Hope in the Face of Ambiguity

We live in a world of uni­ma­gi­na­ble pain and suf­fe­ring.  Injus­tice is ram­pant across the con­ti­nents and, sta­tis­ti­cally spea­king, a great many of us have been used or abu­sed per­so­nally.  Yet, all of that is “not worth com­pa­ring” to what God has in store for us.  John Eldredge, in his book, Desire, calls out these sta­te­ments found in Scrip­ture.  Such sta­te­ments bring hope in the midst of futility.

In Romans 8, Paul says something outra­geous. He says that all our suf­fe­rings are “not worth com­pa­ring” with the glory that will be revea­led in us. The human race has seen an uns­pea­ka­ble amount of suf­fe­ring. What can pos­sibly make that seem like nothing? “The glory that will be revea­led in us” (8:18). The Great Res­to­ra­tion. Paul then goes on to say, “The crea­tion waits in eager expec­ta­tion for the sons of God to be revea­led” (v. 19). The release of a fully res­to­red crea­tion is being more or less held back, wai­ting upon our res­to­ra­tion. Only when we have been res­to­red can we take our place again as the kings and queens of crea­tion. Or did you not know? The day is coming when Christ will appoint you as one of his regents over his great and beau­ti­ful uni­verse. This has been his plan all along.

Does such sta­te­ment seem too good to be true?  Well, it is, in a sense.  When we com­pare God’s infi­nite grace against our immi­nent unworthi­ness we humans can­not get our heads around such a notion.  We are not worthy, by human stan­dards.  Nothing is free, or so we have been told.  But Scrip­tu­res makes clear, “while we were yet sin­ners, Christ died for us.”  He did not wait until we “arri­ved”, until we attai­ned.  He took the first step.  It gets better:

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in hea­venly glory. All the nations will be gathe­red before him, and he will sepa­rate the peo­ple one from another as a shepherd sepa­ra­tes the sheep from the goats. Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are bles­sed by my Father; take your inhe­ri­tance, the king­dom pre­pa­red for you since the crea­tion of the world.” (Matt. 25:31–34, empha­sis added)

Who then is the faith­ful and wise ser­vant, whom the mas­ter has put in charge of the ser­vants in his hou­sehold to give them their food at the pro­per time? It will be good for that ser­vant whose mas­ter finds him doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his pos­ses­sions. (Matt. 24:45–47, empha­sis added)

And they will reign for ever and ever. (Rev. 22:5, empha­sis added)

God has been at this a long time.  We con­found our­sel­ves as humans are bound to time and space.  We live within a limi­ted lifes­pan and have no chance to unders­tand what He truly is up to.  That ambi­guity is not a bad thing.  Read God’s encoun­ter with Job in chap­ters 38–39 to grasp how una­ble we are to com­prehend His mind and will.

(Desire , 156–57)