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Spiritual Eye-Salve: Sermon Outline

10 Saturday Dec 2022

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SPIRITUAL EYE-SALVE
Thomas Adams
Ephesians 1:18
This grace that here Paul prays for his Ephesians is illumination. Wherein is described to us — I. an eye; II. an object [what the eye sees]. The eye is spiritual, the object celestial.
I. The eye is the most excellent organ of sense.

But it is certain, in God’s image be not in the understanding, the soul is in danger; if they chimed air, there is comfort of life gay, life of comfort. Hence it is that the God of this world dothso strive to blinded the minds of them that believe not
God hath set to bid us to defend the poor real eye from annoyances. So he had given the understanding faith and hope to shelter it.

A. The situation of the spiritual eye is the soul. God, framing man’s soul, planted in it two faculties: the superior, that is the understanding, which perceive it and judge it; the inferior, that is the will, which being informed of the other, accordingly follows are flies, chooseth or if refuseth.

Use 1: this teaches us to desire in the first place the enlightening of our eyes, and then after, the strengthening of our feet…. Keep it labors for feet before he has eyes, takes a preposterous course; for, up to, the lame is more likely to come to his journeys and then the blind…. Chrysostom says, knowledge of virtue must ever go before devotion; for no man can earnestly affect the good he knows not; and the evil whereof he is ignorant, he fears not.

Use 2: this reprehends a common fashion of many auditors. When the preacher begins to analyze this text, and to open the points of doctrine, to inform the understanding, they lend him very cold attention…. But alas! No eyes, no salvation.
B. I come from the situation to the qualification of the spiritual eye: enlightened…. Man’s mind is not only dark, darkness, Ephesians 5:8, till the Spirit of knowledge of light on him, lighten him…. When a natural man comes in the Temple, among the congregation of God’s saints, the soul is not delighted with their prayers, praises, songs, and service; he sees no comfort, no pleasure, no content in their actions. True, he does not, he cannot; for his understanding is not enlightened ….Wwhat a world of happiness does this man’s I not see! Whereupon we call a mere full and natural. The world links have esteemed and misnamed Christians Gods fools; but we know them the fools of the world.

There are two reasons why we must all day of God for ourselves, as Paul did for the Ephesians, this grace of illumination:
Reason one: Our spiritual blindness came upon us by God to just curse for our sins.

Reason two: This original defect is increased by actual transgressions…. But I rather think that, like the water man, but look one way and row another; for he must needs be strangely squinted eye that can at the same instant fashion one of his lights on the light of glory, and the other on the darkness of iniquity.
C. [Diseases of the eye]:
1. First the cataract, which is a thickness drawn over the eye, and bread of many causes: this especially, either from the rheum of vainglory, or the inflammation of malice…. This dark mind is the fault were saints and keeps his seminary, and since hatching a black root of the lusts.
The means took spell this disease is to take God’s law and to thy hand and heart, and through that glass to look to thyself…. This inspection is difficult. It is a hard, but a happy thing, to know oneself. Private sins are not easily spied out…. He that is partially indulgent to one sin is a friend to all. It is at pains well taken to study thyself. If thou wouldst be good, first know that thou art evil.

And as in some, the fuliginous vapors arising from the lower parts of the body blind the eyes; so in him the fumous evaporations of the flesh’s lusts have caused absolute blindness.

2. Secondly, there is another disease called pearl in the eye: a dangerous disease, and hereof are all worldlings sick; for earthly riches is such a great pearl in the eye, that they cannot see the pearl of the Gospel, which the wise merchant sold all he had to purchase…. We are easily inclined and declined from our supernal bliss, by a doting love of these transient delights…. The eye follows the heart with more diligence than a servant his master…. This pearl must be cut out of the worldling’s eye with a sharp knife of repentance otherwise he is never likely to see heaven.

D. There is also a double defect in this natural eye

1. First it perceives only natural and external things. A beast has one kind of eye, a natural man to a Christian three. The beast has an eye of sense; the natural man, a sense and reason; the Christian, of sense, of reason, and of faith. Each of these has its several objects, several intentions. The eye of sense regards only natural things; the eye of reason, only sensible and natural things; the eye of faith, spiritual, supernal, and supernatural things.

