The Christian message is like a double-edged sword

As a Christian author, you’d expect me to bring a message of hope as we move into the year 2022. The Christian message, however, is like a double-edged sword. Take the person of Jesus most seriously and you will have cause for hope; don’t and your position remains ultimately hopeless. As Mary held the infant Jesus in her arms, she was told, ‘This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many…’

Jesus had come as a light for the benefit of all peoples. He came to save us from all our hopelessness by offering to reconcile us to God, the God from whom we are estranged.

If the past 21 months have taught us anything, it is that we humans are not in control of our destiny. Jesus, on the other hand, was in control of his destiny - his earthly life, his death and his rising from the dead. He calls us to place our own destiny in his hands because, unlike other leaders, powers and those with degrees of authority, Jesus has the very authority of God himself and is willing to exercise it for our good.

In a letter to young believers in Turkey, just a few years after the Christian church began, Paul the apostle wrote, ‘…remember that previously you were separated from Jesus, excluded from God’s people and without hope and without God in the world. But now in Jesus Christ, you who once were far away have been brought near’ (Ephesians 2v12-13, my paraphrase). To whom will you be looking for hope in 2022?

The hymn writer Isaac Watts wrote:

O God, our help in ages past,

Our hope for years to come,

Be Thou our guard while troubles last,

And our eternal home.