Hoping for God’s Salvation and the Difference It Makes

Scripture — Psalm 119:166

I hope for your salvation, O LORD,
     and I fulfill your commandments.

Devotion

Advent hope includes the hope of salvation. To be sure, there is a sense in which those who have accepted God’s grace through Christ have already experienced salvation (see Ephesians 2:8, for example). Yet we recognize that there is more of salvation yet to come. We long for the time when we will enjoy complete personal transformation that accompanies the new creation. In Advent we get in touch with our hope for the fullness of salvation that we do not experience in this life.

Yet salvation, though deeply personal, is more than just individual. Yes, we can echo the words of Psalm 62:1, “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.” Yet God’s future salvation will touch, not just individual souls, but also the whole creation. In Romans 8, for example, we learn that “creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God” (Romans 8:19). When God’s kingdom comes in all fullness, “the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). Thus, for our personal salvation and the salvation of the whole creation, we hope and wait. As it says in Romans, “But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (Romans 8:25).

Sometimes it’s hard for us to imagine what will happen when God restores all things through Christ. That can feel like pretty lofty theology. Indeed, it is. But a passage from the Book of Revelation can help us feel this theological vision in our gut. In Revelation 21, we see an inspired vision of “a new heaven and a new earth” (21:1). As the new Jerusalem descends from heaven, a loud voice proclaims, “’See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.’ And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new’” (Revelation 21:3-5).

So much in this vision touches our hearts. One day, God will dwell among us and we will be his people. Along with others, we will experience new intimacy with God. In that new relationship God will wipe away every tear from the eyes of all people who grieve, including us. Even more wonderfully, God will abolish all causes of grief, death most all. If you know people who are suffering, people who are mourning, people who are grieving – perhaps even yourself – then you can yearn for the time when God will wipe away every tear and abolish every reason to weep.

But when God dwells on the earth one day, God will not only care for people. Rather, God will be “making all things new” (Revelation 21:5). God’s salvation includes the renewal of all things, not just human beings, not just individual souls, but all things. This mirrors the vision of the future in Ephesians, which I quoted in yesterday’s devotion. In this vision God will unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth (Ephesians 1:10, emphasis added).

Advent is the season of the Christian year in which we focus on the inclusive and extensive future salvation of God. We put our hope in a salvation that is deeply and profoundly personal, but also widely and powerfully cosmic. When God saves, God will make right what is wrong, restore what is broken, and renew what has grown old.

Our hope for this salvation inspires us to live today in light of the future. Notice how the psalm writer completes the thought of Psalm 119:166, “I hope for your salvation, O LORD, and I fulfill your commandments.” Hope for future salvation is translated into tangible action in the present. We find this connection between future and present not only in Psalm 119, but also in 1 Corinthians 15, a lengthy discourse on the future and the promise of our resurrection. The stirring conclusion of this discourse reads, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:56-57). Notice, however, the real-life, present-day implications found in the following verse, “Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the word of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58).

Hoping for God’s salvation encourages us, not only to long for all that God will do in the future but also to live in the present for God’s purposes and glory. We excel in the work of the Lord in all we do to glorify God, whether in our daily work, our volunteering, our parenting and grandparenting, our church involvement, or our efforts to help this world to experience in some small way the presence of the one who is making all things new.

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the High Calling archive, hosted by the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: Renew My Life!

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