Our Eternal Hope: What Will Become of Us?

BY Missy Fuller

Text: 1 Corinthians 15:12-34, 2 Corinthians 4:7-18

One of my favorite songs of all time is Nicole C. Mullins’ “My Redeemer Lives.” I’ll blast that tune from my car speakers, roll my windows down, and scream the lyrics at the top of my lungs. (Okay, I’ll probably have the windows up. I’m the only resident of the greater Nashville area that can’t sing, so yes, I hide behind my windows.) Banging my steering wheel out of conviction, I’m sure I look like I’m singing along to some pop ballad after a bad date. But nope—just praisin’ Jesus!

I sincerely love this song. It is a faithful reminder of the assurance we have in Christ: our Redeemer lives. Our faith isn’t based on some fleeting idea or passing trend, but on the conviction and confidence that our Savior conquered death and is alive today.

Our faith hinges on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If He has not risen from the dead, then He has not conquered death. If He hasn’t conquered death, then death still has power over our lives. Most importantly, if Christ hasn’t been raised, there is no resurrection for us—no hope after death and no eternity with Christ. “If we have put our hope in Christ for this life only, we should be pitied more than anyone” (1 Corinthians 15:19).

But the resurrection is real. Jesus did conquer death and rise from the grave. Our Redeemer lives!

Friends, this is the great treasure Paul spoke of in 2 Corinthians 4—the “extraordinary power” which can only be from God Himself and not from us (v. 7). We carry Christ’s death and resurrection in us—the power of His atonement and the glory of His resurrected life (v. 10). No matter what life brings, our hope is secure.

If I’m being honest, I don’t often treat the assurance of Christ’s resurrection like the treasure it truly is. Oh, I live like it’s valuable and worthy and excellent, but the greatest treasure? Sadly, not so much. Instead, I run around, spending my time like this life on earth is the only one I’ve got. I become easily distracted by what I think I need right now.

But this life and the things of this world are temporary. They will fade. Our troubles, our pains, our afflictions—they, too, will fade. But our living Redeemer will never die, and His resurrection power will never fade. As Paul goes on to say, “Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16).

In Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis wrote, “a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not … a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do.”

We’re meant to live like we know where we’ll spend eternity—because we do! We’re meant to live as though our inner life and resurrection through Jesus Christ is real, both now and for eternity, because it is! We live with confidence in this eternal hope because our Redeemer is indeed alive. He alone is our hope.

“So if you have been raised with the Messiah, seek what is above, where the Messiah is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on what is above, not on what is on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with the Messiah in God. When the Messiah, who is your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”
-Colossians 3:1-4