2. The second defect in the eye is an insolid levity; it is roving, like Dinah’s, and ravished abroad; but wants self-inspection. Nothing does sooner blind us in comparisons. He they would mount to a high opinion of his own worth, by comparing it to the base wickedness of another, is like one that observing a cripple’s lameness, wonders at himself that he is so swift.

E. Spiritual blindness

1. Spiritual blindness shall appear the more perilous, if we compare it with natural. The bodies I may be better spared than the souls; as to want the eye of Angels is far worse than to want the eyes of beasts. The want of corporeal site is often good, not evil: evil in the sense, and good in the consequence. He may the better intent heavenly things, that sees no earthly to draw him away. Many a man’s eyes has done him hurt [like David].

Besides, the bodily blind fields and knowledge is his want of sight; but the spiritually blind thinks that none have clearer eyes than himself. He that wants corporeal eyes blesses them that see; this man derides and despises them…. But the mind and soul is led by the world, which should be his servant, is his traitor; or, by the flesh, which should be as a wife, is his harlot; or by the devil, which is a dog indeed, a crafty curb, not leading, but misleading him.

2. The means to cure it:
i. A knowledge of God, procured
a. By his works.
b. by the Scriptures
c. But the scriptural knowledge (common to the wicked) is not sufficient; there must be a spiritual knowledge.
ii. A knowledge of ourselves, procured
a. Naturally, by looking into the Constitution and composition of our own persons.
b. Morally: by considering how frequently we have transgressed these virtues to which the very heathen gave a strict obedience.
c. Spiritual knowledge goes yet further: it searches the heart; and if that most inward chamber, or in any thereof, you can find an idle, it brings it forth.

II. The object to be seen: ‘the hope of his calling, and the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance in the saints.’
The philosophers propound six necessary occurrences to her perfect seeing

A. Firmness or good disposition of the organ that sees. A rolling eye bolts nothing perfectly…. This object is so immense, that we cannot well look besides it.

B. The spectacle must be objected [made an object] to the sight:… nor can the understanding see into the super natural joys, lest the Lord objects [shows it] it to them.

C. That there be a proportional distance between the organ and the object: neither too near, nor too far off…. The best I upon earth looks but through a glass, a lattice, and obscuring impediment.
It is required that the objective matter be substantial…. but this object here proposed is no empty chimera, or imaginary, translucent, airy shadow, but substantial: “the hope of God’s calling, and a glorious inheritance;” which though natures goal I cannot reach, the fates by sees perfectly.

D. And the subject of this spectacle is by demonstration proved solid and substantial; because nothing but that can give this intellectual eye firm content and complacency. How go the affections of man and a rolling and ranging pace from one creature to another. Now that hard to set up on wealth…. say wealth was calm, thou art than for honor; they riches are a latter, whereby thou would client dignity [and so on from one desire to another – no man is content with anything in this world. Here is an irony: The man who cannot see God is still not content with anything but God.] Nothing but the Trinity of persons in that one Deity can fill the triangular concave of man’s own heart.

E. clearness of space between the organ and the object …. there must be removing all thick and impenetrable obstacles:
i. Some have whole mountains between their eyes and heaven; the mountains of vainglory hinder their sight.
ii. Others, to make sure prevention against their site of heaven, have rolled the whole earth between that and their eyes.
iii. Others yet have interjected such a skewer and peachy clouds between their site and his son of glory, but they cannot see. Whether of the errors, the dark and light of truth, or of affected ignorance, but blind to their own eyes; or a blasphemous atheism; they will see nothing what they do see…. Thus the devil deals with them,…. First he put out their eyes with their own iniquities, and then leaves them about to make himself sport.

F. lastly, the object must be stable and firm.

Conclusion: ….Contemn we, condemn we the foolish choice of worldlings, in regard of our portion, and the better part, never to be taken from us. Why should I mislike my gold, because he prefers his copper? The least dram of these joys shall outweigh all the pleasures of earth. And as one performance in hell shall make the reprobate forget all earthly vanities; so the least drop of this pleasure shall take from us the remembrance of our former miseries. We shall not think on our poverty in this world, when we possess those riches; but forget contemptible baseness, when God shall give us that glory of Saints… God give us to see these things now in grace, that we may hereafter see them in glory! Amen.

