Taking a brief look at the world around us, things seem to be getting worse instead of better, don’t they? It doesn’t take us long “in the real world” to learn that hope is often nothing more than a recipe for disappointment, and cynicism and pessimism seem to the the only reasonable responses to promises made. Politicians make promises… and then break them. Advertisers make promises… and then break them. Preachers, bosses – even husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, relatives and best friends all make promises – and break them. When someone promises us something, our first response is to say, “well, I hope it happens – but I’m not going to hold my breath.” Someone promises us something, and we think something like, “yeah, you promise, huh. That and a buck will get you a cup of coffee.” Sure, we hope the promiser delievers – but for us, “hope” means “wishful thinking.” It certainly doesn’t mean “confident expectation,” does it?
How much do you suppose this affects how we view God’s promises? Do you believe He’ll really deliver?
In this final section of Ephesians 1:3-14, Paul says some things that directly confront our cynicism.
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
— Ephesians 1:11-14
Because God chose you and predestined you to adoption as His children (v.4-5), you have an inheritance in Christ. Even more, the reason He did this was to make us “to the praise of His glory.” He has taken us – who were formerly spiritual failures, more like the “black sheep” of the family than honorable sons – and is making us into sons and daughters that make Him proud, who make Him look good.
Do you believe that you make God the Father proud? I wonder how “real” that idea is to us. This is what God predestined us to: He is making us into who we long to be, but know we’ll never be able to pull it off. Paul’s response is this: If we “hope in Christ,” He’ll make us “to the praise of His glory.”
And so here we are, our cynicism confronted. How do you “hope” here? Is it more, “I hope I win the lottery someday?” Or is it a confident expectation that re-orders how you see reality? Do you believe that you are His beloved child, that He is raising you as His own so that others will look at your life and praise Him?
But here – as He so often does – God accommodates our cynicism, our doubts. Paul explains: “when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in Him, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it…” Paul tells us that when someone first begins to truly hope in Christ and puts their faith in Him, God gives that person the Spirit as a deposit, a down payment – proof that He will deliver on His promise to make us “to the praise of His glory.”
If you are saved, you have this deposit. Your hope is based on a divine guarantee – a guarantee that itself provides supernatural power to make you into the kind of son or daughter that truly is “to the praise of His glory.”
So here’s the big question: what would it look like if you lived like you really believed this?
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