Nor does it picture us as very free for others, but totally wrapped up in saving ourselves. But we know Paul is interested in our calmness and peace right to the end of this letter. We also know that God does not want us so wrapped up in our own struggle for salvation that we cannot serve others. This morning I stressed the way the desperate clinging to salvation makes other claims upon our allegiance seem utterly insignificant. Our sense of joy at having experienced the grace of God and our anticipation of knowing it to the full in the age to come gives us an impulse to feel the thrill of overcoming obstacles to goodness by the power of God's grace now.
All humans like to overcome finitude.
Humanists like to do it in their own strength as a way of confirming the greatness of their own ego. Christians like to do it in God's strength to confirm his reality in threir lives. Hope in God is confidence that he not only is powerful and good, but also that he is wise and therefore knows the best future for us. Therefore if we trust him, we will follow his counsel and do the works of mercy that he commanded. The joy we have in knowing ourselves accepted and forgiven and commissioned to glory by God is enlarged and deepened when we share it with other people.