The Mark of a True Christian

11 Monday Mar 2013

Posted by in Acts, Discipleship, Quotations, Uncategorized

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The mark of a true Christian is not a sheep who has gone looking for the Good Shepherd and found a man who seems to fit the bill, but someone who has been been looked for and found by God. ….Saul [St. Paul] had not found God; God had found him. Ananias did not persuade Saul to believe, nor did he argue about whether God exists. What he did was to claifyr for Saul something that he already new to be true form his experience but was unable to articulate. … The man who had told his disciples, “I am the truth and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” had met Saul on the road to Damascus, because he loved him. Jesus had given himself up to death so that Saul could live a new life in union with him. ….

Gerald Bray God is Love, 20-21

You will get cut

09 Saturday Mar 2013

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Hebrews, Preaching, Uncategorized

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12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.Hebrews 4:12-13

Since the word of God is living, active and sharp, you must expect to get cut. The Word of God drives into the space between soul and spirit: it uncovers and lays bare the thoughts and intentions of your soul. Nothing will stay hidden.

The passage pictures a sacrificial animal, laid on its back, the throat exposed and the knife tearing through the skin and flesh and blood and nerve.An interesting thing about an exceedingly sharp knife: You do not instantly feel the pain. It takes a moment — it seems — for even the nerve to realize what has taken place. Only later do you know that the blade has slipped beneath she skin.

Thus, a sermon which does not cut is not a sermon. This does not mean mean bad feelings or good feelings. Bad feelings do not make “conviction”. Good feelings do not mean heavenly joy. Bad feelings and good feelings come immediately and then fade as the afternoon goes on. It is not so with a true cut.

When we preach, when we teach, when we counsel, when we use the Word of God rightly it will cause the heart to see itself exposed before God.

The exposure of the Word is an exposure to God: The Word of God exposes the heart and leaves me to know that I have been known by God. Conviction means that I know that God knows what I had hoped to keep secret. Conviction does not mean that I feel regret. Conviction means I have been found out — I have been exposed.

Adam had hoped to keep his sin secret — he felt bad, he felt guilt — what he hoped to avoid was conviction. Conviction came when God spoke, “Where are you?”

The preacher should first study ….

08 Friday Mar 2013

Posted by in George Muller, Preaching, Uncategorized

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“the true workman of God is like the civil engineer to whom it is given to construct a direct road to a certain point. The hearer’s heart and conscience is the objective point, and the aim of the preacher should be, so to use God’s truth as to reach most directly and effectively the needs of the hearer. He is to avoid all circuitous routes, all evasions, all deceptive apologies and by-ways of argument, and seek by God’s help to find the shortest, straightest, quickest road to the convictions and resolutions of those to whom he speaks. And if the road-builder, before he takes any other step, first carefully surveys his territory and lays out his route, how much more should the preacher first study the needs of his hearers and the best ways of successfully dealing with them, and then with even more carefulness and prayerfulness study the adaptation of the word of God and the gospel message to meet those wants.”

Excerpt From: Arthur Tappan Pierson. “George Müller of Bristol.”

When we achieve no “victory” over sin

08 Friday Mar 2013

Posted by in Discipleship, Mortification, Romans, Uncategorized, William Romaine

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Romaine answers a troublesome question: It is a not uncommon experience for a Christian to seek “victory” over a sin, to strive and fight and yet obtain no advantage. If anything, the exertion of will power seems to leave the poor saint in a worse position than he was at first. He sincerely desires to end the sin. He even seeks to help from Christ in prayer. How is it that God could permit the sin to persist?

Here is a great trouble: The striving Christian thinks that the whole trouble begins and ends with a behavior. However he forgets, obedience matters only to the extent it is grounded in love. Indeed love is the thing which God seeks. God does not need behavior — he did not need sacrifices and he does not need us. If it were obedience he sought, he has legions of beings in many ways greater than us at his call.

