Why is Christ central to our hope?

We have been considering hope, our confident expectation that the eternal purpose of God will be our blessed experience in the resurrection world of a new, reunited heavens and earth. Yet the Scriptures speak of this eternal purpose as already accomplished in Christ.

How could something in the future be already accomplished, and why is one man so central to the achievement of God's eternal purpose.

A future event can be spoken of as a certain reality if it is certain, and if the key event securing that event has already happened. The achievement of the eternal purpose of God required the creation of mankind and the entire universe, the fall of mankind in Adam, the provision of a substitute for the elect in the God-Man Jesus Christ, His obedient life as the keeper of the Law of God, His atoning death that secures our hope as the objects of God's mercy, the display of the coming resurrection in His own resurrection, the proclamation of His benefits throughout the world, the application of those benefits to His people by the work of the Holy Spirit, the return of the Lord in glory with His glorious kingdom.

The key event that secured our future is the cross of Christ. The success of that atonement was displayed as a certain fact in His resurrection, a resurrection not to more mortal life, but to immortality, and His ascension to the present heavens. Because our right to a place in the eternal blessing of God is entirely in Christ, and because He is in that place now, the eternal purpose of God has already been accomplished in Jesus Christ. Our union with Christ is so sure, that there is now nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Take away Christ from the eternal plan of God and that plan could not have been accomplished.

God's purpose called for a glorious kingdom of grace and holiness. We needed to be those who would be there not by our merit, but by His mercy. Yet He insisted that all the requirements of His holiness had to be fulfilled. This necessitated the cross.

Our hope has been accomplished in Christ. The fullness of our experience of that hope is certain.

But what difference does that make now? Is it just for our spiritual contentment, or are we supposed to live differently based on this certain hope?

Tomorrow...