The Hope of the Faithful

The Resurrection of Jesus

But God raised him up....  For David says concerning him, "I saw the Lord always before me, for He is at my right hand that I may not be shaken;    therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; moreover my flesh will dwell in HOPE.    For You will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor let Your holy one see corruption.
Acts 2:24-26

The Resurrection of the Saints

Through's Christ's resurrection life dwelling in us, the Holy Spirit, we too may have the hope of eternal life in the resurrection of the body to immortal life.

Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees; I am on trial for the HOPE and resurrection of the dead!
Acts 23:6

But this I admit to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect I do serve the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets;    having a HOPE in God, which these men cherish themselves, that there shall certainly be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.
Acts 24:14-15

And now I am standing trial for the HOPE of the promise made by God to our fathers;   the promise to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly serve God night and day. And for this HOPE, O King, I am being accused by Jews.   Why is it considered incredible among you people if God does raise the dead?
Acts 26:6-8 (see 13:30-33).

And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.    For in HOPE we have been saved, but HOPE that is seen is not HOPE for who HOPES for what he already sees?    But if we HOPE for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
Romans 8:23-25 (see 5:2-5)

If there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised;    and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain.... For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised;    and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.   Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.    If we have HOPED in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.
1 Corinthians 15:13-19

we who foreHOPED in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.... I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the HOPE of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.
Ephesians 1:12-18 (see Col 1:23,27)

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no HOPE.    For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.   For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.   For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
1 Thessalonians 4:12-16 (see 5:8-10).

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living HOPE through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead..... fix your HOPE upon the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.... through him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and HOPE are in God.
1 Peter 1:3,13,21 (see 1 John 3:1-3).


"Dust you are and to dust you shall return."  We are bodies of dust and our hope of life resides in the hope of the resurrection of our bodies to life.

Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be delivered.   Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to eternal life, but the others to disgrace and eternal contempt.
Daniel 12:1-2

Jesus Reveals the True God

"Father... this eternal Life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You sent." - Jesus

Eternal life is to know the Father, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He sent.  The Apostle John wrote that Jesus came to reveal the True God to us:

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding so that we may know Him Who is True and we are in Him Who is True, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.¹

Jesus came to reveal the only true God to us. So what is the identity of the true God? John writes that Jesus came so that we might know his Father in Heaven.

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding so that we may know Him Who is True and we are in Him Who is True, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

What is the identity of the True God? The Father is the True God, Him who is True, He who has a Son Jesus Christ. Just as Jesus refers to his Father as "the only true God" at John 17:3, John clearly spells out the identity of the One True God. The True God is the Father, "Him Who is True." The True God and Eternal Life has a Son, "His Son" and His Son is Jesus Christ. The True God is the Father of Jesus and Jesus has come to give us knowledge of his God so that we might know the Father, the True God and Eternal Life.

Nowhere in the Scriptures do we ever find that Jesus came that we might know about a Triune Being, a three person God. We only find that Jesus reveals his God to us: the Father. The God of the Israelite man Jesus, born under the Law, was his Father alone. He knew no other God nor anyone else as God. His Father was his "only God."² His God was not a three person God. His God was a one person being: his Father alone. Even though the one God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is the main character of the Bible and is mentioned thousands of times, the Scriptures never once mention a three person God. Not once. But despite these facts, men have went after another God of their own making, a three person being, and they pretend to themselves, and deceive themselves, by eisegetically reading this humanly conceived God back into the Scriptures wherever they have convinced themselves that they can get away with it.

A three person God was not the God of Jesus or his fleshly brothers and sisters or his discples. Jesus was a Jew born of the woman Mary, the betrothed bride of Joseph, a son of David. He was a Jew of the Tribe of Judah; he was a Jew born under the Law. Before he came to the Jordan to be baptized by John and when he was young, Jesus grew in wisdom and knowledge. Being a Jew, he learned the Scriptures and he knew the Shema: "Hear O Israel, the LORD our God the LORD is one."³ For Jesus the Jew, the one Lord of the Shema, YAHWEH, was not a three person being. The one Lord of the Shema was his Father alone. He knew nothing about worshiping and serving a three person God. His God was one person not three. And when he read the Shema, "the LORD is one," he knew these words meant YAHWEH his Lord and God was one identity, one person, because he also read the words "there is no other but HE."⁴

Jesus reveals the True God to us. And the True God was his God, the Father alone.

You turned to God from idols to serve a Living and True God and to wait for His Son from heaven.  1 Thessalonians 1:10.

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Notes:
1. 1 John 5:20
2. John 5:43-44
3. Deuteronomy 6:4
4. Mark 12:29-34; Deut 4:35,39