New City Catechism – Question #1
Hello Cornerstone Family! In 2026 our church is endeavoring to memorize the New City Catechism so that we have language for what we believe. Each week, I’ll have a blog post to build on what the catechism Question and Answer is for the week. I pray this helps us to understand the teaching so that we can live in light of it! So here we go…
Question: What is our only hope in life and death?
Answer: That we are not our own but belong to God.
When I was a kid, we moved several times…and I hated it. It was the worst. At 11 years old and 16 years old, I had to say goodbye to the things that were familiar and walk into an uncertain future. I left my friends. I left my sports teams. I left my church. I left my room, backyard, and favorite places to eat. That transition was hard! But guess what…I’m still here. And as I look back on those changes, they really weren’t that bad. Though I approached them with something akin to sheer dread, I can see that God had good things for me on the other side of those moves. And it wasn’t just that God replaced what I lost in the old towns with provision from the new town. What made it go well is that there were things that were true about me that never changed. For no matter what came about, I never made those moves alone. My family was always with me. There was a source of belonging that was always true that made the moves good (if not easy!). Honestly, that belonging in my family was more important to me than my favorite place to eat, my sports teams, and even my friends. It was my family that brought me stability in the places we lived, and it was my family that provided stability through the moves.
This is a bit like our lives. It is very easy to put our hope in all the things that this world has to offer.
– My hope is in having a fulfilling job.
– My hope is in having a house full of kids.
– My hope is in being happy and having enough money to do what I want.
– My hope is that the Bears (or Chiefs!) win the Super Bowl!
These things can be good. But these things are never guaranteed to us. There might be seasons where finances are stretched thin, where your job is arduous, and the kids never come (or if the kids do come, it has been harder than you ever imagined).
Life circumstances and situations such as these can come and go, but they are never truly the most important thing about us. If we are believers in Jesus, we have a source of belonging that supersedes any earthly experience we could have. We must put our hope in Him, and never put our hope in anything that God does not guarantee for us. And when we do, we have a solid ground from which we can live (or die) in great security. As Romans 14:7-8 says, “For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”
I love the continuity to life this brings. In all the noise, we have a consistency of belonging, and that is true hope. May you see that and live in light of it. For when you do, you will have more peace and joy by resting in where you will always have belonging. As the hymn says,
“My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.”
He is our solid rock in life and death.