The Hope of Glory

<p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>When speaking of the redemption of all things theology finds itself confronted by various pitfalls.</strong></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>On the one hand this-worldly eschatologies that define Christian hope in terms of transforming the conditions of human existence in the present pay insufficient attention to the possibility of a wholly new creation. On the other hand eschatologies that focus solely on the world to come fail to attend how Christian hope is a promise for the present as much as it is for the future. </span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>To avoid these pitfalls says Ian McFarland we need to seek the balance struck by Paul in the phrase the hope of glory (Col. 1:27). </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Hope</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> is always grounded in present reality; we hope for that which is not yet but if that hope has no connection to our current experience it is not hope at all just wishful thinking. Yet </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>glory</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> is different; it refers to the displacement of the suffering and mortality of present experience with incorruption and immortality-a displacement that transcends every possibility of present existence because it is the utterly gracious gift of eschatological consummation.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Drawing on his previous work on creation (</span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>From Nothing</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>) and incarnation (</span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The Word Made Flesh</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>) McFarland demonstrates how in the resurrection we see the promise of a final redemption grounded in this-worldly hope yet realized in the glory of a new heaven and new earth.</span></p><p><br></p>