My Hope Is Built On . . . ?????
In most song books (hymnals) there are songs of hope. After all, religion is about hope. In the words of one of these songs, sometimes also called: “On Christ the Solid Rock”, we have a reminder on where our hope is to rest. We must be on the foundation of Christ. The chorus reads: “On Christ, the solid rock, I stand; all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand.”
There are many references to hope in the New Testament Word of God. As we live out our lives here on earth, we have various reasons to hope for and expect certain things. Many a young person “hopes” for their sixteenth birthday, as they can then acquire a driver’s license. For many a teen, this equates to a certain amount of freedom. Therefore, the expectation is some freedom and the means to have the freedom is the license. Of course, to obtain a driver’s license, and being granted the privilege to operate a motor vehicle is dependent upon passing the required, written and driving tests in accordance to the laws of the land.
From this simple example, we all should realize that a person’s desire and expectation to go to heaven following their sojourn here on earth has certain requirements. If not, why did Christ come to earth and die? When one has hope, it must be based on the reality of the law which governs it.
The Law of God in the present and “last” dispensation of time is the New Testament. In Hebrews 1:1-2 we are told how and when God has spoken to mankind through the years, and how He does now. God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Why folks claim to have the “hope of heaven” and refuse to follow the Word of God, sent to man through the Spirit as Jesus promised is beyond me.
Most “religionists” in Christendom affirm that the blood of Christ is most important, yet they refuse to contact that blood as God’s Law (His Word) says to do. Even the song which was referenced above points out the blood and the need to have one’s hope built on it. The first verse reads: “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.” Notice that the song points out not only the blood, but “righteousness” and “Jesus name”.
Perhaps we need to examine the meanings of this word and phrase. The term righteousness according to Webster is: acting in accord with divine or moral law. Jesus lived according to God’s Law under that dispensation of time. Are not we, to be “righteous”, expected to live under God’s Law, the New Testament, in this present and final dispensation? The term “in Jesus name” is also important and equally misunderstood. It means “by His authority”. In Matthew 28:18-20 we have the Great Commission. In this passage Jesus told the eleven He had all authority. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power (authority) is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. If our hope is not “built on” the N.T. Word of God and by the authority of Christ, do we really have hope?
Before their conversion, the Ephesians Christians had no hope and were without God. Ephesians 2:12-13 tells us this, and also affirms that Christ’s blood must be contacted to have that hope. That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: 13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. But how did they contact that precious blood of Christ? This is key. Baptism is where one contacts His blood and are placed “in Christ”. Romans 6:1-5 tells us of “that form of doctrine”; the “death, burial, and resurrection of Christ”, and how we can partake of it to contact Christ’s blood that gives one hope. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
If you want to have hope, you must be “on Christ, that solid Rock”. You must have Christ as the foundation of your hope. You must follow the Word of God as was handed down by the Spirit to the apostles, and others to the saving of your soul. Be baptized into Christ and become part God’s plan like those of Ephesians 2:20. And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
Dennis Strickland – Mooresville church of Christ
