Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “Living the Advent Hope”. What is that “hope”? One of the accusations against Christians and Christianity is that we are so “heaven-minded we are no earthly-good”. Meaning, the goal we have, the motivation we have, the hope we have is “hope of future reward”. We look ahead to a day distant, and miss what is at our feet today. Sadly, this accusations might often be true. For us “Seventh-day Adventists” (those looking for the “advent” of our Lord), our very name may be interpreted that way. That we are a church concerned with tomorrow. A bright tomorrow of union with our Lord, to be sure. But a church who misses today, for the “Advent Hope” of tomorrow. Is our “advent hope”, hope of future reward?
EGW says a lot about a motive of “hope of reward”. And it’s not good.
• “To engage in His service merely from hope of reward or fear of punishment would avail nothing. Open apostasy would not be more offensive to God than hypocrisy and mere formal worship” (Patriarchs and Prophets pg. 523). “Hope of reward” is likened to hypocrisy in this quote. Yikes!
• She writes that we need to “learn to hate sin and to shun it, not merely from hope of reward or fear of punishment, but from a sense of its inherent baseness, because it would be a degrading of their God-given powers, a stain upon their Godlike manhood” Patriarchs and Prophets pg. 601). “Hope of reward” is here described as contrary to our God-given powers.
• “Love to God is the very foundation of pure and undefiled religion. To engage in his service as an unpleasant task, merely from hope of reward or fear of punishment, would bring no sweet peace, no assurance of God's favor” (Signs of the Times, May 19, 1881). Motivation from “hope of reward” gives no peace to your soul.
• Speaking of the Pharisees, “like the elder son in the parable, they had enjoyed special privileges from God. They claimed to be sons in God's house, but they had the spirit of the hireling. They were working, not from love, but from hope of reward” (Christ’s Object Lessons pg. 209). “Hope of reward” shows us to be Pharisees and hirelings. It is an inferior motivator that leads away from God… away from love.
So what must our “advent hope” be if not for a future of bliss? Let’s look.
The term “advent hope” refers to our LORD. The one we love. As the angels told those watching, “this same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). It is “this same Jesus” that we love and long for. “This same Jesus” that is given to each of us as we come into this world in the person of His Holy Spirit…“the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world” (John 1:9). “This same Jesus”, speaking of the work of that Holy Spirit says “He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you” John 16:14). It is “this same Jesus” we have learned to love and who has been with us always that we hope to be with in the future.
But if we have not been spiritually with Jesus here and now, if we have not loved the things He loves in our own lives here and now, and hated the things He has hated in our own lives here and now; if we have not embraced that love here and now when he has ever been with us through His Holy Spirit, then there is nothing for us to hope for when He physically comes the second time. The “advent hope” is nothing more than hoping for the one who has loved us, and who has created that same love in us... the One who has been a welcomed confidant and Lord in every aspect of our lives here and now. Creating the same love for others that would sacrifice our own “hope of reward” for the restoration of another. This advent “hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5). If we do not “love not (our) lives to the death” (Revelation 12:11), if we do not pour-out our own lives for the good of others, if we do not give-up our own eternal security for our worst enemy here and now, then we have not wanted Jesus in our own lives here and now; and there is no ground for hoping to see “this same Jesus” then. For those who love not God and His self-sacrificing ways here and now, of what use is the future day of the Lord? “Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! For what good is the day of the Lord to you? It will be darkness, and not light” (Amos 5:18).
The true “advent hope” is not hope of reward. That is a spurious interpretation that appeals to us sinners who want to live for self. The true “advent hope” is the hope for more of Jesus and His self-less ways NOW. Because we see in it the true nature of God, of all-of heaven, and of ourselves, too. And with this fullness of God in our hearts and minds here and now, we will be content to leave any future eternal security in God’s hands. Just as Jesus left His eternal security in the hands of the Father, too. Jesus followed the Father to the cross, content to do His will now. May our “advent hope” lead us to follow God now all the way to our own crucifixion today and every day. All the way to the cross where we will die to self with Him there… and then selflessly live for others. Loving them more than our own selves. This is the “advent hope”. That Jesus will be seen today in my life here and now. The coming of Jesus must be realized in our own heart here and now, else His physical coming at the end will have no meaning for us then.
With brotherly love,
Jim