Jesus: The Only Hope for the World

I don’t know if I read it, heard it, or thought of it myself, but several years ago on the inside cover of my Bible I wrote the following words: “Jesus is the only hope for the world. He is worthy of me giving my life that the world might know that.” I will occasionally look at those two brief sentences, which summarize much of what the New Testament teaches, and wonder if I am really living out those twin truths. I frequently ask myself if I am truly doing enough so that the world might hear that Jesus is their only hope.

The Bible clearly proclaims that Jesus is the only hope for the world. There is salvation in no other name than His (Acts 4:12). He provides eternal life to those who trust in Him (John 3:16) while those that reject Him stand condemned before God (John 3:18). He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and there is no other access to God, but through Him (John 14:6). Jesus reconciles us to God (Colossians 1:21-22), delivers us from the wrath to come (1 Thessalonians 1:10), takes our sin and credits us with His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21), redeems us and forgives our sins (Ephesians 1:7), and the list could go on and on. Rightly did the Apostle Paul refer to Jesus as “our hope” (1 Timothy 1:1).

Yet we live in a world today where people are without hope or searching for hope in things that cannot truly provide it. In our society secularism, materialism, and practical atheism are rampant, while followers of Jesus Christ hold the answers to the world’s greatest need. And the hope that Jesus Christ brings is a hope that is meant to be shared. As Christians “the love of Christ compels us” to live our lives as “ambassadors for Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:14-21). An ambassador is defined as “an authorized representative or messenger.” That is how we are to serve King Jesus as we speak on His behalf to people who do not follow our King.

But to be an ambassador of Christ who is willing to give their life so that the world might hear of their King calls for great sacrifice. Christ’s call to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him (Luke 9:23) is the summons to declare “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). But in the giving of our life to make Christ known to the nations we will find out what it truly means to live (Matthew 10:39).

J. Campbell White, a leader in the Laymen’s Missionary Movement nearly one hundred years ago wrote: “Most men are not satisfied with the permanent output of their lives. Nothing can wholly satisfy the life of Christ within His followers except the adoption of Christ’s purpose toward the world He came to redeem. Fame, pleasure, and riches are but husks and ashes in contrast with the boundless and abiding joy of working with God for the fulfillment of His eternal plans. The men who are putting everything into Christ’s undertaking are getting out of life its sweetest and most priceless rewards.”

Jesus is the only hope for the world. What will you give so that the world might know that?