Christ Our Hope In Life and Death

As we explore the basis and application of this more recent hymn (Copyright 2020), we need to go back to 1563 and the first question of the Heidelberg catechism: What is your only comfort in life and death? This is where the writers of this song got their inspiration.

Life is full of struggle. For me, it’s seasonal. Currently, in a few areas of my life, I’m in one of those seasons of struggle. It’s no fun. It gets me down and makes me angry. I find myself wrestling with God. The questions of why, how, and when can eat me alive. The stress and anxiety of an uncertain future make me frustrated and sad, and my lament is thick at times.

At one point or another, our lives will look more like country songs than we’d like them to. Circumstances often change unexpectedly, and the result can be devastating. The world can crush our world.

When we experience the “country song” of life, there can be a plethora of things God is teaching us in those seasons. In the current chapter of my story, it’s, “What is my world based on?” Is my life truly rooted in salvation through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection? Or is it more rooted in the steady income of a good job, the comfort of a nice home, the reliability of a good vehicle, or all of the above and then some? If our hope is based on our circumstances and our circumstances change, what happens to that hope?

What is our hope in life and death?

Christ alone, Christ alone.

What is our only confidence?

That our souls to Him belong.

Who holds our days within His hand?

What comes, apart from His command?

And what will keep us to the end?

The love of Christ, in which we stand.

If we are in Christ, the only way to live is to root our hope directly in Him. The world, especially our American culture, would have us think that things and things and things will bring us comfort, relaxation, peace, etc. The problem is that those are temporal. The winds of change can easily sweep away all that we find comfort in.

What truth can calm the troubled soul?

God is good, God is good.

Where is His grace and goodness known?

In our great Redeemer’s blood.

Who holds our faith when fears arise?

Who stands above the stormy trial?

Who sends the waves that bring us nigh

Unto the shore, the rock of Christ?

“Who holds our faith when fears arise?” This is me right now. It’s been me every time I find my cheese moved. It’s been me every time my life became a country song. Our hope cannot be in the things of this world, including those we love and cherish. “For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” James 4:14. But, “the eternal God is your dwelling place…” Deuteronomy 33:27.

Unto the grave, what shall we sing?

“Christ, He lives; Christ, He lives!”

And what reward will heaven bring?

Everlasting life with Him.

It’s not only in this life that we have the hope of Christ. It’s in death as well. We are all equal in that we all share the same fate. Death is certain, life is not. In Christ, we have “Everlasting life with Him”. I love the last part of this third verse:

There we will rise to meet the Lord,

Then sin and death will be destroyed,

And we will feast in endless joy,

When Christ is ours forevermore.

The chorus rings out with great joy and confidence! With such hope and true salvation, we rejoice!

O sing hallelujah!

Our hope springs eternal;

O sing hallelujah!

Now and ever we confess

Christ our hope in life and death.

 

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