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“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13

I heard a pastor mention how Christians believe in three creations—which I thought was a pretty cool concept. Simply put, we believe that (1) in the beginning, God created everything. (Gen 1:1). We believe that (2) when we surrendered our life to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, we became a new creation (2 Cor 5:15). And we believe that (3) ultimately God will recreate the heavens and earth to be our eternal home—and we will be given newly created bodies to live there, bodies that, like that earth, will not decay (Rev 21:1-5; 2 Cor 5:1-3).

But what struck me after I was ruminating on this comment is that our hope as Believers is also founded upon these three aspects of creation. Let me explain.

Regarding God’s creation of the heavens and the earth, we—as believers in a Creator God—hope in His omnipotence. He made it all and He is in control of it all, no matter how out of control the world seems to be. I hope in Him, because He is all-powerful, all-knowing, good, patient, and gracious. He knitted together each of us in our mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13), miraculously creating unique, ordered strands of DNA that makes each of us, well, us. Universally and cellularly, He is the Creator of it all (Col 1:16).

Next, as partakers in the soul-level regeneration of salvation, we have experienced the creation of newness within—the miracle of transformation from unrighteous to blameless, stained to white, dead to alive (2 Cor 5:15; Isaiah 1:18; Eph 2:1-5). Yes, brothers and sisters, we have been made new, forever changing our future. We have hope in our eternal destination: in the heavenly presence of Jesus, the One who transformed us. Our circumstances here may be challenging—but they are temporary. Pain may wrack our body (I know mine has been quite wracked lately), but we can anticipate a new, perfected body that will never deteriorate, hurt, or grow weary (Rev 21:4).

And the third creation: the new earth—heaven on earth, really. This is where our hope as believers gets really exciting. When we study Revelation, we learn that after the Millennial reign of Jesus (which will itself be 1000 years of awesomeness for Christians), God will melt away everything as we knew it to create our forever home. This is where we will eternally worship, learn, make friends, eat amazing food, and—most importantly—see clearly our Lord and Savior, daily coming to greater and greater understanding of who He is (1 Cor 13:12).

 
As amazing as all this hope is to us, it also dawned on me the contrasting hopelessness of those who have rejected creation…at any or every level described here.

Check back with us tomorrow for Part 2 of the story.

“Thank you, Lord, for the hope we have in You…let us put our confidence there!”

For His Glory

Julianne Winkler Smith
TRBC Women’s Life