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 Reason #11: Jesus rose from the dead to give us a living hope

In the movie "Shawshank Redemption" we get two very different understandings of hope. For Red (played by Morgan Freeman) “hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.” While on the other hand, for Andy (Tim Robbins) hope is “a good thing, may be the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” 

The Bilbe's understanding of hope is much closer to this second view of hope. Hope, along with faith love, is one of the cardinal virtures. Hope is a vital thing. And hope is a gift given to us by God and especially tangible because of the Resurrection.

We read in different places of the connection between the Resurrection and hope:

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…” (1 Peter 1:3) 

"Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God." (1 Peter 1:21)

"...and I have the same hope in God as these men themselves have, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked" (Acts 24:15)

Hope is that confident assurance that something is going to happen. But it can only be confident because of a past event.

And thus the resurrection is the foundation for our hope--because the resurrection happened we have a confident assurnace that other things are going to happen. We have hope! 

We have hope that one day Jesus Christ will return.

We have hope that one day our bodies too will rise from the dead.

We have hope that one day there will be a new creation.

We also have hope for today--that the resurrection Christ is still risen! That the risen Christ is interceding for us. That the risen Christ truly has all authority in heaven and on earth. 

And we have hope in God's great power for us who believe. "That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come" (Ephesians 1:19-21).

Because of the Resurrection let's be full of hope this day and every day, until the day Christ returns when our hope will be realized and our faith will turn to sight.