Introduction
Hope and love are prominent themes in the Christian faith that are often considered the central tenets of the religion. God promises His followers many things throughout the Bible, but to receive the reward, they often have to endure difficult conditions for extended periods. The faith that God will fulfill his promises is predicated on the hope that the Christians’ hardships and struggles will be rewarded. In Christianity, it is most strongly featured in the ultimate promise that faithful people will attain salvation and eternal life in Heaven after they die. Christianity adds the virtue of love, which one should feel toward their neighbors and peers. It is a central virtue that Christ has demonstrated in his act of dying to absolve humanity of its sins. The purpose of this essay is to examine the presence of hope and love in the Biblical metanarrative to better understand their relationship with God.
The Biblical Metanarrative
The term “metanarrative” represents the overarching story of a text, one that goes beyond what happens in the story and to the underlying meanings. The Bible is typically divided into four chapters: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and New Creation. Creation refers to the original period where God created the world and everything that is in it, with Adam and Eve living happily in the garden of Eden. The Fall is the pair’s choice to reject God’s rules at the serpent’s suggestion, which has led to them being expelled from Paradise and becoming mortal. It represents physical death as well as spiritual, through humanity’s rejection of God and the virtues associated with Him, and continues until the coming of Jesus Christ. The connection is not entirely lost, as there are some faithful people in the world, but it is overwhelmingly sinful. In the Redemption chapter, God comes to humanity through Jesus Christ and forgives its sins through His Son’s death. Finally, the New Creation chapter has not happened yet, but the Bible promises that it will do so. In it, humanity and the world will be saved and restored to their original perfect states, and evil will be eliminated forever.
Hope in the Biblical Metanarrative
Throughout the Creation chapter, everything is perfect, and God has provided Adam and Eve with everything they could ever want. As such, there is no need to hope, as they desire nothing that they do not have already. The perfection of this state, where desire and hope are unnecessary, is what all Christians desire and strive for. With that said, the situation changes dramatically after the Fall, when the pair find themselves devoid of everything they used to take for granted. Instead, they have to work for their survival while also dealing with sickness, aggressive animals, and death. However, Genesis 3:14-15 provides a suggestion that God has not abandoned humanity entirely, as, instead of giving it over to the sinful serpent, he puts enmity between the two.
In doing so, God introduces the hope that, by defeating the sin introduced by the serpent, humanity may regain the grace of God. Indeed, people who follow God throughout the Old Testament receive boons from Him and are promised life, explicitly framed as the opposite of death (Ezekiel 18:32). The assumption that eternal life is meant therein is reasonable and reinforced in the Redemption chapter through verses such as Matthew 17:3. Christ promises his followers salvation and Heaven forevermore, which constitute the entirety of the New Creation chapter. Following Christ’s departure, his followers adhere to the dogma He left behind, hoping for him to hold to His promise and save the faithful. Lacking evidence such as miracles, they can only hold to hope.
Love in the Biblical Metanarrative
Unlike hope, love is present in all chapters of the metanarrative, starting with Adam and Eve. They love God and each other unconditionally and receive the same treatment in return. God made the garden of Eden to please Adam and created various animals to be his helpers in tending to the garden. Seeing that was not enough, he also created Eve, the woman, which was finally a suitable partner for the original man. Even after the Fall, God provides the pair with clothing (Genesis 3:21) before driving them out and keeps a close watch on them, shown by him regularly interacting with Cain and Abel. Adam and Eve, as well as their later offspring, also love each other, and the mother credits God after giving Cain birth (Genesis 4:1).
However, the theme is love is truly expanded upon in the Redemption chapter, as it is central to Christ’s character and His overall message. He expounds upon the nature of love as non-selfish and self-sacrificial, as for every charitable act of giving away, one will be rewarded in Heaven (Mark 10:21). He exemplifies the type of love that He proposes by sacrificing himself at the cross, taking on all of the sins of humanity, and allowing them to enter Heaven regardless. As the New Creation chapter states, only the people who practice such love can qualify for salvation. It is an essential part of being a Christian and a believer and informs virtuous traits and actions, without which one cannot enter Heaven.
Conclusion
The Biblical metanarrative forms a coherent story that contains and extolls a variety of Christian values. The central virtues of love and hope, in particular, are prevalent throughout most of the story and its underlying themes. Hope is shown to be essential to receiving God’s grace, especially that of the ultimate salvation and return to a happy eternal life such as that of Adam and Eve before their fall. God shows love toward humans regardless of their transgressions, and people love Him back, though many turns away from His light. Additionally, virtuous people love each other, and Christ requires them to do so and shows an example for others to follow. No matter what happens, Christian needs to help others and remain strong in their conviction that they will ultimately be saved. In doing so, they will be rewarded for their efforts, whether in this life or the next.
References
Strahan, J. (2020). The basics of Christian belief: Bible, theology, and life’s big questions. Baker Publishing Group.