**This response is an example of answering a question thoroughly and directly yet concisely. It clearly defines terms and has a friendly tone.
Question: “When does hope provide comfort?”
Answered by: Tim White, who has been a volunteer with us since May, 2011.
Answer: Dear friend, thanks for your question. I will be glad to provide you with some things to think about concerning hope and comfort, but this is one of those topics that we, in this life, can only scratch the surface.
First, please understand that “hope” in the Bible is far more substantial than we use the word today. We can hope to win the lottery, or hope our nation does not go to war, but those are different words than what was intended in the Holy Bible.
The Greek word for hope (ἐλπίς, or elpis) ties far more closely to “expect” than it does “wish”. It’s a companion word for “faith”. It means to “anticipate with a certain expectancy in such a way that we actually adjust our lives for that anticipation.” It is part of the peace God brings in the most discouraging times.
With that definition in mind, we can receive comfort from hope in the past. All of us have made mistakes that could weigh on our consciences for years. However, we have assured hope that Christ paid for those sins and satisfied God’s judgment against them (1 John 1:9).
We can receive comfort from hope for today. Where ever we go and whatever challenges we face, we can hope in God’s promise to be with us and guild us with His rod and staff (Psalm 23:1-4).
We can receive hope for the future. Paul wrote, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us (Romans 8:18).”
It seems that hope and faith are so closely related, we often get them confused. Our faith takes seriously Jesus’ promises to prepare us a place to live with Him forever. Hope is the confidence that guides our steps because of that belief. Faith grabs the promises of God. Hope is our response to that, and peace is the results of it. So it gives us peace in the past, presence and the future.
**This response is an example of assuming the genuineness of the questioner, defining terms clearly, and developing the response with an organized flow that builds appropriate foundational knowledge. It answers the question and shares the gospel, all with a friendly tone.
Question: “If we are made in the image if God…what part of all the evil we do is in His image?”
Answered by: Don Strand, who has been a volunteer with us since December, 2009.
Answer: That’s a good question. The short answer is ‘none.` But the longer answer gives us hope, an understanding of God and a better understanding of ourselves. Let’s start with God.
We know from scripture that God is eternal, all powerful, all knowing, loving, just, holy and gracious to name the most prominent of his characteristics. The characteristics of eternality, omnipotence (all powerful) omniscience (all-knowing) and the other infinite characteristics he possesses are called incommunicable attributes. That means he doesn’t share or impart them to his creatures in the physical world.
The attributes he does communicate or give to us are those non-infinite attributes including love, compassion, mercy, patience, a sense of justice or right and wrong, and a desire to be holy. What makes us different from any other creature in the physical realm is mankind exclusively has these God-given characteristics.
Let’s move now to us. Adam and Eve, the first humans were created sinless (Genesis 1:31). Adam and Eve were unique in that they were able to sin and able not to sin. Created sinless yet with the God communicated attributes of reason, choice, speech, and the ability to understand abstract concepts, Adam and his wife were able to understand God’s command for obedience, weigh choices presented to them, and reason out decisions and consequences.
When Satan approached them, he presented a compelling argument, something along the lines of “God doesn’t have your best interest in mind because he is withholding something from you. So if you want to make your life better, take and eat from the tree he has forbidden. You won’t surely die.” (Genesis 3:1-6 paraphrased).
When they disobeyed God, they did surely die, just as God had said. Not physically, but in a spiritual sense. No longer alive to God, they were now dead in their trespass and came under the curse detailed in Genesis 3:14-19. Satan was cursed above all other creatures. Eve was cursed in childbearing and cursed to desire her husband’s authority, and Adam and the entire creation he was to steward were cursed with death, disease, and all manner of hardship to survive in the environment of a now harsh earth.
The tragic event is the Fall of Man, an event that changed everything. No longer able to sin or not sin, with Adam’s fall, sin came to all his offspring. It is rightly said that we aren’t sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners. We are no longer able not to sin. Sin is now part of our (fallen) nature. No part of our sinful inclinations is the image of God.
Yet the ‘image of God’, although tarnished, still exists in every human being. The good things we do demonstrate the remnants of that image and the evil we do comes out of our fallen nature. James says it well when he writes: “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” (James 1:13–15, ESV).
But there is hope. While God did bring a curse on Adam for his sin, and Adam did die spiritually at that moment, God could have, but did not, destroy Adam and Eve immediately. Instead, he provided a sacrifice to cover their sin (Genesis 3:21). Although Adam and Eve did eventually die physically, they and the line of the redeemed that began with their son Seth would not die spiritually because of the graciousness of God to give them faith (Genesis 4:25-26; cf. Genesis 15:6; Romans 3:23-26).
And so things remained for thousands of years. Then in the fullness of time… well, let’s let Paul speak on the announcement of hope.
“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” (Galatians 4:4–7, ESV).
God the Son took on flesh, came to earth and fulfilled the obedience demanded of Adam who failed (Romans 5:18). And with his obedience, Jesus was qualified to be the final sacrifice to which all the sacrifices from Adam until Good Friday pointed. And in his final act of obedience, Jesus faced the cross with joy (Hebrews 12:2) because he knew his blood would be shed for the forgiveness of sins for all who, by faith, believe. The wrath of God for sin was poured out of Jesus so that everyone who claims Jesus as redeemer will not face God’s wrath.
This is the hope we have as believers as we live now with the ability to say no to sin yet still fall prey to temptation and sin. We have a new nature, but also the old nature as well. But we have hope in the gracious promise of God to forgive our sin because of Christ. Being born again, we have a new nature that can display the image of God when the Spirit of God helps us to live in a manner that pleases God. But the hope that is most sure is that one day Jesus will return, and the curse of sin and death will, at last, be conquered, and all those who are God’s by adoption through faith in Christ will once again display perfectly the communicable attributes God gave to Adam. We will then truly be able not to sin, and since sin and death are gone, we will not be able to sin. What a great day that will be.
I hope this helps you to understand God’s nature, how we bear his image now and how we will one day display his image perfectly in his eternal kingdom together.
