Change Through Hope in the Redeemer

As sinners, we have a natural bent to turn away from the Creator to serve the creation. We turn away from hope in a Person to hope in systems, ideas, people, or possessions. Real Hope stares us in the face, but we don not see him. Instead, we dig into the mound of human ideas to extract a tiny shard of insight. We tell ourselves that we have finally found the key, the thing that will make a difference. We act on the insight and embrace the delusion of lasting personal change. But before long, disappointed returns. The change was temporary and cosmetic, failing to penetrate the heart of the problem. So, we go back to the mound again, determined this time to dig in the right place. Eureka! We find another shard of insight, seemingly more profound than before. We take it home, study it, and put it into practice. But we always end up in the same place. The good news confronts us with the reality that heart-changing help will never be found in the mound. It will only be found in the Man, Jesus Christ. We must not offer people a system of redemption, a set of insights and principles. We offer people a Redeemer. In his power, we find the hope and the help we need to defeat the most powerful enemies. Hope rests in the grace of the Redeemer, the only real means of lasting change. - Paul Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemers Hands, 8.