What then is the striving believer seeking? Earned glory from God. There is the trouble, as Romaine explains:

Or, perhaps, Christ does not appear on your side, because you are proposing some wrong end [you don’t have the correct goal]. You are working and striving against sin to establish a righteousness of your own own [Romans 10:3 — those who sought to establish a righteousness independent of Christ], which is to be some part of your acceptance before God [you are trying to be righteous before God based upon your own effort] and you have been trying in your own strength to get your corruptions quite subdued, but they were too strong for you, and therefore now you are glad to make use of Christ’s help [since you couldn’t do it alone, you expect Christ to help you].

And if he would do the work for you, then you would have confidence in the flesh [if Christ helped you, then you would have confidence in yourself] and this your fancied [imagined] holiness would be the ground of thy rejoicing before God. Is it not so? If it be, you will never succeed upon this plan, Christ will not give his glory to another, nor put the crown of his gospel grace upon the head of your legal dependance.

William Romaine, A Treatise Upon the Life of Faith

In short, the poor believer sought the wrong end. The believer thought he would be entitled to Christ’s help and reward because he was so good. Romaine explains the believer has got it all wrong. God can destroy sin, but that is a means to an end. Then end is worship: we, in fellowship with God, in the dependance of faith, worship The Lord.

The Christian who seeks merely to alter behavior seeks not God’s glory but rather his own. That believer is not coming to God in worship and faith. Such a one does not seek God’s glory, but his own:

1 What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh?
2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.
3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”
4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.
5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,
6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;
8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

Romans 4:1-8

Not a greater enemy

06 Wednesday Mar 2013

Posted by in Uncategorized, William Romaine

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“The glory of the incarnate God, and his infinite sufficiency to save, have not a- greater enemy than a legal spirit, and therefore I have enlarged upon this point, that believers might be convinced from the word of God that they are saved from the law. They will never live comfortably till they see the law dead and buried, and then willingly give up themselves to be espoused to Christ, who will make them free indeed”

William Romaine “Treatise upon the life of faith.” Thomas T. Stiles.

The Consolation and Comfort of the Gospel

05 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Discipleship, Preaching, Uncategorized, William Romaine

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William Romaine, in A Treatise on the Life of Faith, set out the consolation and comfort of the believer from the Gospel:

“1. All men having broken the law, and being under the curse of it, Christ was made under the law, that the law might reach him as the surety of his people; accordingly,
2. By his obedience to the precepts, and by his suffering the penalties of the law, he redeemed them who were under the law; so that,
3. They are no longer in bondage to it, but are made free, and have received the adoption of sons; and,
4. They have the spirit of liberty sent into their hearts to witness to them, that Christ fulfilled the law for them; and,
5. That the Father loves them, as his dear children, and they love him and serve him without fear, calling him Abba, Father;
6. Wherefore they are no longer servants in bondage to any one, but are made free indeed, being now the sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus- And,
7. If sons, then heirs of Gods, and free to inherit whatever he has promised to give his children in earth and heaven.”

Excerpt From: Romaine, William. “Treatise upon the life of faith.”

How George Muller Improved His Preaching

04 Monday Mar 2013

Posted by in George Muller, Preaching, Uncategorized

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Early in his ministry, George Muller was serving alongside Mr. Craik. Muller discovered

“the fact that his colleague’s preaching was much more used of God than his own, in conviction and conversion. This discovery led to much self-searching, and he concluded that three reasons lay back of this fact: first, Mr. Craik was more spiritually minded than himself; second, he was more earnest in prayer for converting power; and third, he oftener spoke directly to the unsaved, in his public ministrations. Such disclosures of his own comparative lack did not exhaust themselves in vain self-reproaches, but led at once to more importunate prayer, more diligent preparation for addressing the unconverted, and more frequent appeals to this class. From this time on, Mr. Muller’s preaching had the seal of God upon it equally with his brother’s. What a wholesome lesson to learn, that for every defect in our service there is a cause, and that the one all-sufficient remedy is the throne of grace, where in every time of need we may boldly come to find grace and help! It has been already noted that Mr. Muller did not satisfy himself with more prayer, but gave new diligence and study to the preparation of discourses adapted to awaken careless souls.”

Excerpt From: Arthur Tappan Pierson. “George Müller of Bristol.”

