He enter heaven to offer Himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Hebrews 9:23-25

Otherwise, Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But He has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. Hebrews 9:26-28 There are two truths for us to consider here: First, Jesus entered the Holy of Holies for us, as the perfect offering for our sin. Jesus did not go into an earthly Holy of Holies; He went into the very presence of God- the real Holy of Holies. And He did it for us. He went in, He took us with Him. He ushered us into the very presence of God. Along with that, He did this only once. Jesus didn’t have to have to offer Himself over and over again, as did the earthy high priests. No, because Jesus’ sacrifice was sufficient to turn away God’s wrath for us, He had to make an offering only once.
In other words, if Jesus’ sacrifice had NOT been once for all, He would have had to suffer from the foundation of the world, that is, from the beginning of humankind. He would have had to die continuously, as it were, since the time Adam first sinned. So then, like the work of the Levitical priesthood, His atoning work would never be finished. But praise God, His sacrifice DOES NOT NEED TO BE REPEATED, NOT EVEN ONCE. It is finished, completely finished. Jesus entered the holy of holies for us as the perfect offering for our sin. And God accepted His offering for us. That’s the good news of Jesus’ sacrifice. He is the hope of our salvation.

Here’s the second truth: When Jesus shed His blood on the cross, this one event in history was the consummation of the ages. On that day the serpent was crushed, sin was defeated. On that day death died. On that day, the curtain in the temple was torn in two. On that day the old covenant became obsolete. For on that day Jesus made it possible for you to be forgiven. For it was on that day Jesus shed His blood, to secure your salvation once and for all and bring you to God!

Jesus did everything right. He fulfilled the Father’s will. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2 Jesus did everything needed to provide for your salvation. God is satisfied with His work. It is finished. And because the Father is satisfied with Jesus, if you’ve trusted in Him, He is satisfied with you, for you are in Christ.

So that now, if you have trusted in Jesus, you never have to worry about losing your salvation. You already have it, because Jesus did all that was necessary to secure your salvation. Therefore, when Jesus returns a second time, he doesn’t need to come to save us again. He already did that. But on that day, when Jesus returns, our salvation will be complete. This is our hope: the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a people that are His very own. Titus 2:13-14.

And God wants you to live with this hope today. He wants you to hold onto the hope of your salvation every day. This is the hope that’s meant to anchor your soul to the hope of heaven in this troubled world. Jesus has secured your salvation. He has brought us into the holy of holies, into the very presence of God once and for all by the sacrifice of Himself. He has done it. He has crushed Satan, defeated death, removed our sin, turned aside God’s wrath, given us forgiveness, new life and a relationship with the Father forever. Jesus is the hope of your salvation. Jesus has saved you completely. Now, you don’t have to do anything to save yourself except trust in Jesus. That’s the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Jesus is our hope.

So, what are we to do with this hope? Well, if you’ve never put your trust in Jesus, then today is the day. Don’t put it off, as Paul said to the Corinthians: now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 6:2 Put your hope in Jesus, trust in Him, and you will be saved. You’ll be forgiven of all your sins and be made a coheir with Christ. And you will be adopted into God’s family as His very own child. Do you have this hope? If not, then trust in Jesus.

Secondly, if you have this hope, hold onto your hope. Remember, this life is temporary. This life and all history will come to an end. One day Jesus will return. And when He does, your salvation will be complete. So, hold on to the hope you have in Jesus. He is the anchor for our soul that will help you endure life in this broken and hostile world. Jesus is our hope.