Shorter Catechism Q. 38

Q. 38. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at the resurrection?

A. At the resurrection, believers, being raised up in glory, shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity.

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Ps 17:15; John 5:28–29; Matt 10:32; 1 Thess 4:16–17

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Oh what a day it will be!

We all know what it’s like to hope for something. We hope to meet a nice person and live happily ever after. We hope for a secure job to live the “American Dream.” We hope our favorite candidate becomes the President. We know what it’s like to have our hopes fulfilled, and, unfortunately, also what it’s like when hopes are dashed. Our hopes are not always fulfilled because they are not based on reality.

The Christian hope is the only hope that will never be disappointed.

Our hope is not the wishful longing of someone who faces a unknown future. Our hope is the certain expectation and knowledge of what awaits. We live differently because our hope is based on the strongest reality, the Word of God.

So we hope. We hope our Lord Jesus will return to set all things right. This hope will not be frustrated. Our Lord will not always tarry, but at an hour known only to him, he will come back and the dead will be raised. It may be soon, before we die. Then we will be caught up in the clouds to meet our Lord.

If the Lord returns after we die, then our bodies will be raised at his coming. We will then enter into glory. Then what we knew by faith will become sight. We know now that nothing we commit to the Lord is lost. We will see then that he kept safe everything we committed to him, and what glorious things he did with them. All of our prayers, labors, love, and suffering will flower into glory. We will look back and wonder why we were ever hesitant and slow to commit everything to the Lord.

As for everyone who scorned our love for our Lord, everyone who was wise in their own eyes to live their lives as they wished, they will see once and for eternity the futility of their lives, and what eternal consequences they will have to endure. This, too, is the Lord’s gracious work for his beloved people. For he will vindicate his beloved disciples in the eyes of those who spoke against them.

Who, then, is truly wise? He who lives this life for the Lord to be honored, and who is then glorified when Jesus comes back? Or he who lives this life for himself, only to endure eternal regret? It seems like a simple question to me. I hope you agree.

Oh what a day it will be!