Life is difficult, but if you believe in Jesus Christ, its difficulty can be borne through hope.

In Romans 8.18-39, the Apostle Paul outlines a theology of Christian optimism. It is not a Panglossian declaration that this is the best of all possible worlds. Rather, the present form of the worldâ..marred as it is by sin and deathâ..is the antithesis of what God created it to be. It needs to be saved. And thatâ..s precisely what God is doing. Heâ..s saving the world. Christians are optimists, then, not because of what the world is, but because of who God is and what heâ..s doing to recreate Paradise on earth.

Now, some Christians labor under the misapprehension that salvation is a merely personal thing. When I say that God is saving the world, they assume Iâ..m talking about the world of human individuals. But Iâ..m not. According to the theology of Christian optimism, salvation isnâ..t merely individual; itâ..s cosmic in scope. The recreation of Paradise on earth begins with humans, but it doesnâ..t end with them.

If you donâ..t believe me, consider what Paul writes in Romans 8.18-21:

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

In this passage, Paul differentiates between the world of human individuals and the world of creation. Then, he goes on to make three statements about the world of creation:

First, its salvation follows hard on the heels of the salvation of humanity. It â..waits in eager expectationâ. for â..the sons of God to be revealed.â. This revelation refers to the resurrection of our bodies and the eternity weâ..ll spend in Godâ..s presence.

Second, in the meantime, the creation experiences â..frustration.â. Frustration always arises because of the vast difference between what we want and what we actually have. The creation longs to be, once again, the Paradise of God, but it the meantime, it suffers patiently.

Third, when God fully saves us by raising our bodies to eternal life in his presence, creation itself will be fully re-created. It â..will be liberated from its bondage to decayâ. and it will experience â..the glorious freedom of the children of God.â. Our resurrected bodies will live on a resurrected earth.

In 1901, Maltbie Babcock penned a hymn that beautifully expresses the theology of Christian optimism. Iâ..ll conclude with its words:

This is my Fatherâ..s world.
O let me neâ..er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.

This is my Fatherâ..s world:
the battle is not done:
Jesus Who died shall be satisfied,
And earth and Heavâ..n be one.