This week I had the privilege of speaking in Church. My topic was "Hope as an attribute of Christ." I have to confess that in the past, as I've thought that in the three legged-stool that is composed of faith, hope, and charity, I have often placed the least emphasis and importance upon the attribute of hope. It seemed so similar to faith that it just didn't capture much of my attention--and consequently it's vital role in the gospel escaped me. Further, we are so influenced by the worldly definition of hope that we often fail to grasp the gospel's definition of this subject. In worldly terms, hope denotes a kind of wishful uncertainty. But in the gospel, hope yields confidence, assurance, and expectation. It is this concrete, gospel definition that God desires us to ponder and obtain. For as Paul declared, "We are saved by hope" (Romans 8:24).
When our world's fall apart and our proximate hopes disappoint us, we are saved by our Hope in Christ and in His perfect atonement which promises, in time, to set right all that has gone wrong. Ultimate hope, therefore, is "tied to Jesus and to the blessings of the great Atonement, blessings resulting in the universal Resurrection and the precious opportunity provided thereby for us to practice emancipating repentance" (Neal A. Maxwell, October 1998 General Conference). Rather than being "associated with things mercurial," it is defined by "things immortal and eternal" (NAM, October 1998 General Conference).
One of the things that intrigued me about this particular topic was the idea of hope as an attribute of Christ, meaning that Christ must needs be our perfect Exemplar of hope. I had never thought of this. Indeed, the scriptures do not directly speak of Christ having hope, and particularly not of Christ having hope in the atonement that He wrought. But consider the hope that was required of Him when He uttered that saving declaration, "Here am I, send me" (Abraham 3:27). With those words He was declaring His perfect hope and faith that He could fulfill His calling to be born into a lost and fallen world, be exposed to all manner of trials, afflictions, and temptations without giving into sin, to suffer as no man, and voluntarily lay down His life and take it up again, in order that He might have the capacity to redeem every willing soul from the chains of sin and death that they might become like unto their Father. To be able to have confidence in that plan required the greatest display of faith and hope that has ever been manifested on this or any other earth. It was hope in the plan and hope in the atonement that He had been called to bring to pass.
Throughout His life, He continued to manifest that same hope. As the winds and the waves began to toss His ship mercilessly upon the sea, the Savior slept peacefully upon a pillow. The troubled disciples woke Him and queried, "Master, carest thou not that we perish?" (Mark 4:38). It was perfect hope in His Father's plan that allowed the Master to sleep peacefully as storms raged and winds and waves threatened His boat. All of us have been upon that boat and have asked foolishly, "Master, carest thou not that we perish?" disregarding hundreds and thousands of proofs to the contrary. And yet, if our hopes are properly centered with Jesus as their radius, we fill find that in the storms of life, "there is hope smiling brightly before us." We can then "know that deliverance is nigh." And even if deliverance is not nigh, we can say as did three young disciples, "but if not . . ." Transcending the transient, true hope, gospel hope, allows us to take life's disappointments in stride, knowing that the eternal promises of God are sure.
Paul warned, "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable" (1 Corinthians 15:19). We seek, therefore, to cultivate a hope that transcends this life. We seek a "hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God." For it is this hope that "maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God" (Ether 12:4).
How do we obtain this hope? Because this hope is founded in the perfect efficacy of Jesus' emancipating atonement, we cultivate this hope by exercising our "faith unto repentance" (Alma 34:17). We cultivate this hope by making and keeping sacred covenants. We cultivate this hope by receiving the Holy Ghost and the cleansing that He brings. We cultivate this hope each time we feel the Atonement cleanse us, and lift us, and enable us. We cultivate this hope by experiencing the love of Jesus.
And then, in the moments of greatest crisis, when our faith seems as if it might shake, we will find that "we are saved by hope."
Brett
Such a beautiful thing, hope.
ReplyDeleteIn the Greek myth of Pandora, when she opened the box she had been cautioned to leave closed and unknowingly let things like despair, anger, death and fear into the world, she was afraid. Yet, one tiny thing remained in the box to comfort her: hope. It was the last to leave and perhaps the most important of all things that Pandora could have released into the world.
How profound is the idea that hope was the last to leave? Fear, despair, anger and the like are certainly loud and scary -- and very, very real -- but they are not necessarily the most powerful emotions we can feel. I know it's easy to let go of hope depending on the circumstance, especially when these bigger and louder emotions are calling for attention, but I love the comfort that we can draw from ideas like those of Elder Maxwell that you shared here.
To me, focusing our hope on and in the Atonement of Jesus the Christ is the one sure way to be able to withstand the buffetings and cruelties of the adversary. Hope, though it be as small as the grain of a mustard seed, can lift s up and sustain us in those moments of fear and crisis. As we are reminded in Helaman 5:12, we must "remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."
Helaman didn't tell his sons to have the biggest foundation or the loudest one, just the surest one, a foundation anchored in hope and in the Savior. Though the winds might howl and our faith might shake, if we have this hope we can stand secure knowing that there are indeed better times to come.