Hope for Eternal Life
Well, there's been so much meat in this very first sentence of Paul's letter to Titus:
"Paul, a servant of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to further the faith of God's elect in their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness."
Then he goes on and says, "In the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised from the beginning of time."
Hope of Eternity
OK, focus on that phrase “the hope of eternal life” at the beginning of verse 2. We Christians have great hope of eternal life when we die. It's not a maybe; it's a deep, unshakable assurance that in Him, though we die, yet we will live on.
Now, I read an unusual book at the beginning of this year called Remember Death by Matthew McCullough. It's a beautiful book about how recognizing the reality of death helps us to live life better, and in the introduction of the book he talks about two prayers in Psalm 90:12, which says: "Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom." In other words, teach us to recognize that life is fragile and that we might die at any moment.
But then just two verses later, Psalm 90:14, the psalmist writes: "Satisfy us in the morning with Your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days."
And so the author writes: "I believe those two prayers go hand in hand. Teach me to live with the reality of my death so that I can live in the gladness of Your love."
Power Over Death
A few pages later, he writes this: "If we want to see the beauty of Jesus, we must first look carefully and honestly at death. Jesus didn’t promise us so many of the things we want most out of life. He promised us victory over death. So we must learn to see the shadow of death behind the problems of life before we can recognize the powerful relevance of Jesus to every obstacle we face."
And the book went on to talk about how living with the reality of death helps us to live life to the full—helps us to take great joy in what's going on around us and not be bogged down by the temporary nature of our difficulties.
And so when I read this in Titus—how we have the hope of eternal life, which God promised—it made me think back to the book. Death may be close to us at all times, but we have hope of life eternal.
Living With Hope
And so, friends: Live well today, would you? Live in the hope of eternal life. Live this life to the full, knowing that it's not all there is.
Finding joy where you can, but also knowing that it's not all there is. Resurrection is not some abstract idea, friends, because Jesus Himself conquered death, was seen by many people after He rose, and promised the same thing to His disciples.
And so live with that hope. Live with that hope for eternal life. May that hope inspire you to live a God-filled life while you're here. And so I hope this little introduction of Paul's to his letter to Titus has been inspiring to you, as it has to me.
Have a blessed weekend, friends. As always, thank you for listening and sharing these messages all over the place.
God bless and take care.