I have learned to abound

04 Monday Mar 2013

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Philippians, Uncategorized

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Paul writes to the Philippians:

11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.
12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.

Philippians 4:12-13.

We can understand why Paul would need to learn how to live with being brought low. But the idea that “good” could be something which would require wisdom and learning seems positively foreign. Consider the words to a popular Christian song

Blessed be your name
When the sun’s shining down on me
When the worlds all as it should be

This is contrasted with the “road marked with suffering”. I don’t mean to push too much weight onto a song which was not written to bear too much scrutiny (I think of the ghastly graduate thesis where a poor student tries to wring some semiotic significance from a pop song). But the given of the song is that getting what I would like (even if it is not a sinful thing, merely a matter of comfort) is how things “should be”. For the Christian, isn’t everything “as it should be?”

In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.

Ecclesiastes 7:14. Both want and fullness present trials:

7 Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die:
8 Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me,
9 lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.

Proverbs 30:7-9. Melanchthon explains:

In prosperity, men become reckless; they think less of God’s wrath, and less expect His aid. Thus they become more and more presumptuous; they trust to their own industry, their own power, and are thus easily driven on by the devil.—

Buchanan draws out this point at greater length:

Alas! that prosperity, instead of thus drawing the soul nearer to the great fountain of all blessedness, should, on the contrary, serve so often only to wed it more closely to the world! It is in this way that “the prosperity of fools shall destroy them” (Prov. 1:32). As was exemplified in the case of Israel of old, “Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness: then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.” Therefore the Lord said, “I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be” (Deut. 32:15, &c). Solomon himself had painfully illustrated, in his own personal history, this fatal tendency of outward prosperity to alienate the heart from God. The wisdom, and wealth, and power with which the Lord had so remarkably endowed him, became his snare. In that dark season of spiritual declension he tried to be joyful. He said in his heart, Go to; I will prove thee with mirth. He withheld not his heart from any joy; from any joy, that is, but one. He had ceased to joy in God. And how empty and unsatisfying did his earthly joys prove! Of the best of them he had nothing better than this to say, “It is vanity.” When he, therefore, with all this experience, says, “In the day of prosperity be joyful,” let us be well assured he does not mean us to repeat his own error; but rather that, taking warning from that error, we should turn every blessing we receive, whether temporal or spiritual, into a fresh argument for stirring up our souls and all that is within us, to praise and magnify the great name of our God.

Robert Buchanan, The Book of Ecclesiastes Its Meaning and Its Lessons, 1859, 259-260.

Of the two, ease and mirth are the more dangerous:

2 It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart.
3 Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad.
4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

Ecclesiastes 7:2-4.

How then did Paul learn to abound? Did he merely consider the end of death? No, he writes, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

In what does Christ strength Paul? By rightly valuing all the things of this life. He happily receives gifts and comforts as gifts from The Lord which will prosper those who give them (Philippians 4:10 & 14-19). But Paul does not fall into the trap of trusting in such things:

17 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.
18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share,
19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

1 Timothy 6:17-19. He sees a thing for what it is — uncertain. But he also sees something better:

12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,
14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.
16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

Philippians 3:12-16. Thus, the answer is not enforced poverty. The answer is not a grimace and growl. We may learn how to abound by realizing that even gaining the entire world cannot compare with Christ:

34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.
36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?
37 For what can a man give in return for his soul?
38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Mark 8:34-38

Hope Which Overcomes Here and Now

04 Monday Mar 2013

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Ecclesiastes, Edward Polhill, Hebrews, Hope, Puritan, Uncategorized

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Years ago, I read Island by Aldous Huxley which recounted a man shipwrecked on an imaginary island — Huxley’s Utopia (no-place) — on which birds words would call out, “Here and now, boys! Here and now.” At the time, being in college and easily amazed at the dopiest ideas, I thought Huxley quite brilliant.

The trouble with such a thought is that it is hopeless.

Hope necessarily orients one to the future. “For who hopes for what one sees?” (Romans 8:24). Now, it would be right to now longer hope when the perfect has come — but — and this is the great mistake I made in reading Huxley — the island of his story does exist. Like Thomas Moore’s Utopia, it is no place.

I was taken in by a novel of a place that did not — could not — exist.

