We have a hope because Christ lives as the One who died in satisfaction of divine justice and was raised in newness of life. We grieve but not as those who have no hope, those without God and without hope in this world. We live by faith, what the writer of Hebrews explains to be “the assurance of things hoped for” (Heb. 11:1). That assurance is tied in to the saving purpose of God and accomplished work of Christ.

“Jesus died and rose again” (1 Thess. 4:14, NKJV)

Imagine trying to start a car. You insert the key in the ignition, turn it, and… nothing. Not even the weak cranking of a dying battery. You decide to pop the hood and check things out, not entirely sure what you’ll be looking for or even looking at. You slide the release, lift the hood, and look stunned at the empty space where the engine should be.

That is what it’s like to have hope-so hope. There is no engine to make things run. No power to make things go.

What is the engine of the Christian’s hope? Paul expresses it in two ways as he explains the return of Jesus. Later in chapter five he will declare: “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:9). This statement is like a summation of Romans 9-11, where the apostle takes us behind the scenes of the salvation offered in the gospel.

But here in chapter four Paul is offering the comfort of the gospel that comes through faith. He says, “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus” (1 Thess. 4:14).

As Christians we do not grieve as those who have no hope because we have faith. We believe what God has said and we believe in what Christ has done. When the apostle references Jesus’s death and resurrection, he is describing to us the power that drives our lives.

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