What may a Christian hope for in this life? Part 9 (and final...for now)

Hope, to be true, needs to be both good and possible. Christian hope centres around that which God has declared good, Jesus Christ and his return in glory. A Christian may hope for the glorification of Jesus Christ, the restoration of creation and to share in His glory and inheritance as an adopted child of God. The content of Christian hope for the future is determined by the revelation of that future in the resurrection of the crucified Jesus. It is only in union with Christ, the one vindicated, that christian hope may be called christian. Thus any hope that is grounded on and looks toward his return in glory will be vindicated, and all other hopes proved both unreal and no good. Thus christian eschatology and modern eschatologies may have roughly similar elements, such as justice and blessing, but being based on entirely different grounds, one will be proved true, the other false. Similarly, even a christian who hopes for a good, must hope for that good in connection to the coming presence of God, who is the fount of all goodness. Though christian hopes are ultimately subject to the judgement of Jesus, not history, they are grounded in reality by the possibility of Jesus return before the death of the believer and by the actuality of God’s inbreaking kingdom in the resurrection of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.