I may live in the present — indeed I must. And I may love in the present. And, I will suffer in the present. But must I be bound in the present?

The oppressor’s greatest taunt is that the present will never change. Oppression demands the present, it lives on the present, it denies that the present will ever change. The trouble with the false messiahs and politicians and hucksters is that offer something which they cannot deliver: something beyond the present.

Death stands unalterably before us: “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). Between us and death there will often be pleasure and even joy — but they are made sick with the absolute knowledge they will be destroyed. Indeed, it is an unanswerable mystery how joy can be found anywhere within the space of death.

Did Huxley think an absurd denial of the future with his “Here and now” would somehow ward off sorrow?

2 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. 3 What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? 4 A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. 5 The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. 6 The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.
7 All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. 8 All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. 9 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. 10 Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us. 11 There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.

Ecclesiastes 1:2-11. What can we do in the face of such a reality?

Certainly not “here and now.” Jim Morrison got that point right:

Five to one baby, one in five
No one here gets out alive.

No, the only exit is hope. But what would an exit be — it would necessarily be an exit from the entire aeon.

The Christward hope is that Jesus has overcome death — that his has undone the thief that makes a mockery of life. And, as a Christian, I must hang all my hope upon that point:

12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

1 Corinthians 15:12-19.

But Paul continues:

20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

Now there is a basis for hope because there has been an escape, or rather a rescue:

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Galatians 1:3-5. I need not trust a here and now of no-place. Huxley gave me nothing to counter suffering. Christ has given me a means to overcome through suffering.

Here, Edward Polhill helps. For he notes that the sufferings of now cannot overcome hope:

Hope assures us, that the good things of the world to come do incomparably exceed the things of this world. If the things of this world were the better, no man would leave better for worse: nay, if they were but equal, no man would part with that in possession for that in expectation: but hope assures us that the good things of the world to come do far transcend those that are in this world. The mansions in glory are better than the houses of clay; the incorruptible inheritance exceeds a fading one; eternal life is much more precious than temporal; the crowns of immortality above outshine all the titles of honor here below;

Now one may deny that such hope is real — but that claim hangs upon the resurrection. And I dare say that the resurrection is a matter which can well stand the weight.

Polhill continues: not only does the substantial hope of something more overcome present suffering, “Hope assures our interest in the things of the world to come”. The salvation of The Lord does not hang upon our merit, but upon our hope — our faith for what God will do. Life is the gift of God, given to those who will receive it.

It takes not unreal work, no hocus pocus. It is a real, substantial thing. Thus hope which overcomes our suffering is a real, substantial thing. Hebrews calls it an “anchor” of the soul:

17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath,18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain,20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Hebrews 6:17-20.

Now, one lovely effect of hope is that it transforms the one who hopes. The one who hopes becomes conformed to the object of hope. When I wedding day approached, my life became shaped by the coming wedding, because I hoped for that day. The hope of the Lord’s return conforms and transforms those who hope:

1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

1 John 3:1-3. Or as Paul writes:

11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,
12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,
13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
15 Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.

Titus 2:11-15. It is interesting how Paul ends the proclamation. In fact suffering will end in hope for the believer:

3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Romans 5:3-5. And hope works with patience to overcome present suffering:

Faith adheres to the promise, hope waits for the good things promised; both strengthen in a day of trial. It is the very nature of divine hope to wait for the good things to come: when the sun of prosperity shines, it waits in a way of obedience; “Lord, I have hoped for thy salvation, and do thy commandments,” saith David, (Ps. 119:166). He waited in a way of obedience to God’s commands. And when the storm of persecution comes, it waits in a way of patience. Hence the apostle speaks of the patience of hope, (1 Thess. 1:3). That hope, which in prosperity waited in a way of obedience, will in adversity wait in a way of patience: hope would have the christian to be always waiting for the upper world; but when the cross comes, it presseth upon him more vehemently, and will speak after this manner to him; What, hast thou waited for the great reward in heaven in duties and ordinances, and wilt thou not wait for it in sufferings, too? Heaven is the same still, and sufferings are not worthy to be compared with it: do but suffer a little, and thou shalt be there.

Edward Pohill, A Preparation for Suffering in an Evil Day, 347.