You Can Change #3 (Introduction)

If you are a part of our small group ministry, we discussed the Introduction this past Sunday night. So shouldn't I be blogging on Chapter 1? I'll start that tomorrow, but I had to note one more item from the Intro that came up in our group.

Chester writes:

This book is about hope. It's about the hope we have in Jesus, hope for forgiveness, but also about hope for change. (9)

What's the significance in this statement? Why is it important that we have hope for both forgiveness and change?

We understand that we have hope for the forgiveness of our sins through Jesus Christ in his death on the cross. That is the center of our faith, but it is not the only thing. God is doing more than taking away our guilt and punishment in salvation-- he's also giving us new life and transforming us into his image (see chapter 1).

Doctrinally speaking, in Christ we have both hope for justification and hope for sanctification, but the key is that, even though there is more of an element of our involvement and activity and effort in sanctification, it too is rooted in Christ. That makes all the difference between hopelessness (it's all up to me) and hopefulness (because of Christ, I can).