Reflections
My Hope is Built
Posted on July 20, 2021 | Posted by Pastor Daniel
My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
It’s kind of a strange thing, when you think about it. The heart of our faith is that we don’t do anything. We can’t. And even if we could, we’d probably mess it up. The heart of our faith is that we don’t do anything.
But God does. God loves us. Loves us to the point of death. Loves us beyond death.
This truth is explored over and over in Paul’s letters, especially Galatians. And it’s also explored in the wonderful hymn “My Hope is Built on Nothing Less.” You may have noticed that we’ve been singing that hymn a lot as we read Galatians this summer in worship. And that’s on purpose.
I love that first line of the hymn. My hope is built. Often hope feels like an emotion – I’m feeling hopeful. Or maybe it’s more of an aspiration for something unlikely – wishful thinking. It can be a substitute for certainty or even effort – “Will this work? I hope so!”
But in the Christian faith, hope is bigger than all of that. Hope is the empty tomb on Easter. Hope is the thing that gets us up in the morning. Hope is the belief that there is a future, a future beyond the evils and sadness we experience in our present. Hope is the conviction that God’s not done with us yet, and never will be. Hope keeps us alive and keeps us living. And a hope like that can’t just be an emotion or a wish. It needs solid footing. It needs to be built up on something. Like a home upon a foundation.
And our hope is built, is constructed, stands on Jesus. God’s love in Christ is not just the thing that brings us to heaven. God’s love in Christ is the thing that gives us life, that gives us hope.
On Christ the solid rock I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
