A Better Hope: Enjoying the Resurrection Life

By SAM ALLBERRY

Hope is far bigger than wishful thinking. Biblical hope is something certain and firm, that keeps us going when life is tough and inexplicable, and when the bottom drops out of our world. Hope transforms everything. Hope lifts the pressure off us - turns our eyes to a bigger picture.

For the Christian, the Resurrection means that we have real, genuine hope in this life, and beyond, for eternity. We are trusting in Christ, not ourselves, and he is the gateway to lasting hope, peace and joy. We have a better hope.

In this short, conversational book Sam Allberry invites us to consider what the Bible says about this better hope. The gospel persuades us to base our lives on something secure, not flimsy, something lasting, not temporary. Millions have done so and have never regretted it.

Discover how the Resurrection offers you a better hope.

This e-book extracted from the 2010 volume Lifted.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IVP
• Release date: Jul 16, 2020
• ISBN: 9781789742640

SAM ALLBERRY

Sam Allberry lives in Nashville, Tennessee but is English by birth. He is an Editor at Gospel Coalition and an international speaker with Ravi Zacharias Ministries (RZIM). For many years he was on the leadership team of a Anglican churches in England, including St Mary's, Maidenhead, UK.

Book preview

TitlePage

INTER-VARSITY PRESS

36 Causton Street, London SW1P 4ST, England

Email: [e-mail]

Website: www.ivpbooks.com

© Sam Allberry 2010

Sam Allberry has asserted his right under the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as Author of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher or the Copyright Licensing Agency.

Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. First published in Great Britain 1979. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, a member of Hodder Headline Group. All rights reserved. ‘NIV’ is a registered trademark of International Bible Society. UK trademark number 1448790.

First published as an eBook extract of the original book, 2020

eBook ISBN: 978–1–78974–264–0

This eBook contains an extracted chapter from Sam Allberry’s Lifted: Experiencing the Resurrection Life.

P&R Publishing has kindly granted electronic rights to US & Canada territories for this part of Lifted.

Set in Dante 12/15pt

Ebook produced by CRB Associates, Potterhanworth, Lincolnshire

Inter-Varsity Press publishes Christian books that are true to the Bible and that communicate the gospel, develop discipleship and strengthen the church for its mission in the world.

Inter-Varsity Press is closely linked with the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship, a student movement connecting Christian Unions in universities and colleges throughout Great Britain, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. Website: www.uccf.org.uk

Contents

Foreword

Hope

‘Hope’ for dummies . . .

Hope and humanness

A new kind of hope

Resurrection hope for the Christian

The importance of Jesus’ bodily resurrection

The nature of our bodily resurrection

Resurrection hope for creation

Foreword

I warmly welcome this excellent book (extracted from Lifted, for which I wrote a longer Foreword), and pray that it will be used by God to restore the truth of the resurrection to its proper prominence in our thinking.

I first heard this as part of the teaching at a conference for students from St Ebbe’s Church, Oxford many years ago. We sat in a cold barn with a fierce wind whistling outside, but our attention never wandered. We were held not just by the simple clarity and quirky humour of Sam’s style, which you will soon appreciate as you read on, but above all by the dynamic power of Christ’s resurrection. One student told me afterwards that he had since begun a habit of starting each day by reminding himself that Christ has risen. ‘Now that I’ve been gripped by that truth,’ he said, ‘I feel like a new man; my understanding of myself, the future and the world I live in have all been completely transformed.’

May God use this book to produce a similar effect in many lives. There is much that could depress us as we read the news or look into our hearts, but those who know that Jesus is alive will always have hope, even in the most