The Christian Hope

SOURCE:  Quoted in an email from Foundation for Reformed Theology, April 11, 2020
KEYWORDS:  Easter, Resurrection, Eternal Life, Heaven

Dr. John H. Leith (1919-2002)--preacher, teacher, pastor, theologian--has written the following about the Christian hope for eternal life:

"The Christian hope has been faithfully proclaimed throughout the New Testament and in every age since over against the fact of death. This Christian hope is summarized in three sentences from Paul's letter to the Philippians. Paul declares: 'Our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself' (Philippians 3:20-21). 'For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which I prefer. I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better' (Philippians 1:21-23). The third statement that gives expression to the Christian hope in this letter is Paul's conviction 'that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father' (Philippians 2:12-11). In these statements Paul makes clear his conviction that at death we immediately depart to be with Christ, and yet there is something more: the coming of the Savior will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body, and finally the time will come when every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. These convictions run throughout the New Testament, though they are never put together in any single, coherent form.

"The expression of the Christian hope today should begin with the recollection that eternal life has been an important part of the Christian witness from the very beginning. Eternal life, Walter Lowrie once wrote, is the core doctrine that brings all Christian doctrines into systematic coherence. '"This is the Christian faith, apart from which, without doubt, a man must perish everlastingly." These words which sound astonishing and offensive when used as an introduction of the so-called Athanasian Creed do not seem unreasonable when applied to belief in eternal life.' Christianity simply does not make sense apart from the Christian hope. . . . Austin Farrer has astutely commented that apart from the doctrine of eternal life, Christian faith does not make sense. . . .

"God, who chose us before the foundation of the world, destined us to be his children. The Nicene Creed declares: 'I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.' This is the Christian witness which the church has made in the New Testament and has continued to make in good times and bad up to the present day."

John H. Leith, Basic Christian Doctrine (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1993), pp. 294-295, 297.